EDIT: A lot of you are reading into the tweet while still somehow agreeing with the overall message. No one is saying we should eliminate music programs or that we should teach toddlers about healthcare plans. The tweet is making this thing called a --checks notes-- joke, that also conveys the message that schools could teach more practical skills that young adults will need going forward.
Kids should learn about taxes and other important life lessons. However musical studies help kids a lot. It improves memory, hand eye coordination, increases grey matter in their brains, improves fine motor skills…all sorts of benefits come from learning a musical instrument. Plus once they can actually play you’ll have a live in classical jukebox.
Okay but does the music have to be from a recorder? The sound makes me bleed from the eyes.
The Recorder in general isn’t a bad instrument, though. If you hear a flute from the Baroque period, it’s most likely the Recorder. It requires sophisticated technique, but since it’s cheap to make, teachers use it as a teaching method without even knowing that they use the tongue to stop their breath, or that air pressure varies depending on the pitch being made. Also, there are many types of Recorders. What the children use are Soprano recorders, which have a high pitch (duh).
Have you heard hot cross buns? The tune has three notes, everyone plays the melody because that’s all their is, and it’s like 8 measures long. Maybe even 4 and we just played it slow, I don’t remember. It’s the beginner song. Elementary school kids can handle it, especially since we had to sing and dance every year up until then (also simple stuff for kids).
Kids learn to read, to write and to do basic math. Congrats, you can now do taxes and choose a health plan. Most specific tasks people complain about are just the application of other more general skills school aims to teach… And the people who make these complaints are usually the same ones who would fuck around in class and not listen even if they got the classes they “wish for”.
Music is also important, but your first sentence is bogus.
Thank you. Every time “why don’t they teach taxes in school?” comes up I want to pull my hair out. All most people have to do is copy about 10 numbers from their w2 into 10 boxes on their 1040ez, do elementary school math, and sign. That’s it. If you attended 2nd grade you learned all of this.
Ah yes, my school health class taught me about nutrition. So I should be able to go home and cook a healthy meal no problemo. Right? Riiiiiiight???
Taking the general lesson to the specific application can take training. Not everyone will understand taxes just by reading. Look at how many adults now a days don’t understand tax brackets as a good example. Tax brackets are something that is fairly simple to explain and yet we have a good portion of adults who don’t understand them and will insist they get less money while getting a raise.
My first sentence isn’t bogus, you just happened to understand the general lessons and apply them to the specific application. Other people find that challenging.
Are you from the US? Because our tax forms are needlessly complicated thanks to lobbyists. It’s not just basic math…by design. And since getting rid of the lobbyists is out of the school’s control, there SHOULD be education. No need to learn how to do it yourself, just pay for TurboTax to make it easy!
There should be more education for our financial system in general. But that would take money from the middlemen and we can’t have that here apparently
Yes I’m from the US and yes it IS easy for most people who can file a 1040 EZ. IF you have to file long form it is marginally more complicated I will grant you, but it’s still read and follow directions. There is still micro economics on the menu if you want more of the finer points of personal finance BUT that is an aside and you still don’t need a PhD to fill out a tax form.
It would of course be great if the government just eliminated or greatly reduced the tax filing process like other countries which as you say is the result of lobbying. HOWEVER. The education that is needed is not “how do I fill out my tax form”, but instead “how do lobbies and special interest groups ruin my life as a result of unfettered capitalism, and how can I help fix that problem”.
