Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Spreadsheets, like Excel. Almost everyone needs them at work. They are very powerful tools. Great for personal organization too.
Health & Physical Fitness
Personal Finance.
Dump mandatory arts and mandatory history and mandatory literature.
Anyone with a book, youtube and a weekend can teach themselves excel. It is beyond silly to pretend there needs to be a COURSE on excel.
Anyone with a book, youtube and a weekend can teach themselves excel. It is beyond silly to pretend there needs to be a COURSE on excel.
Ya right. You could write the same thing on just about any course. However, which courses are the most important? The student would take those excel skills on to college and the workplace.
Ya right. You could write the same thing on just about any course. However, which courses are the most important? The student would take those excel skills on to college and the workplace.
Excel is taught in Intro to Word Processing classes.
I think offering Personal Finance to all high schoolers should give the biggest bang for the buck (no pun intended)..
IMO, every person receiving a high school diploma should at least be familiar with:
- Credit Cards
- Mortgages and other loans
- Compound Interest
- Retirement Planning
- Taxes
- Stock market basics
The average high schooler should be able to grasp this knowledge. This information will help one's everyday life far more than an extra History or Literature class, not that the latter aren't important.
We live in a capitalist society.. shouldn't responsible adults at least have some minimum knowledge of how it functions?
I think offering Personal Finance to all high schoolers should give the biggest bang for the buck (no pun intended)..
IMO, every person receiving a high school diploma should at least be familiar with:
- Credit Cards
- Mortgages and other loans
- Compound Interest
- Retirement Planning
- Taxes
- Stock market basics
The average high schooler should be able to grasp this knowledge. This information will help one's everyday life far more than an extra History or Literature class, not that the latter aren't important.
We live in a capitalist society.. shouldn't responsible adults at least have some minimum knowledge of how it functions?
I 100% agree on the finance class. I didn't understand different types of mortgages until I was in my 30's. I figured that's what the professionals are for - but that's ridiculous thinking and certainly doesn't protect you from scams.
I was very academically inclined (took honors, AP classes) but feel a little ripped off that I wasted my time in typing class and home ec. classes. Things are different now and more info is at our finger tips.
Curriculums have been updated, but there's more work to be done.
I think offering Personal Finance to all high schoolers should give the biggest bang for the buck (no pun intended)..
IMO, every person receiving a high school diploma should at least be familiar with:
- Credit Cards
- Mortgages and other loans
- Compound Interest
- Retirement Planning
- Taxes
- Stock market basics
The average high schooler should be able to grasp this knowledge. This information will help one's everyday life far more than an extra History or Literature class, not that the latter aren't important.
We live in a capitalist society.. shouldn't responsible adults at least have some minimum knowledge of how it functions?
A little bit of this, yes. There's not that much to it and we had most of that in 6th grade (except for retirement planning). Could be part of a course in senior year.
We had a course that incorporated several different sections like psychology, government, finance---and a lot of the things that aren't big enough for an entire course. The psychology class explained gangs and why people join them, also mental illness and mental health, stages of life. The government section had a lot of class discussions--I loved it--and some of the participants in those class discussions went on to become lawyers--could they ever argue!
I am against requiring public speaking. Some people will never be able to do it and they are a wreck getting up in front of the class so what do they gain. Just being a wreck and being laughed at. I did it but I hated it and I heard teachers say that it was unfair to force some kids to do it.
Physical education, of course.
Geography, of course, and it's getting more important than ever. Got to know where places are and their climates and topography and what the people are like. The world is getting smaller and people will be sent to other countries on business or will have to communicate with people from other countries.
Spelling and grammar so they can communicate. No one should graduate from high school and write "potato's" or "He gave it to she and I."
A science to discipline the mind and open it to new possibilities and to learn the basics of some form of a science for future reference.
Just thinking about all the things that shocked the hell out of me when I graduated from school knowing how to draw an onion epidermis, oh, and how to solve a quadratic equation.
Life skills - signing a contract, renting an apartment, what a mortgage is, what life insurance is, personal finances, budgeting, how to plan and make nutritious meals, how to stay fit and healthy, general information about how houses are built, fixing a leaky faucet, patching a hole in the wall, etc.
I like what John23 said about math. Applied math seems more practical. My husband once did have to use pythagorus' theorem to help a neighbor install a skylight. I remember the neighbor being pretty impressed!
Quote:
Originally Posted by in_newengland
I am against requiring public speaking. Some people will never be able to
do it and they are a wreck getting up in front of the class so what do they
gain. Just being a wreck and being laughed at. I did it but I hated it and I
heard teachers say that it was unfair to force some kids to do it.
I agree - 25 to 30% of the population would have so much anxiety from this... !
Some that should not be mandatory in my opinion.
4 years of lit and comp is too much. The comp could be covered in my above three year course on arguing. The lit part I don't think is that important.
Geometry: sure it can be practical, but the basics (non-trig Euclidean) aren't that complex and could maybe be covered in middle school instead of high school
Trig: sure you use it in calc and other math, but if you don't use that higher math, it's relatively useless.
Biology: life science is covered in middle school. How a cell works and how evolution works isn't necessarily crucial to life.
Foreign language. Come on, most everybody knows English. Specifics of the language really fade over time if you don't use them.
State History: Maybe in middle school this is ok.
What do you think? Add some more suggestions!
O. . . M. . . G!!!
You want people to leave high school with a middle school education in math and science? No wonder people believe such strange stuff.
In the words of my 15 year old: "Personal finance is literally the most pointless class ever! It's stupid they're forcing all of us to take an entire year of it."
A class that should be taught is COMMON SENSE 101. Topics could be Life is not a video game there is not a reset button. Facebook, All the fun silly actually stupid stuff you post there could come back to haunt you in your adult life. Over Consumption can mess you up. To much drink, drugs, driving too fast and texting, spending more than you make, thinking you are immortal etc.. etc... Paying more attention to life and the things that matter like family and less wasted time playing on your phone.
Common sense.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
