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Two things to consider. 1. The purpose of school: To produce a basic worker who wont question authority and to keep a large segment of the population out of tr

Two things to consider. 1. The purpose of school: To produce a basic worker who wont question authority and to keep a large segment of the population out of trouble for a majority of the working day (babysitting). School hasn't really changed much since the late industrial revolution with the exception that child labor laws mean more kids stay in and complete school. 2. A typical high school student completes 25 year long classes in order to graduate. Those typically include 4 Math, 4 Science, 4 Social Studies, 4 English Language, 2 Foreign Language, 1 Art, 1 PE, 2 General Purpose (Health, Speech, home EC, etc) 4+ Electives (Sports, Band, Shop, Ag) What are you going to get rid of to open up some time in the kids schedule to teach finance? You can't take away electives, parents and college like to see their kids involved in things. If we are going to change the curriculum, are there not more important things to our society to teach? A basic medic class, philosophy, ethics? I think a one year "Life Skills" class should be added. But the question is, what do you teach. I know too many people that didn't have some really basic skills coming to/out of college. Things like cooking basic meals, doing laundry, basic home upkeep (how to clean to basic maintenance), hygiene and self care, budgeting (this is where basic finance could be taught), or how to drive (for those of us in car dependent places).

neffy 6y ago
Consider this is also a huge, multi-generational propagation of information problem in very long latency (slow) network structures. A few members of one generation learns to read and write, they provide the teachers for the next generation, somewhat along the way arithmetic and finance start getting thrown in. How many teachers, especially at the higher levels, really understand their subject, and aren't just reciting it? Then there are other issues. On the finance side, a notoriously high pressure, long hours career, where is the incentive to teach other people? We should absolutely change the curriculum the way you suggest, and use basic life skills as the foundation for teaching things like math, biology etc. And better, typically private or privileged entry schools do just that. To do that across the board, well, first we have to teach the teachers. (On that front it would probably also help if the US coped Finland and paid them decently, but that would require some kind of across the board federal funding, and we all know how Americans feel about the T word.)
Beached 6y ago
not sure what high schools you are looking at, but most that I know of only require 2 or 3 years math, 2 or 3 years science, 2 or 3 social studies, 4 english, no foreign language required q art 1 or 2 pe, health AND finance (consumers economics). do you have a source for the 4 years of math, science, ss and 2 years of foreign language required? I was required to take CE which was supposed to teach financial literacy. although the course material was a joke and didn't apply to the real world.
kadonoishi 6y ago
LIF101 Drugs LIF102 Sex LIF103 Money Get their attention with marijuana, first topic first course. Spend one day on the chemistry, then one day on effects including how to recognize people under the drug’s influence. Then do tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, same two-day format. Then move back up into pharmaceutical opiates, street opiates, then cocaine. First midterm exam is on the science of drugs as chemicals and their documented effects. Then move to drug laws and public health issues for awhile. Briefly touch on drug use in other cultures, historical drug use, and drug use by animals. Have them write a paper on drug policy. Move to a section on mental health to explain some common problematic reasons why people use drugs. Then spend the remainder of the course on wellness, exercise and cooking to offer doable, sensible alternatives to unhealthy habits. Have them do a group project on one of the healthy living subjects. LIF102 Sex. Just copy Al Vernacchio’s “Human Sexuality” class at the Friends’ Central School, Philadelphia. LIF103 Money. By now maybe you’ve convinced people these courses are real life skills worth knowing. Keep going. LIF201 Prediction LIF202 Perception LIF203 Atoms The real, rubber-hits-the-road reason to have knowledge is to make accurate predictions. You might not think of skilled work as making predictions, but if you design a bridge a certain way so it’ll stand up, you’re actually predicting that the bridge will stand up if you construct the supports a certain way. How do you even get the information you base predictions on? The study of perception is pretty interesting, surprising and sometimes non-intuitive. There are some core ideas that have proven really, really useful for making predictions that work. Some of them are not obvious at all, and you’d never think of them yourself. One of these is the atomic theory: “All things are made of atoms - small particles that repel when pushed together, but attract when they’re a little way apart.” By this time the kids ought to have some faith that all this stuff is important to their lives.
- johnisgood 6y ago
  https://global.oup.com/academic/product/addiction-and-choice-9780198727224 https://global.oup.com/academic/product/addiction-and-choice... (Addiction and Choice: Rethinking the relationship) should be mandatory reading. Most people have absolutely no clue about addiction, or hold an outdated and wrong belief of it. I recommend it to everyone, from laymen to medical professionals.
thotsBgone 6y ago
> What are you going to get rid of to open up some time in the kids schedule to teach finance? Half of the English curriculum now is literary analysis. Split English into a grammar class and a literary analysis class, and let students take finance (or computer science or psychology or ...) instead of literary analysis. I also don't see why foreign languages or art would be particularly more important than finance.

