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That's because most of that is automatic. Balancing a checkbook is simple due to online banking. Loans and payments are pretty much what can be found with excel. If you actually think much of this is performed by hand it hasn't since the 1990's. When I took accounting in 96/97 as a junior in high school we were the last class to use paper journal entries. I overheard and actually saw a teacher crying while being consoled by another in that we were going to computers
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It isn't so much schools but rather the parents and frankly these days if you can google something and prove someone wrong why bother using them? It's not people vs people it's the computer. These days you have to justify yourself against software.
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You are so missing the point, you're almost proving it. This issue isn't about using a program or Excel. Or the amount of information available. The point is having the understanding and knowledge to know what to do with all that data and being able to sort information from noise. For example, balancing a checking isn't about having on line banking. It's about knowing that you even need to. "I can't be overdrawn, I still have checks" is only a joke because it is so true to many people. I've dealt with them. The same thing with interest. The issue isn't about know how to run the proper equations; it's about knowing that interest means having to pay back more in the future than you borrowed today and how compounding works, to your benefit on the one hand and to your detriment on the other.
A huge chunk of the population has no clue how this works and no idea how to avoid it.
And if you think much of life is about goggling something to prove someone wrong, you really have a huge misunderstanding of what learning is about. Knowledge isn't about reciting facts or trivia. It's about understanding. And that is what schools are not teaching well at all.
Honestly I can't think of a single life skill I learned by graduating HS and i grew up in NY NJ MD IL Nothing applicable like a basic finance course, basic course on nutrition. It's no wonder our most lucrative industries have to compete with people from the third world like India routinely. Our education system is HORRIBLE. It doesn't engender any practical or theoretical skills, critical thinking, rhetoric.z
I can't htink of how much better our country would be off we if taught hard or technical skills in high school and put as much emphasis on them as the humanities.
I do not think it is. We only read about the failures. Must be people from the lower class but who really expects anything better from them these past few decades? Young folk my company hired are local and very bright.
Having parents from another country I think it's Americans mindset on education and not the establishment. Asians for example in Korea are taught to really respect teachers and that an education frees you from all heartache and societies issues. School isn't questioned and you expect to spend most of your days learning something. Serious long days learning like, 7am to 10pm. On the weekends you are still working on homework.
You aren't expected to have a social life until after college, no relationships either. Forget about moving out of your house at 18 and becoming independent. No way, what about your education, it will suffer. Your parents work hard to allow you to work even harder on your studies.
The whole mindset of Americans is different and in many ways better, even though education suffers. You invent, take pride in business ownership, socialize early on, have large groups of friends outside the home. (Unless you have Asian parents, lol) If you are stupid then you own a small business or work for someones small business because you have little skill other than that, if you got lucky you had a large business handed down to you but you work hard to prepare for working there, otherwise you get a good education. Not the same here where you have room to grown mentally, even go back to school later in life without to much negativity after "finding yourself" which isn't allowed in Korea. lol You aren't suppose to find yourself, you are suppose to do your school work and obey older people.
This video explains the differences well, and there are good and bad to both sides. I doubt we will ever go to the social extreme we would need to in order to see a big difference in our education system because it takes a village, a serious village.
Honestly I can't think of a single life skill I learned by graduating HS and i grew up in NY NJ MD IL Nothing applicable like a basic finance course, basic course on nutrition. It's no wonder our most lucrative industries have to compete with people from the third world like India routinely. Our education system is HORRIBLE. It doesn't engender any practical or theoretical skills, critical thinking, rhetoric.z
I can't htink of how much better our country would be off we if taught hard or technical skills in high school and put as much emphasis on them as the humanities.
in waiting for superman they mention that 50 years ago public high schools were designed to ready people for the work force (manufacturing and mining) as opposed to private college prep schools.
also, i don't think india is third world. they have nuclear weapons.
It use to be considered one of the best in the world. So just go back to what we were teaching, the way we were teaching it, and an old school discipline system in school. That might not solve all the problems, but it would be a big start in the right direction.
I had unique experience in going to a private international school in another country and then coming to some of the best public schools in this country in a couple different states. I have never in my life seen so much dicking around as americans students do.
Regardless of aptitude and level, the students in other countries actually tend to try whereas there is so much goofing off, not paying attention, taking education for granted, and a whole bunch of other social nonsense that goes on here for no apparent reason.
And the kids who try and work hard are made fun of here (bully the nerd herd) while they are lauded and respected by their peers in other countries. It is like we celebrate idiocy.
I figured out be about age 12-13 that I was smarter than some of my teachers. Then you lose some level of respect and motivation and begin to learn on your own. College was nice because I was challenged. Basically, if you don't have good parents and/ or self motivation, you won't learn much.
Honestly people get out of it what they put into it - there are people who get great educations in our public schools - both with life skills and critical thinking skills. But they work at it and pursue it actively. Our education system tries to do a bit of everything - it serves a huge swath of goals that most other education systems do not. To get something great out of that, you have to have a focus while you're in school and not just skating by. The problem with education in America isn't the schools as much as something bigger - a societal apathy and lack of effort. People are too busy whining, "When will I ever use this?" to learn how to use it and give themselves the opportunity to find out how/when they might use it in the future. I got a fantastic education in public schools and am continuing to learn every day of my life.
It's not bad. It's the best for a nation of this type
Our educational system is the best in the world for a nation that is not comprised of a homogenous population like China, Japan, and India. Trying to compare ourselves to the rigid systems of those nations is foolish. Their models don't work here, and IMO, this is not a knock on our system.
School is a place to spark an appreciation for a life of learning and knowledge. Life skills are learned initially by parents and family, and by living life, interacting with differing cultures, overcoming life's crucibles, making a living, and getting one's needs met as we all age. Ridiculous to suggest that it is a school's job to teach these things.
Honestly I can't think of a single life skill I learned by graduating HS and i grew up in NY NJ MD IL Nothing applicable like a basic finance course, basic course on nutrition. It's no wonder our most lucrative industries have to compete with people from the third world like India routinely. Our education system is HORRIBLE. It doesn't engender any practical or theoretical skills, critical thinking, rhetoric.z
I can't htink of how much better our country would be off we if taught hard or technical skills in high school and put as much emphasis on them as the humanities.
Weird, I had the opportunity to take classes on all of those things in public hs in one of the very states you mention.
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Your parents work hard to allow you to work even harder on your studies. 
It's not bad. It's the best for a nation of this type
