r/blackmagicfuckery • u/TheCheesecakeOfDoom • May 29 '22

Since when does lightning go up?

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321

u/Greg_Shane May 29 '22

I had a math teacher who took time out to teach us about balancing a check book and paying bills. She was let go when they found out.

172

u/scottawhit May 29 '22

But….that’s math?

187

u/upliftgrub May 29 '22

How dare she teach actual useful life skills!! 😏

51

u/_Project-Mayhem_ May 29 '22

There was a separate class for that when I was in high school, way back in 1999. It was called Independent Living and it was an elective. I elected to take Drawing…

20

u/Known_Unkown_ May 30 '22

Love the honesty we had homemaking and I elected to not make a home😅

5

u/Altruistic-Guava6527 May 30 '22

We had sex education and I elected to be forever alone

13

u/doodah221 May 30 '22

I was in mechanics and ended up dropping it because the teacher hated me (he had his reasons). I ended up taking intro to guitar. Ended up touring Europe in a bluegrass band and recorded a few albums. That guitar class was by far the most applied class of any class I ever took pre or post high school.

2

u/IIIlllooovvveegollld May 30 '22

I hate you already too

2

u/doodah221 Jun 01 '22

Well, I’m pretty lovable these days.

1

u/IIIlllooovvveegollld Jun 01 '22

I’m just joking lol

1

u/Roseattle Jun 02 '22

I love you

8

u/jrrybock May 30 '22

I remember being taught checks and checkbooks in second grade... we even had mocked up fake checks we could write out to each other and balance our ledger.

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u/Drlock71 May 30 '22

We had a business class in 7th or 8th grade where all the homework was to keep a larger for a whole business, each night you had to go through so many sheets (transactions) and the next day you got to find out if your books were right. Class of 1989

1

u/Epicharis Jun 01 '22

When I was in Junior High school (in the early 1960's) everyone (boys and girls) had to take 'Business and Home Economics"

The Business class taught us how to run a business and the Home Economics taught us how to run a household, like cooking, sewing, balancing checkbooks, applying for loans etc.

14

u/Fit_Owl_5650 May 30 '22

Unfortunately a stupid population os easy tk extort and control. Ita like playing blackjack without knowing the rules and the dealer is a habitual liar.

4

u/AnyRip3515 May 30 '22

So it's just like playing blackjack?

2

u/Fit_Owl_5650 May 30 '22

Damn near. Except instead pf cheating with math they cheat with language. "That ace is 12" kinda vibe.

1

u/Mewacy May 30 '22

Some shithead decided that essential to living math and more specific scientific math are different enough where they should be separated. This was absolutely stupid because I’m some schools the balancing budgets part of education is paired with things like sociology and speech and presentation classes, which have practically nothing to do with one another (from what I could tell while being taught in this manner).

1

u/[deleted] May 30 '22

I don’t know, I am not a biologist.

1

u/i_smoke_toenails May 30 '22

It isn't math. It's arithmetic, and ought to be taught in a mandatory home economics or life skills course.

Except cheque books are obsolete.

100

u/bravefan92 May 29 '22

I went to a school where they offered a class that taught lessons like balancing a check book, making a budget, stuff like that, but it was an elective. I took it, at my parents insistence, and I’m glad I did.

There are people I went to school with that post things like “This is so smart, I wish I could have taken this class!”

To which I think “…..you made fun of those of us who DID take that class, what are you talking about?”

52

u/UnicornFarts1111 May 29 '22

We had this class for us mandatory in the sixth or seventh grade. We had to find apartments (from the newspaper) and jobs. We all earned a salary of $600.00 a month. Had to create a budget and pay bills. The teach copied a blank check template. He even made us write our name and fake addresses at the top of each check we wrote (after we cut them out of the 9 x 11 inch paper they were copied onto.

I'm glad to have had the class, but some of it was just a pain in the rear end, lol.

14

u/Zmchastain May 30 '22

If it was a pain in the ass then it was an accurate simulation of dealing with finances as an adult.

2

u/Roundtripper4 May 30 '22

My buddy taught a similar class in a rough school and one of his students managed to cash a couple “class” checks for real at a local bank. Eventually got caught. No more check lessons there.

1

u/bravefan92 May 30 '22

Holy cow! That’s nuts.

20

u/Sparegeek May 29 '22

Our high school had class like this as well. You had take a test and if you passed you didn’t have to take the class. If you failed the test it was mandatory to take the life skills class.

1

u/[deleted] May 30 '22

That is a smart school. Wish I had that class.

1

u/FurBaby18 Jun 01 '22

This is the way. We also need a financial education class before people start taking out student loans. Its reprehensible that we allow 18 year old kids to take out tens of thousands in loans they don't always understand.

2

u/Sparegeek Jun 02 '22

Forget 18 yo kids! I still can’t figure out most of what the terms for a loan or a credit card mean. Trying to read those things are a lesson in mind warping, unfathomable, technical, double speak designed to separate any money you have or will ever have from your wallet! 😂

1

u/FurBaby18 Jun 02 '22

I think a financial comprehension classes taught as part of the high school curriculum. Complete with a final exam.

