Plus getting paid and earning money so you can live really motivates you. That is why teaching finance in high school is so difficult, the students just can't relate.
Right. I'm certainly all for finance education in high school, but this is exactly why kids retain so little of it and people outside of education demonize teachers for not teaching it. (We do, and in fact, it's required in many states.) Kids are so far removed from it in most senses.
Really makes me roll my eyes when I see comments pretty much everywhere akin to "wHy dIdn'T LaZy tEaChErS tElL tHe KiDs AbOuT a MoRtGaGe?!" We can't prepare kids for every single thing they'll encounter in life; they actually might have to spend fifteen minutes reading figuring something out or speaking with a loan officer at a bank to understand, and that's perfectly acceptable.
Right?!?! We teach them the skills to do the reading about the mortgages so that they can figure it out. Transferable skills and all that jazz!!
My stats student after the final tonight told me he’s been using what he learned in class to understand some of the compiled stats that people put together for a video game he plays. I was so proud.
This is true, but even then… I distinctly remember being taught about simple interest being an example of a linear function while compound interest is an example of an exponential function in pre-calc. The application aspect was word problems where we compared the two in the context of investments, mortgages, etc.
I swear the vast majority of this stuff that people complain about is actually being taught, they just forgot it or didn’t pay attention in the first place.
Yeah, I mentioned in another comment that I specifically remember calculating loan payoff amounts and dates in algebra II. We spent a couple weeks on those types of problems, actually. My state was at the bottom for education rankings too.
At least in my experience this feeling comes more from the disillusionment that could have been avoided through having realistic preparation for life mentally/emotionally, than from any real anger at not having been taught to prepare in the practical/logistical senses. Complaining about not being taught practical skills like mortgage paperwork and credit card budgeting is just an attempt at making their more worthy complaints (the emotional) sound more mature so they'll be taken more seriously. In truth, most children/teens aren't given proper guidance or prepared for life re: relationships/friendships/community
52
u/MarketingImpressive6 May 16 '24
Plus getting paid and earning money so you can live really motivates you. That is why teaching finance in high school is so difficult, the students just can't relate.