neffy 6y ago

Consider this is also a huge, multi-generational propagation of information problem in very long latency (slow) network structures. A few members of one generation learns to read and write, they provide the teachers for the next generation, somewhat along the way arithmetic and finance start getting thrown in. How many teachers, especially at the higher levels, really understand their subject, and aren't just reciting it? Then there are other issues. On the finance side, a notoriously high pressure, long hours career, where is the incentive to teach other people? We should absolutely change the curriculum the way you suggest, and use basic life skills as the foundation for teaching things like math, biology etc. And better, typically private or privileged entry schools do just that. To do that across the board, well, first we have to teach the teachers. (On that front it would probably also help if the US coped Finland and paid them decently, but that would require some kind of across the board federal funding, and we all know how Americans feel about the T word.)

Beached 6y ago

not sure what high schools you are looking at, but most that I know of only require 2 or 3 years math, 2 or 3 years science, 2 or 3 social studies, 4 english, no foreign language required q art 1 or 2 pe, health AND finance (consumers economics). do you have a source for the 4 years of math, science, ss and 2 years of foreign language required? I was required to take CE which was supposed to teach financial literacy. although the course material was a joke and didn't apply to the real world.

kadonoishi 6y ago

LIF101 Drugs LIF102 Sex LIF103 Money Get their attention with marijuana, first topic first course. Spend one day on the chemistry, then one day on effects including how to recognize people under the drug’s influence. Then do tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, same two-day format. Then move back up into pharmaceutical opiates, street opiates, then cocaine. First midterm exam is on the science of drugs as chemicals and their documented effects. Then move to drug laws and public health issues for awhile. Briefly touch on drug use in other cultures, historical drug use, and drug use by animals. Have them write a paper on drug policy. Move to a section on mental health to explain some common problematic reasons why people use drugs. Then spend the remainder of the course on wellness, exercise and cooking to offer doable, sensible alternatives to unhealthy habits. Have them do a group project on one of the healthy living subjects. LIF102 Sex. Just copy Al Vernacchio’s “Human Sexuality” class at the Friends’ Central School, Philadelphia. LIF103 Money. By now maybe you’ve convinced people these courses are real life skills worth knowing. Keep going. LIF201 Prediction LIF202 Perception LIF203 Atoms The real, rubber-hits-the-road reason to have knowledge is to make accurate predictions. You might not think of skilled work as making predictions, but if you design a bridge a certain way so it’ll stand up, you’re actually predicting that the bridge will stand up if you construct the supports a certain way. How do you even get the information you base predictions on? The study of perception is pretty interesting, surprising and sometimes non-intuitive. There are some core ideas that have proven really, really useful for making predictions that work. Some of them are not obvious at all, and you’d never think of them yourself. One of these is the atomic theory: “All things are made of atoms - small particles that repel when pushed together, but attract when they’re a little way apart.” By this time the kids ought to have some faith that all this stuff is important to their lives.

johnisgood 6y ago
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/addiction-and-choice-9780198727224 https://global.oup.com/academic/product/addiction-and-choice... (Addiction and Choice: Rethinking the relationship) should be mandatory reading. Most people have absolutely no clue about addiction, or hold an outdated and wrong belief of it. I recommend it to everyone, from laymen to medical professionals.

thotsBgone 6y ago

> What are you going to get rid of to open up some time in the kids schedule to teach finance? Half of the English curriculum now is literary analysis. Split English into a grammar class and a literary analysis class, and let students take finance (or computer science or psychology or ...) instead of literary analysis. I also don't see why foreign languages or art would be particularly more important than finance.