I had a bit of an epiphany this last year and I have been on a bit of a soapbox about it since.

Why, Oh Why are we insisting our kids study higher math?

I spent several years learning what is considered higher math during my school career: algebra, geometry, trig. I got as far as pre-calculus before I decided I had hit my limit.

What did I get out of my study of higher math?

I received the knowledge that I could do higher math   ~ with a fair amount of work.

That’s really about it. I do not use it in my daily (or yearly) life.  I do occasionally calculate percentages.  But isn’t that covered in pre-algebra??

However, what I would have really benefited from was a personal finance course whether it be personal, business, or consumer.  That is the kind of math that affects me on a daily basis. I have had to learn on my own how taxes, interest, and amortization works. I have struggled to make a working budget and how to effectively make wise financial choices.  When I was in school, personal or consumer math had a stigma to it.  “Consumer math” was for the “losers;” the kids who were just barely going to graduate anyway. In retrospect, I find this is unfortunate. I would have enjoyed and benefited from a course like that.

I venture to speculate that emphasizing higher math instead of personal finance courses might actually contribute to a rising generation and nation who have more debt than they can handle.  Many do not understand the true purchase amount of a new car or mortgage.  They do not understand how to budget and save.  They do not know what it actually takes to run a business.  They often do not take personal responsibility for their finances and look to others or even government to take care of them and the messes they have gotten themselves into.

We began encouraging higher math for all students to teach logic.  We continue to encourage higher math because we have decided that everyone needs a college degree. I’m not so sure about that one either – but that is a different soapbox.   I am certainly not saying we should not offer calculus and statistics. But I do think it would be better to emphasize personal, consumer, or business math.  If the main reason we started teaching higher math was to teach logic, perhaps we should teach logic in order to teach logic.

So if I had my way, This would be my recommendation:

1. Encourage math courses for everyone through algebra and perhaps a little geometry.
2. Then require a personal finance course (or consumer or business math).  Algebra and geometry often appeal to different of students. (I did better in Algebra; my husband did much better in Geometry.)  By then, most students know whether or not they would want to continue with the higher math courses.
3. At that point, a choice can be made: To either go on to higher math courses (those going into sciences and those who just, plain love it) or a course in logic.  I found a fun one here.

I maintain that if personal/business is emphasized, our society will be better off.