A rant I agree with...

[drewtam]

Oleg's blog links to this other blog...
http://calltowings.blogspot.com/2010/10/ohgod-whos-flying-this-thing-oh-right.html

In which the author goes on a rant about school education being very good at gym class; but awful at the important stuff (civics and economics).

Its something I completely agree with. Illinois even has required standardized Constitution tests to graduate. But I distinctly recall my teacher explaining the 2nd A as something to do with hunting!! 

Economics is not even taught in high school. I don't mean that facetiously. I mean literally, economics was not offered.

[MechAg94]

I don't remember economics being a high school level course ever.  Were your schools different?

I figured they were doing good to focus on reading, writing, arithmetic, basic science, and civics. 

[sanglant]

home economics was a high school class for decades some of us think a version should be required to graduate. think budgeting,(time and money) balancing a checking account, how credit cards work, and how a loan works(fixed vs variable rates as well) ect. not cooking, sewing, and ironing.

[lee n. field]

economics was not offered.

Consumer Ed.

Oleg's blog links to this other blog...
http://calltowings.blogspot.com/2010/10/ohgod-whos-flying-this-thing-oh-right.html

Yup, saw that.

More later.  Time to go get my quote of exercise.

[Boomhauer]

I don't remember economics being a high school level course ever.  Were your schools different?

I figured they were doing good to focus on reading, writing, arithmetic, basic science, and civics. 

They combined it with government at my school: American Government and Economics. If there were ever two subjects that could not be covered with a single class on their own, then combining them was a great idea     That way neither gets a fraction of the attention both subject deserve.

[Tuco]

Macro and micro, 1 semester each, open to 11&12th graders.
This was, of course, 30 years ago.

[Perd Hapley]

home economics was a high school class for decades some of us think a version should be required to graduate. think budgeting,(time and money) balancing a checking account, how credit cards work, and how a loan works(fixed vs variable rates as well) ect. not cooking, sewing, and ironing.

As far as I know, Home Ec was never anything but cooking and sewing and the like.

[drewtam]

My HS also had "Home Econ" ~late 90's. It was a remedial math class for the lazy. It covered no personal finance.

[Bob F.]

Go into any store where there's teens or young adults working. After they total your sale, say $17.27, hand 'em a $20. Wait tll they enter it and had 'em .35. Most of our high school graduates can't make change, much less balance a checkbook!!!!!!!

Stay safe.
Bob

[Boomhauer]

Go into any store where there's teens or young adults working. After they total your sale, say $17.27, hand 'em a $20. Wait tll they enter it and had 'em .35. Most of our high school graduates can't make change, much less balance a checkbook!!!!!!!

Stay safe.
Bob

I have people that try that crap on me. I hand them back the original change from the $20 and their 35 cents in that kind of situation. I have no patience for stupid crap.

[Perd Hapley]

Most of our high school graduates can't make change, much less balance a checkbook!!!!!!!

Somehow, I doubt you know that to be true. Besides, some of us get along just fine without balancing our checkbooks.

[Punctuation Police]And as long as you're criticizing the improperly educated, I'll point out that multiple exclamation points are considered improper. [/Punctuation Police]

[Hawkmoon]

Go into any store where there's teens or young adults working. After they total your sale, say $17.27, hand 'em a $20. Wait tll they enter it and had 'em .35. Most of our high school graduates can't make change, much less balance a checkbook!!!!!!!

Get a total of $17.77. Hand the clerk a twenty dollar bill and two pennies. He/she will stare at the two pennies for eons, obviously wondering why you handed him/her pennies when the twenty is more than the total.

Watch closely as they finally enter the amount tendered and see the change pop up as $2.25. You don't have to be a mind reader to know they're thinking, "How did he DO that?"

[Perd Hapley]

Get a total of $17.77. Hand the clerk a twenty dollar bill and two pennies. He/she will stare at the two pennies for eons, obviously wondering why you handed him/her pennies when the twenty is more than the total.

Watch closely as they finally enter the amount tendered and see the change pop up as $2.25. You don't have to be a mind reader to know they're thinking, "How did he DO that?"

Which only means you got the new guy. After a few days/weeks, he'll have had fifty customers just like you.

And aren't there at least two factors to account for the alleged idiocy of cashiers, before we start blaming the schools?

1) them fancy registers what do your thinking for ya
2) plastic money what cuts down on the amount of change-handling on the job

I have people that try that crap on me. I hand them back the original change from the $20 and their 35 cents in that kind of situation. I have no patience for stupid crap.

So you think your job is to handle the cash correctly, rather than submit to random arithmetic tests from customers?

[Boomhauer]

So you think your job is to handle the cash correctly, rather than submit to random arithmetic tests from customers?

Damn right. Said customers aren't going to be there at the end of the day when I figure up the financial closeout, nor are the going to be there when I have to explain a shortage to the boss.

[Scout26]

I think the blog post should be nailed to every schoolhouse door, ala Martin Luther.

[Marnoot]

Macro and micro, 1 semester each, open to 11&12th graders.
This was, of course, 30 years ago.

Ditto, 12 years ago.

The mentioned change-handling skills aren't important to me. It's frankly more and more an obsolete skill with credit/debit cards increasingly replacing cash transactions.

Whether they understand the math behind it may be another matter, but more likely is that they just don't care. I know back when I was a teen making minimum wage I certainly didn't endeavor to fully engage my mental faculties on the job as it was just too boring to keep my brain engaged. If you handed me an odd amount to get even change I'd have understood what you were doing, and could have done the math in my head had I wanted to, but I'd have let the register do the math for me.

[Scout26]

My High Screwl Accelarated History & US Government teacher wrote in my 1983 Senior yearbook:

"In thirty years when you are in the White House, I expect a job."

I loved US Government and History Classes.. 

Still do, mostly for the same reasons..