Usa here. In my "economics" class in 2007 our teacher gave us a handout on ergonomics and the rest of the semester she put on VHS tapes of ghost files.
Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?
41–50 of 262 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?
#42It's a political topic - learning about economics is slighlty more relative than learning about physics. I'm from a country that used to be socialist and when people hear that "Self management and the basics of marxism" used to be a mandatory school subject, they're usually disgusted and call it brainwashing.
I absolutely agree that it's very useful to learn about the inner workings of the system you live in, as it gives you perspective. Even if you disagree with it, it's better to know how it works.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?
#43Every recommendation to add "x" to a school curriculum should state explicitly what alternative activity should be cut to free up time. This could be another subject, sleep or childrens' free time.
For example, a better question would be "Why don't we eliminate and teach finance instead?"
Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?
#44I studied in Czech Republic and we had entire class spanning out over two years for economic and financial literacy at my high school. On the practical level, we were even tasked to fill out tax returns for a fictional company and we learned how to start freelancing & start a company. It was a high school in a rather small town on the south of Czech Republic, nothing special. I don't know how common this is in the re…
What were you freelancing as at that age out of interest? Did everyone in the class have to come up with their own idea for a freelancing business?
Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?
#45I agree but also want to point out how sad this is. In the past 50 years or so the world changed. You can no longer win by just working for a salary and putting your extra money in a savings account and collecting a pension if you were lucky. There’s an entire complex capitalist casino out there where all the real money is made. We can all only hope to have extra money so we can buy our chips and play too. So every doctor, every engineer, every professor, every one of us now needs a second education in the complexities of modern finance if we don’t want to be left behind.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?
#46This would have to be mandated by the state (at least in the USA). The state already mandates that they must spend x hours teaching math, English, etc. The schools don’t have enough leeway to just add in another required course. Most likely something would have to give. Maybe replace one of the required math classes with a required finance class?
Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?
#47If you ever teach a group of kids you quickly learn that interests, personality types, needs come in a wide spectrum. Whats in the "core curriculum" and its effects are not predictable. For example, I had French classes for 4 years and can't speak, read or write it to save my life. The teacher wasn't bad and kept telling me, who knows maybe one day I'd move to France. As a kid, I thought the whole thing was ridiculou…
I was forced to study Latin for 5 years - and that was in a Computer Science oriented high school.
Nobody yet sent me back in time.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?
#48If you ever teach a group of kids you quickly learn that interests, personality types, needs come in a wide spectrum. Whats in the "core curriculum" and its effects are not predictable. For example, I had French classes for 4 years and can't speak, read or write it to save my life. The teacher wasn't bad and kept telling me, who knows maybe one day I'd move to France. As a kid, I thought the whole thing was ridiculou…
Dave Ramsey (not connected in any way - just like his message), can be a bit 'over the top' sometimes, but in his daily radio show you can listen some (financial mismanagement) horror stories. He has a "7 baby steps process" that I believe everyone should know (and adapt to his/her will/preferences/life setup). Yes is a fanatic christian, yes, he can be a bit tiring when he takes a religious tangent, but still, I find his message very useful. I would really liked to have discovered him 20-30 years ago (or whoever was the Dave Ramsey at that time).
I really appreciated/found really helpful the tip of the "seven bank accounts" (Jordan Page, FunCheapOrFree)(also not connected in any way): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auzLhKvsxnQ
(Ramsey a similar type of management the "envelope system").
Edit: from what he sometimes says on his radio show, some schools in the USA 'teach' his program/system/7-step-process. I find this amazing and I wish that this (or something similar) is properly taught to every school on the planet.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?
#49I would argue that most people in life will never even go near the stock market let alone be expected to learn all those different bits and pieces. How would that help the average high school graduate?
They don't go near the stock market in the way a sizeable % of most countries populations doesn't go near politics and doesn't vote, that doesn't mean it's an approach that puts society first - in general it's a selfish approach. Not knowing how markets work and how they affect your life, your retirement, taxes, is knowingly eschewing knowledge about a pretty important part of life.
I don't know if it should be taught in school or if people should just be responsible adults and learn about it, but more people understanding the stock market would be the best way to have proper regulations and stopping it all being labeled as a boogeyman that the rich old white man uses to fuck everyone else over.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?
#50Two reasons: 1) Financial rules are legal constructs - so not really suitable for academics. An academic syllabus might claim "Roth IRA implies X" then the law changes and it is no longer true. 2) The schools would be opening themselves up to legal liability if they accidental offer financial advice that goes bad (eg, invest in shares -> first time in history share market collapse -> angry people blame school). No co…
>1) Financial rules are legal constructs - so not really suitable for academics. An academic syllabus might claim "Roth IRA implies X" then the law changes and it is no longer true.
And I would argue this artificial cultural limitation on "things must be abstract and timeless" to be academic-appropriate is the biggest reason common people don't learn. The lower the IQ the less able people are to handle the abstraction in the first place, and the higher the IQ the more the person has to have interest in abstract things even though they could understand it (attention span is greatly impacted - in my case - I never remember character names in a novel because I know they are just made up anyway - even if it is my favorite book)
If you can show people something that exists in the real world they can imagine themselves actually using the knowledge and actually pay attention
Try to teach a class about McDonald's profit margins per burger and Apple on an iPhone and then teach the exact same class talking about widgets. I promise you the former will lead to higher test scores because the visualization isn't forced.