First and foremost we have to educate our kids with the things they should know and not be wasting time and brain cells on a bunch of social programs and other meaningless bull$hit.
A high school diploma should actually mean something instead of being a participation trophy issued to kids that sat there bored to tears being held back by the slower kids. The whole process is a mind destroying bad joke. The education worthless.
When I graduated high school 55 years ago I had not even been taught how to write a check or balance a checking account. Although it really wasn't too hard to figure out, the fact is that I was taught nothing of personal finances.
Like most of my generation I had to figure it out on my own as I went along. Still, to my advantage I could read and count which is something a large number of high school graduates can't do. It helped immensely. Nowadays a lot of HS grads can't even read or count.
Hand a high school aged clerk a 10 spot and a quarter for a $9.25 purchase and about half the time the kid will slide your quarter back, out the 10 in the register and hand you back 3 quarters instead of simply putting the whole $10.25 in the register and handing you back a buck.
Like most of my generation we figured that Social Security would be our retirement but I was smart enough to realize it would not really be enough and took advantage of company offered 401K plans. Some didn't, not realizing what would happen to them down the road. Sucks to be them.
I hit the lottery because I had an engineer at work that sat down with me and gave me at least some idea of how to manage things. Lord know, I didn't learn at school.
Chinese schoolkids reportedly finish third grade about even with American 8th grade students. We are in 40th place worldwide for education. Prior to the creation of Department of Education we were in first place.
Until we teach our youngsters about finance and give them other life skills there's no way in hell we will be able to privatize Social Security. To do otherwise would be just plain wrong.
One can write a book about all of the failings of the American education system, and it would be as thick as a Bible. But to hold up the Chinese as an example of 'doing it right?' No.
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese have not made a meaningful contribution to the world since Gunpowder. They steal ideas from others, and make cheap knock offs for export. With their coming demographic collapse, the sun is setting on the PRoC.
Maybe China was a poor example but the American system has dropped considerably since 1978. We are #1 in ONLY amount spent per student.
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