By: Lani McCarson – Upper School Life Skills
The learning process looks a little different in Menaul School’s Upper School Life Skills classroom. Students use the foundation of techniques learned in class to improve their personal lives and equip themselves with every day, useful talents moving into the future.
Ms. McCarson, Upper School faculty for the Life Skills class, reports that in her class students learn essential expertise in cooking/baking, basic financial literacy, sewing, and management of time/stress. Throughout the course, the students have gained crucial skills for making decisions and learning how to transition from high school to college and/or work life. The course is really designed to deepen understanding and appreciation of the value of home and family life.
No ordinary final
In Life Skills class, the students’ last, final project was assigned to be a mini-capstone type project. The students chose their own project in an area they would like to explore. They were encouraged to be creative and dive deep into something that would not only challenge themselves but would be fun in the process. The only stipulation was that it had to be something they had never done before; otherwise, they had full creative liberty. This week, the presentations started and we are so curious to see what the students chose and where their explorations took them!
“I didn’t want to force what I find interesting on my students. They need to find their own path and passion and develop that how they choose.” -Ms. McCarson
Sewing Project
From a Student’s Perspective
Spenser ’26
Spenser (2026) chose to run a half marathon for his final project. He is a runner but had never run this 13.1-mile distance previously. Spenser (‘26) has been training with Menaul’s Cross Country team but only had run 7 miles before starting to train for this half-marathon.
“My experience running the half marathon was a long road. I’ve been training in Cross Country since July, so this has been a long time in the making.”
Ms. McCarson stated that she appreciated Spenser’s (2026) perseverance in this project, not only thinking outside the box on how to challenge himself, but the countless hours of training to achieve a personal goal. In the future, Spenser (2026) will carry this lesson forward on how to accomplish his goals and how to achieve success when faced with a difficult task.
Spenser’s (2026) approach to completing his half marathon was to break down the distance into smaller pieces, as one large distance can feel overwhelming. When relating this to other real-life situations, large tasks can be handled similarly; broken into smaller, more manageable pieces. Spenser (26’) during his presentation, stated that it was difficult during the run to keep his mind focused.
“In short, I’m very proud of myself for doing something that only a minority of the total populous is able to do and after I had recovered from the fatigue it weighed on me, I just had a wave of accomplishment and pride wash over my whole body.”
Spenser (2026) learned from this lesson not only running the full half-marathon distance, but a lot about himself and a lot about how to handle large, difficult tasks.
“Frankly, if it were not for McCarson’s Life Skills class, I likely would have never felt the need or desire to even attempt pushing past 10 miles. Her class gave me the motivation and the patience to even attempt going this far while allowing me to use the firm foundation that Ms. Scanlon had implanted in me during the Cross Country season.”
Half Marathon Training
DIEGO ’26
Diego (2026) was super creative in choosing to sew a shirt for his final project. What an accomplishment; for those unaware, making clothing is very difficult and an intensive study. For one of Diego’s first sewing projects, this was quite a bite to take! Ms. McCarson stated that she felt his creativeness and willingness to take on such a challenge were quite impressive.
“There were definitely parts about sewing the shirt where I really wanted to quit because it was a laborious task at times but I pulled through and am very proud of my creation.”
“At first sewing a shirt seemed impossible to me, but as soon as I started learning how to use the machine properly every new part of the shirt felt like an accomplishment. It was really cool to gain a new skill by applying a little bit of time and effort.”
Diego was new to sewing but excelled in the Life Skills Class block on machine sewing; he demonstrated a natural talent in this subject. He said that some of the members of his family were familiar with sewing machines and had sewed in the past. Diego created his own pattern, based on his personal measurements, chose fabric and sewed the shirt with very little guidance.
“Life skills taught me more than how to sew or change a tire but it showed me what I am capable of.”
Regardless of the outcome of the student’s final project, for Ms. McCarson, teacher of the Life Skills class, this project was more about allowing the students to explore an area that they have an interest in and then letting them develop this passion and potential hobby.
“We all need hobbies that make us happy and serve as an outlet for the stress of everyday life. There’s a whole world out there beyond high school, and I hope my students take away some skills that will help them in the future, regardless of the path they choose. I only want them to have a foundation to make great, solid, informative decisions.”