The point of school is to prepare students for life after high school and to make sure they can be functional adults in society. If this is the true point of school, then school should teach you how to take care of your home and car.

Wadsworth High School’s home and auto maintenance class teaches these things. The class goes over basic car maintenance, such as changing a tire or changing your oil. It also goes over home maintenance, such as wiring outlets, which students in the class are currently learning.

Terry Stuart is the teacher of this class at Wadsworth High School. This is Stuart’s first year at Wadsworth High School; however, he has taught a class similar to this for six years.

“I think that it is relevant to everybody,” Said Stuart about the class.

Not only does this class teach you valuable life skills that are always relevant, but it can also save you lots of money. According to caranddriver.com, the average American spends anywhere from 200 to 600 dollars per year on oil changes alone. That is a lot of money that taking a class like this can save you.

The knowledge that is gained from this class can also help you save money in the home. According to homedepot.com, to pay someone to come out and install an outlet for you, it will cost you anywhere from 65 to 125 dollars.

These are very simple tasks that do not take up a lot of time and can save thousands of dollars.

“I think the class has skills that will benefit people,” Said Stuart about the skills learned in the class. “Whether they want to get into this line of work or they just want to own their own house someday and save a little bit of money, it’s important.”

Some people may say that this falls under a category of stuff that your parents should teach you, but Stuart notices that people do not come into this class with experience in most cases.

“Very seldom are people highly experienced coming into this type of setting,” Stuart said.

People do not learn these things in the home and that is obvious by the amount of people that come in to the class and do not know anything.

“I get students that come in here that haven’t even picked up a tape measure before,” Stuart said.

Home and auto maintenance, or a class similar to it, should be mandatory for all students. The argument against this is that stuff like this should be taught in the home. However, the point of high school is to prepare you for life after high school. The things that you can learn in a class like home and auto maintenance are skills that can not only lead to a career, but help you in your daily life.

A 2025 survey by FinanceBuzz found that only 48% of Americans can change a tire with no assistance. This is a very simple task that many people have to do every day. To pay someone to do something so simple is a waste of money, and it would be easier just to learn it.

Kendall Lane is a junior at Wadsworth High School and will be enrolled in Home and Auto maintenance during the second semester.

“Its a class that will actually help me someday,” Lane said.

Lane is currently enrolled in the Woods I class at Wadsworth High School.

“Its a good class to be in,” Lane said.

Home and auto maintenance is not only a fun class but is extremely important for people to learn and be able to apply in their everyday lives.