You know what I’m talking about. “Why on earth are you making us do this? This is not going to be any use to me when I get out of this place - so why are we bothering with it?”
Which, a lot of the time, was probably youthful arrogance as much as anything. Although, the old trigonometry doesn’t get used much these days. Not a lot of polygon action, either.
But, there were times, when I thought I knew it all and was very confident that I knew exactly what I should be studying at school - and what I shouldn’t.
And, as it turns out, I had no idea really. Which is why I think Labour has come up with a real winner with this idea of making financial literacy compulsory in all schools, from Year 1 to Year 13.
Which, when it comes down to it, is about teaching kids the kinds of things most of us didn’t get taught when we were at school.
Although, if you’re at the younger end of things, you might have got a little bit of it. And, if you’ve got kids at school yourself, they might be getting a little bit of financial stuff here and there.
But what Labour wants to do, is to make it compulsory. And I think it’s a brilliant idea.
Although, if I’m totally honest - if you were like I was when I was at school - we probably would’ve thought financial literacy was boring and a waste of time back in the day too.
Because, when you’re 13, 14, 15, you generally don’t give two hoots about what happens if you don’t pay your bills on time, do you? Boring! Boring! You can’t even imagine buying a house.
Back in my day, we were all going to be rich rock stars when we left school. Today, everyone’s going to be a social media influencer and they’re going to be rolling in it.
I didn’t become a rock star. Just like most of the kids today aren’t going to be the next Kim Kardashian.
So these compulsory financial literacy lessons are going to be very useful. Some might even go as far as saying they’ll be a lot more useful than some of the other stuff kids are being taught in school at the moment.
If you were watching the TV news last night, you would’ve seen them do the usual vox pop in the streets, asking people what they thought about Labour’s financial literacy policy. And they sent the camera out to Cashel Mall, in Christchurch, to get the word on the street.
Everyone they spoke to - except one school-age kid - thought it was a great idea. The school kid they spoke to thought it was a bad idea because she’d done a little bit of financial stuff at school already and she thought it was boring.
Which it is. But bad financial decisions are even more boring, aren’t they? The “she’ll be right” attitude about saving for retirement gets pretty boring too when you retire, or get close to retirement, and find you’ve got nothing to go on. Not having enough money, week-to-week - pretty boring.
Not that compulsory lessons in how to handle money is going to be the golden ticket to setting everyone up for a comfortable life.
But it’s a darn sight better than the haphazard approach we have now. And it’s a truckload better than, back in my day - maybe back in your day too - when none of this stuff was talked about at school. If only it had.
John MacDonald is the Canterbury Mornings host on Newstalk ZB Christchurch. This article was first published HERE
And, as it turns out, I had no idea really. Which is why I think Labour has come up with a real winner with this idea of making financial literacy compulsory in all schools, from Year 1 to Year 13.
Which, when it comes down to it, is about teaching kids the kinds of things most of us didn’t get taught when we were at school.
Although, if you’re at the younger end of things, you might have got a little bit of it. And, if you’ve got kids at school yourself, they might be getting a little bit of financial stuff here and there.
But what Labour wants to do, is to make it compulsory. And I think it’s a brilliant idea.
Although, if I’m totally honest - if you were like I was when I was at school - we probably would’ve thought financial literacy was boring and a waste of time back in the day too.
Because, when you’re 13, 14, 15, you generally don’t give two hoots about what happens if you don’t pay your bills on time, do you? Boring! Boring! You can’t even imagine buying a house.
Back in my day, we were all going to be rich rock stars when we left school. Today, everyone’s going to be a social media influencer and they’re going to be rolling in it.
I didn’t become a rock star. Just like most of the kids today aren’t going to be the next Kim Kardashian.
So these compulsory financial literacy lessons are going to be very useful. Some might even go as far as saying they’ll be a lot more useful than some of the other stuff kids are being taught in school at the moment.
If you were watching the TV news last night, you would’ve seen them do the usual vox pop in the streets, asking people what they thought about Labour’s financial literacy policy. And they sent the camera out to Cashel Mall, in Christchurch, to get the word on the street.
Everyone they spoke to - except one school-age kid - thought it was a great idea. The school kid they spoke to thought it was a bad idea because she’d done a little bit of financial stuff at school already and she thought it was boring.
Which it is. But bad financial decisions are even more boring, aren’t they? The “she’ll be right” attitude about saving for retirement gets pretty boring too when you retire, or get close to retirement, and find you’ve got nothing to go on. Not having enough money, week-to-week - pretty boring.
Not that compulsory lessons in how to handle money is going to be the golden ticket to setting everyone up for a comfortable life.
But it’s a darn sight better than the haphazard approach we have now. And it’s a truckload better than, back in my day - maybe back in your day too - when none of this stuff was talked about at school. If only it had.
John MacDonald is the Canterbury Mornings host on Newstalk ZB Christchurch. This article was first published HERE
4 comments:
Apparently compound interest works like this. You take a chess board with 64 squares and put one grain of sand on the first square. Then double the sand on each square until the board is covered. The sand on the last square would make a pile as big as the Cheops pyramid of Egypt! Now replace the sand with cents or dollars, remembering that you may have many years to add the doubled amount.
MC
Yet those that need it most will struggle with the big words and all the numbers involved.
I recall a coordinat geometry lecturer stating that the only purpose was that maybe .1% will go on to teach the same...
John is wrong on one aspect maori /pacifika boys are not iterested in school because they are going to be overpaid rugby players, or gang members, or career unemployed.
I am not sure fiancial literacy wil be helpful. Teaching German inflation of the 1920s, WW2, Venezuala, Argentina and a myriad others, here WW2 and 1970s to date, the share crashes of 1929, 1987, and other reversals including recent, the American debt, NZ debt, the huge after tax depreciation of savings, progressive tax rates, Wealth, Capital gains and Estate taxes etc will produce just a few distinct classes of citizens
1) those intent on career unemployment in a state house
2) property acquirers
3) chronic spendthrifts
Only the latter are desirable as their ardent consumerism creates employment, essential, despite effect on the environment, to keep most occupied and out of mischief, and to sustain the factories which just might enable us to counter conquerors.
But who's going to teach the financially illiterate teachers?
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