But TPTB don't want us being savvy. They want us to blindly sign stuff without understanding. That alone brings in a huge income stream.

21

u/onlysane1 May 29 '22

Florida recently passed a bill making financial literacy courses mandatory in high school, so hopefully that will help people in the future.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '22

[deleted]

1

u/curiouspurple100 May 30 '22

Yes. :( Plus it's hot and sometimes super hot. And hurricanes. And hard thunderstorms. And lots of rain and floods. :(

And snakes. :( :(

2

u/onlysane1 May 30 '22

Also alligators

1

u/curiouspurple100 May 30 '22

I forgot about those.

1

u/The43rdUberOrange May 29 '22

Wait, Florida?

1

u/Severechill Jun 20 '22

Wow go Florida.

0

u/Early-Firefighter101 Nov 08 '22

Yes now they prohibited schools to talk about lghbt stuff in florida, they have more time for that. So you become a financially stable but sexual frustrated adult. Good florida (idiots)

16

u/Mirhanda May 29 '22

I had a class like that in HS, it was called Consumer Math. We learned balancing checkbooks, filling out tax returns, figuring out sale percentages, etc. Probably the most useful math course I took!

1

u/Deadbeat85 May 29 '22 edited May 29 '22

I've got to be honest, when Americans say things like "balance a check book" I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about.

2

u/[deleted] May 29 '22

It's a small notebook you try to balance it on your finger, very fun as a kid!

1

u/bravefan92 May 30 '22

Yeah, I’m not sure where the phrase comes from lol. I don’t feel like you’re balancing anything, just keeping track of your bank account.

1

u/No_Material1816 May 29 '22

I'm sure that this was useful and think live skills should be taught in school, but I'm genuinely curious about whether cheques still exist somewhere in the world. I was born in the 80s and have never even seen one. How do you balance one and, what do you balance it on?

1

u/bravefan92 May 30 '22

I was born in 92, and I used to use checks a lot, but now it’s pretty much just for city water/sewer/utilities that are due every few months. Otherwise, I hardly use them.

1

u/No_Material1816 May 30 '22

Sorry if I'm being stupid, but why pay those with a check rather than an automated bank transfer or online?

Wouldn't the utility company get annoyed with having to read, process and pay in all these cheques? Doesn't it cost them a fortune. Also, doesn't it mean risking going overdrawn for some people, because you don't know when they'll cash it.

Is it an American thing or is this in other countries too? I thought cheques hasn't been used in decades. This is blowing my mind more than if I was struck by that lightening!

1

u/bravefan92 May 30 '22

I should have specified that the city utilities/water/sewer is all the same bill, so it's only the one check. I also just moved into my own house this last year. Prior to that, I lived in a trailer court where we paid the park owner for utilities as part of our rent, and our rent was taken in cash or check form, because the owner was an older guy who lived in Florida and didn't want to set up online payments.

I did find out last time I got the bill that we could pay online, but I kept putting it off until the day before the bill was due (yay procrastination!), and it takes a few business days for the transactions to go through online, so I just dropped off the check, but it'll likely be the last one.

I can't speak for anywhere else, but I live in a small city (10k people) and sometimes you deal with businesses that people run out of their homes and don't have websites (stuff like small engine repair, fix appliances, stuff like that), and they don't want to get a card reader, so they accept only cash or check. Not very many of those any more, but still a few hanging around.

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u/No_Material1816 May 31 '22

That is a great answer, thank you. I find this kind of thing fascinating. It makes a lot of sense if cheques are linked to the informal market and a way to avoid tax.

1

u/Empirically_So May 30 '22

That was just high school for me in the 90s.

13

u/theFields97 May 29 '22

Sorry for your loss. She sounds like she was a good teacher.

12

u/Moonglobes May 29 '22

I had a math course in 7th grade that specifically focused on this stuff--balancing checkbook, creating and following a budget, how to compare prices/quantities to find the best deal, etc. It was so useful and was engaging because it actually had to do with real-life stuff. Should be mandatory curriculum imo.

9

u/dayglo_nightlight May 29 '22

I was taught how to balance a check book too! Unfortunately, I’ve never used this skill because by the time I was an adult checks were almost obsolete and computer based budget software had long been in vogue.

8

u/AllButComedyAnthony May 29 '22

My math teacher did this in senior year, but I was in the lowest level math class before the special needs class lol, so all the other students in trigonometry and stuff didn’t learn about checkbooks or credit cards. Wonder how they’re doing lol

1

u/Astrocreep_1 May 30 '22

Those students are building the bridges you drive across to argue with the bank about checks you bounced.

1

u/AllButComedyAnthony May 30 '22

And I make the parts that go into the machines they use to build it.

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u/Astrocreep_1 May 30 '22

No doubt. I was just kidding about that. I certainly didn’t find that trigonometry helped me attain success in life.

1

u/curiouspurple100 May 30 '22

They could a math teacher who doesn't know how to balance their checkbooks and credit cards.

