Are we teaching kids the things they really need to know?
So much emphasis lately has been on how the USA is falling behind other nations in math and science knowledge. But this begs the question– Is that important? I would argue it’s not. Here’s why: How many of you still use the calculus you learned in high school? How about Algebra 2? Maybe 1% of us? If you aren’t some sort of engineer, it’s likely you don’t use any math beyond a 9th grade level in your daily lives. Same goes with science–it’s great to know, but useless for the vast majority of careers. Now let me ask you this, how many of you learned how to invest money in high school and avoid credit card debt? Learned how to construct a meal plan to gain or lose weight? How many of you learned about mortgages or renting a property? I’d be willing to bet almost none of you learned these things, yet they are critical life skills that I would argue are vastly more important than math and science. If you need advanced math and science, learn it in college for your major, not at a secondary school level where it’s likely to just collect dust in a corner of your brain you never use.