America’s economy has been slowly crumbling before our very eyes. The nation has gone from a frivolous society to one of ever increasing frugality in the past decade alone. It has been said numerous times that the current generation of high school and college students may be compared to their predecessors who lived through the Great Depression. The focus on Algebra in high school is beneficial to a meager portion of the student population but, after college it is rarely used on the level in which it is taught. Although mathematics is essential learning material for any pupil, mandatory Consumer Economics classes would better suit graduates of this era by assisting in living in the real world, keeping their finances in order and preventing scholars from drowning in an increasing sea of debt. Consumer economics is widely known now as just another Home Economics class. It is based mostly on the microeconomics within a family unit and the instruction of consumers in areas such as banking and financial planning. Classes like this were once a staple in American education and helped students learn how to manage their finances, live on a budget and balance a checkbook. Increasingly, many public high schools, including the one I graduated from, are cutting out classes like consumer economics on the basis that the math contained therein is not advanced enough and that students should be more on par with other countries who are excelling in math and sciences; Algebra, Calculus, Chemistry and Physics to be more precise. All in all, this sounds like a great idea, however, even while learning advanced mathematics the average student in the U.S.A. has somehow managed to graduate without knowing how to balance a checkbook, still needs hel... ... middle of paper ... ... and “low” APR then even those who are doubtful are probably going to sign up, too. Credit scores can be ruined in a heartbeat, take years to heal and during the Freshman year of college this student is only beginning the road to creditworthiness. It will eventually affect the ability to buy a house, car and in some states employment opportunities. Mathematics is important subject matter for every student in the United States of America. However, with the implication of more advanced mathematics courses and the destruction of consumer directed economics classes there are increasingly less and less students who know how to make it in the jungle known as the “real world.” The ability to learn essential information like balancing a checkbook or creating a budget have been lost and as a result the entire nation is experiencing an ever-growing economic decline.
College is marketed towards students as an essential part of building a successful future. The United States “sells college” to those who are willing to buy into the business (Lee 671). With the massive amounts of student debts acquired every year, and the rising costs of
Jobs, Charles. "Peakonomics: toward a case typology for increasing undergraduate economics literacy and concept retention." Journal of Economics and Economic Education Research 9.1 (2008): 19+.General OneFile. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
The price of a four year institution has soared over three hundred percent in the past twenty-five years or so. We would have to factor in general inflation numbers in order to figure out the real significance. After that, we see that in those twenty-five years, tuition has risen at a rate of two to four times that of the national inflation. That has not been the case with college, however, as enrollments only continue to go up. Ultimately this means that families are paying for a luxury they can no longer afford with money they don’t have. Families are looking at an expense that is thirty-eight
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, college tuition and relevant fees have increased by 893 percent (“College costs and the CPI”). 893 percent is a very daunting percentage considering that it has surpassed the rise in the costs of Medicare, food, and housing. As America is trying to pull out of a recession, many students are looking for higher education so they can attain a gratified job. However, their vision is being stained by the dreadful rise in college costs. College tuition is rising beyond inflation. Such an immense rise in tuition has many serious implications for students; for example, fewer students are attending private colleges, fewer students are staying enrolled in college, and fewer students are working in the fields in which they majored in.
High school seniors need to be taught economic responsibility. Economic responsibility should not only be taught in the schools, but in the home as well. As we have discussed in prior chapters, some of the reason we are in the mess we find ourselves in is due to the overspending not only by individuals, but the government as well. Arthur MacEwan states, “U.S. consumers have a reliance on credit and fail to look beyond the present” (2012, p. 6) As a consumer the high school senior needs to be taught how to look beyond what they see. How are they going to pay for the credit they have taken out, if our country hits another recession and they are left without employment?
