The mantra of every high schooler in a class they dislike: "... I'm never going to need this!"
Yet, as a teacher, I could very rarely give a convincing rebuttal. Do I know what the subjunctive mood is? Yes. Subordinate conjunction? Yes. Do I use them as well as I need to, and were I ever to be asked by a stranger to give an example, I could (in fact, that last sentence illustrates both).
It makes me want to teach things that matter. Most of what we teach does matter, if nothing else as an exercise in how to get oneself to understand concepts without 'feeling like it.'
But why not the stuff that you need to survive as an American?
I wish someone had taught me how to:
- Do my taxes.
- How the current health care system works
- The relationship between taxes and government benefits
- The military-industrial complex
- The effect of fanaticism in religion
I did learn some things that tangentially helped me: Supply and demand, inflation, and other basic economic concepts. I do wonder if that's because of where I went to school, though.
I responded to a post to The Daily Dish with this sentiment here.Labels: health care, high, military, politics, rant, religion, school, taxes |
