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mlooney

Story Wed 1 April 2020

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So where would this class fit in the curriculum?

There may be room for a class based on what adults claim they should have been taught in high school ten years after they graduate...
But would the students bother to retain any of that information beyond what they must parrot back on the test?

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I think there should be a class called "life skills" or something like that.  How to do basic "adult" things, like paying taxes, basic budgeting, how not to be an ass in public, that sort of thing. 

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39 minutes ago, mlooney said:

I think there should be a class called "life skills" or something like that.  How to do basic "adult" things, like paying taxes, basic budgeting, how not to be an ass in public, that sort of thing. 

I do not recall which class, maybe civics and government but we covered federal income tax in high school, for maybe a week; we even filled out forms for practice. That may have been a non-standard teacher innovation.

We had various curriculum, on the low end was 'general education', and I believe the general math focused on stuff like this, not sure; but there's just so much 'not algebra' you can do, right? I picked up a textbook in a yard sale long ago that would have been this.

We also had a business curriculum that was slanted this way, how to do common business things, but also expected behaviors and how to present yourself.

But you're right, those of us who were there to learn things and, oh, move on to college, for example, did not get this training.

'How not to be an ass in public', high school kind of teaches you the opposite. Seems though, that we got a bit less douchey each year, almost borderline human by graduation.

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27 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

I do not recall which class, maybe civics and government but we covered federal income tax in high school, for maybe a week; we even filled out forms for practice. That may have been a non-standard teacher innovation.

Given my experience and the number of memes that complain about lack of training for taxes, I'm going to go with teacher innovation.  Good that you got it any way.

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IMHO high-school (in the US) basic math has a lot of weird symbols but really needs an addition of one symbol that everyone in the class would understand.

This one: $

A lot of stuff in basic math would suddenly seem more interesting and important if the kids knew it applies to MONEY.

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8 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

A lot of stuff in basic math would suddenly seem more interesting and important if the kids knew it applies to MONEY.

True.  Even algebra and geometry can have monetary aspects. 

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Just now, mlooney said:

True.  Even algebra and geometry can have monetary aspects. 

I took a business math course in high school, it was basically just creating spreadsheets.

Mind you something like that is quite useful if you get a career in Eve Online ;)

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3 hours ago, Scotty said:

I took a business math course in high school, it was basically just creating spreadsheets.

I'm so old I learned to type on a manual typewriter and was several years before the invention of spreadsheets software.

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13 hours ago, mlooney said:

I agree with Diane, there should be a class on that.

But what would we do with people who fail that class?

10 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

'How not to be an ass in public', high school kind of teaches you the opposite. Seems though, that we got a bit less douchey each year, almost borderline human by graduation.

Yeah, the system how to get popular in high school is not just unrealistic, because your abilities can't help you, but also highly toxic, as you mostly get popular by lowering popularity of someone else. It's wonder that most people get through it as much human as they do, which is not much.

6 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

IMHO high-school (in the US) basic math has a lot of weird symbols but really needs an addition of one symbol that everyone in the class would understand.

This one: $

A lot of stuff in basic math would suddenly seem more interesting and important if the kids knew it applies to MONEY.

Depends on age. I think the first classes of basic math would benefit if instead of apples candy would be used as example unit. But few years afterwards, kids starts to realize how money works, so yes.

6 hours ago, mlooney said:

True.  Even algebra and geometry can have monetary aspects. 

There is lot of math in stock trade ...

 

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2 hours ago, mlooney said:

I'm so old I learned to type on a manual typewriter and was several years before the invention of spreadsheets software.

Seriously. My school taught keypunch (punch card) data entry and secretarial type writing as marketable skills. I did scientific calculations on a slide rule. We finished our Civil Technology curriculum (roughly, like a 2 year associates) a quarter early, and our teacher asked us what we'd like to learn. "Teach us programming." ... "I've never used a computer ... tell you what, I'll learn with you." He finagled time on the school districts anemic pre-360 IBM laughably called mainframe (to be fair, the enclosure was roughly a desk, and yes, just one) and we learned rudimentary Fortran, turning in our programs on punch cards to be picked up later in the day. They had the old school barely legible line printer that sounded like a machine gun.

There was JCL, IBM Job Control Language, which no one knew nor could explain. "Just put this card at the front, this after your program, and this at the end of your data." This set me up to love UNIX years later, with it's online manuals.

The next year, the college I attended had a few teletypes hooked up to their computer (yes, just one) that had interactive BASIC. OMYGODWHYDOESN"TEVERYONEUSETHISITSSOMUCHLESSHASSLE! I never had a course on it, but I bought the book anyway and learned to use it; it was such a refreshing change from the batch jobs.

 

 

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20 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

But what would we do with people who fail that class?

Soylent green?

 

20 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Yeah, the system how to get popular in high school is not just unrealistic, because your abilities can't help you, but also highly toxic, as you mostly get popular by lowering popularity of someone else. It's wonder that most people get through it as much human as they do, which is not much.

I was so surprised the one class reunion that I managed to get to how much I enjoyed the people. They basically grew up, and were nothing like I remembered. Well, a few were, but still.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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7 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

IMHO high-school (in the US) basic math has a lot of weird symbols but really needs an addition of one symbol that everyone in the class would understand.

This one: $

A lot of stuff in basic math would suddenly seem more interesting and important if the kids knew it applies to MONEY.

I seem to recall we had money problems in our arithmetic homework. I could be wrong. In any case I agree with you, it should be a thing.

I am amazed at how often cashiers cannot figure out back change unless the register tells them the amount.

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7 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:
35 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Yeah, the system how to get popular in high school is not just unrealistic, because your abilities can't help you, but also highly toxic, as you mostly get popular by lowering popularity of someone else. It's wonder that most people get through it as much human as they do, which is not much.

I was so surprised the one class reunion that I managed to get to how much I enjoyed the people. They basically grew up, and were nothing like I remembered. Well, a few were, but still.

They probably got better after finishing the school, yes.

5 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

I seem to recall we had money problems in our arithmetic homework. I could be wrong. In any case I agree with you, it should be a thing.

I am amazed at how often cashiers cannot figure out back change unless the register tells them the amount.

To be fair, they are overworked and stressed and it would really be better if they wouldn't need to if they are supposed to get people through the cash register as quickly as possible.

But, like, they should be able to do that when NOT working.

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