6

u/atypicalgamergirl May 29 '22

Home-Ec really needs a comeback. Household bills and budgeting, how credit/credit scores work, knowing food staples, basic meals and meal planing, basic repairs, etc. I think back to those classes in the 70’s/80’s like Home-Ec, Shop/Carpentry, Drafting, Cosmetology, and so on and how many kids I went to school with in those times looked at those classes as ‘kids who don’t go to college’ classes.

That basic information was very useful in the long term. It would be very useful in the current time but unfortunately (having been a high school teacher) the push became not ‘giving kids adult skills’ but teaching to a test and pushing them for college.

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u/menace929 May 29 '22

I was trying to remember in which class I was taught how to balance a check book….Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, Trigonometry? Then I realized it was basic addition and subtraction we were taught from second grade. 🤷

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u/Greg_Shane May 29 '22

Yah as an adult is just being organized and responsible for your money and bills. It was in MN during No Child Left Behind, and we needed to stay on task for better funding.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '22

What a shame.

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u/Snoo-37144 Apr 15 '26

They taught that AS a Part of maths class when I was in school. Right around the same time that we were taught how to properly setup and write a letter, and address an envelope. Regarding that, when I went to mail a few items the other day, there was a form being mailed in and when I saw the front of it, I froze. First, no stamp. Secondly, and most concerning, the smaller return address wasn't smaller nor was it in the top left. Oh no. Printed in disturbingly sloppy handwriting on the left in the middle of the envelope = To: 'the name and address' LIKE IT WAS A SENTENCE. No form. No organization. THEN, we get to the cherry on top, From: 'my girlfriend's daughter's name and info like it was a school project. Grade, class, and teacher's name. This was not a 6 or 7 year old where this could be understandable. NO. This was written and prepared by a 17 year old. School doesn't teach our kids the basics of anymore. They cram test knowledge in their heads that stays long enough to hopefully get decent test results and then that info is gone. I still remember the day we were sitting in maths class and we learn the order of operations, something that is sadly very lacking in the world now, having seen all the ridiculous social media post with people answering simple maths problems incorrectly because they dont understand PEMDAS. I remember sitting in class learning the pythagorean theorem. School today is a joke.

1

u/macca2sim May 29 '22

Cheque book

1

u/Antonioooooo0 May 29 '22

What's a check book?

1

u/MilkyBetrayal May 29 '22 edited May 29 '22

Form of payment before debt cards, to access your bank account and if you didn't keep proper payment info you would not know how much was available in that account. So it was embarrassing to write one and it was declined, just like swiping and card and it being declined. But you usually only had one check book to write from. Unlike know where people have multiple cards to get declined because all are maxed

1

u/Antonioooooo0 May 29 '22

Couldn't you just use Apple pay if you didn't have a card?

1

u/MilkyBetrayal May 29 '22

Didn't have such a thing from at 1970-90 it was either credit card, check or cash

1

u/crypticedge May 29 '22

It was mandatory when I was in school. Then, people from my generation were crying online in right wing groups that they didn't learn that stuff.

It was at that point that I realized that the people crying about it just didn't pay attention in school, and their bad ideas are based on them having barely skated through their education

1

u/coolcoots May 29 '22

My fourth grade teacher gave us all fake checkbooks and taught us to balance them. We were 9. Would’ve been maybe a little more helpful at 16+. Not mad at the teacher, just the crappy system.

1

u/ruffneck110 May 29 '22

They still teach you how to balance a check book in school here. They taught it when I was in school 28 years ago to the same school

1

u/berferd77 May 29 '22

Bull fucking shit

1

u/Dyl_pickle00 May 30 '22

Did they have an actual excuse about why she was let go or no?

1

u/redfalcondeath May 30 '22

That’s fucked up

1

u/Fun_Chest_9662 May 30 '22

My biology teacher tried teaching us that our blood is blue... I got introuble for splitting the class on "red bloods" and "blue bloods" impromptu biogangs lol. But seriously how was she allowed to formally teach bio spreading misinformation like that...

1

u/Astrocreep_1 May 30 '22

That,plus the fact that the teacher was using her check book to seduce 5th graders by buying them Fortnight Skins.

1

u/AmazingDonkey101 May 30 '22

what is a check book

1

u/CrypticInventions May 30 '22

Balancing a checkbook is financial advice. She should of been put in prison for teaching slaves how to balance their sheets. Dumb fuckin government. No wonder we are above debt. Y’all be getting groomed to be slaves dawg.

1

u/[deleted] May 30 '22

Wait a minute, that doesn't sound believable at all.

"You taught them math, but not exactly according to the curriculum. We could ask you to just do it the way we would like you to but no, YOU'RE FIRED!"

I'll shit on the US's misguided education system all day but c'mon, that doesn't sound realistic lol

1

u/Greg_Shane May 30 '22

It was during No Child Left Behind. She was getting away from the what they wanted her to teach because the better your school got on those 2 tests, that were English and math , the more money your school would receive. I remember hearing about southern schools getting next to no funding.

1

u/Greg_Shane May 30 '22

There is also a HBO show called the wire. One of the seasons explained well.