The curriculum implies that teachers will teach students the skills they need for the future. Valley View’s High School math department announces, “Students will learn how to use mathematics to analyze and respond to real-world issues and challenges, as they will be expected to do college and the workplace.” Also, the new integrates math class allows students to distinguish the relationship between algebra and geometry. Although students are not being instructed a mathematical issue in depth, they are rapidly going through all the different topics in an integrated math class. Nowadays, students are too worried to pass the course to acquire a problem-solving mind. Paul Lockhart proclaims the entire problem of high school students saying, “I do not see how it's doing society any good to have its members walking around with vague memories of algebraic formulas and geometric diagrams and dear memories of hating them.” A mathematics class should not be intended to make a student weep from complicated equations, but it should encourage them to seek the numbers surrounding
Several students are disheartened when it comes to college due to increasing prices of tuition yearly. Most will agree that we need a further cultivated society, but to accomplish this, we must take in consideration lowering the expenses of college tuition. It is recognized that decreasing college tuition does have various drawbacks. For example, it may cut into funds for items such as classroom equipment, essentials, staff pay, administration, and dormitories (Goodman). Nevertheless, lowering college tuition will encourage more students to attend college, relieve students of the stressful burdens of loans, while also creating a better educated society, which will be beneficial to everyone in the long run.
Mathematics education has undergone many changes over the last several years. Some of these changes include the key concepts all students must master and how they are taught. According to Jacob Vigdor, the concerns about students’ math achievements have always been apparent. A few reasons that are negatively impacting the productivity of students’ math achievements are historical events that influenced mathematics, how math is being taught, and differentiation of curriculum.
The cost of tuition for higher education is quickly rising. Over half of college freshmen show some concern with how to pay for college. This is the highest this number has been since 1971 (Marill and O’Leary 64-66, 93). The amount of college graduate debt has been rapidly increasing also. With limited jobs available because of the high unemployment rate, college graduates find themselves staying in debt even longer. Although grants and financial aid are available to students, students still struggle to pay for their college tuition. Higher education costs are prohibitively expensive because the state’s revenue is low, the unemployment rate is high, and graduates cannot pay off their student loans.
High school students across America are being sent out into the world without the skills they need to succeed. Admittedly, students learn the basic academics to move onto the next level, but the basic skills they need in life are being put aside and forgotten. Today, high achieving seniors go off into the world knowing how to find the definite integral of a function and preform electrophoresis, but they don’t know everyday skills like how to file their taxes. In order to succeed in the real world, high schools need to equip students with the tools for everyday life.
With this promise came serious concerns over education taught students ranked 28th in the United States out of 40 other countries in Mathematics and Sciences. 80% of occupations depend on knowledge of Mathematics and Science (Week and Obama 2009). In order to ensure that educators have enough money to fund the endeavor to be more competitive with the rest of the world in Mathematics and Science, President Obama will increase federal spending in education with an additional 18 billion dollars in k-12 classrooms, guaranteeing educators have the teachers, technology, and professional development to attain highly quali...
O’Dubhslainé, A. 2006. The White Paper On Education: A Failure To Invest. Student Economic Review. 20 p 115
As a secondary subject, society often views mathematics a critical subject for students to learn in order to be successful. Often times, mathematics serves as a gatekeeper for higher learning and certain specific careers. Since the times of Plato, “mathematics was virtually the first thing everyone has to learn…common to all arts, science, and forms of thought” (Stinson, 2004). Plato argued that all students should learn arithmetic; the advanced mathematics was reserved for those that would serve as the “philosopher guardians” of the city (Stinson, 2004). By the 1900s in the United States, mathematics found itself as a cornerstone of curriculum for students. National reports throughout the 20th Century solidified the importance of mathematics in the success of our nation and its students (Stinson, 2004). As a mathematics teacher, my role to educate all students in mathematics is an important one. My personal philosophy of mathematics education – including the optimal learning environment and best practices teaching strategies – motivates my teaching strategies in my personal classroom.
When I graduated from high school, forty years ago, I had no idea that mathematics would play such a large role in my future. Like most people learning mathematics, I continue to learn until it became too hard, which made me lose interest. Failure or near failure is one way to put a stop to learning a subject, and leave a lasting impression not worth repeating. Mathematics courses, being compulsory, are designed to cover topics. One by one, the topics need not be important or of immediate use, but altogether or cumulatively, the topics provide or point to a skill, a mastery of mathematics.
Allowing children to learn mathematics through all facets of development – physical, intellectual, emotional and social - will maximize their exposure to mathematical concepts and problem solving. Additionally, mathematics needs to be integrated into the entire curriculum in a coherent manner that takes into account the relationships and sequences of major mathematical ideas. The curriculum should be developmentally appropriate to the