To think we should teach kids about mortgages and pensions instead of making them do Maths till 18?

[malificent7]

Never have i had to work out the area of a triangle since school so why isn't Sunak proposing we teach kids proper life skills instead? My dad never taught me and would have been better placed lecturing me on mortgages than harping on about pythagoras ( again...never used).

This

Getting pupils life ready and work ready is far more important than who snogged Bottom.

It’s such a bleak outlook, that. Probably sound advice but God, look at the society we’ve created if that’s what advice kids need.

I teach Y3 and we teach the rudiments of interest, savings, loans etc. we also have some sessions with a bank teaching the children about money.

God forbid parents should teach their crotch goblins anything!

Economics for GCSE covers a lot of the basics but maybe many schools don’t offer it anymore

it was a great course

By that token, why should your partner teach them pythagoras or solving simultaneous equations which are used by a lot fewer people in adult life than mortgages etc?

@Fairislefandango

"Kids always say they want to learn 'relevant' stuff. What they usually mean is fun stuff. Mortgages and taxes aren't fun."

I don't really think pi, sohcahtoa etc are particularly "fun" either, but kids have to learn about them, even though the majority will never use them after leaving school.

If someone was good at maths then they'd they naturally figure out mortgages and pensions?? YABU school is about learning how to learn (problem solving etc), not necessarily about the specific topic anyway

Because before people used to learn life skills from parents, but now many parents want teachers to teach this too

We had a subject that was something accounting ( can’t remember actual name) that was pretty much just personal finance life skills. All things banking and bills. It was pretty good if I recall correctly.

It was on the news today that more and more children are starting school that cannot go to the toilet or feed themselves.
These things are a parents responsibility along with teaching your child about mortgages, pensions and life skills.
We seem to be talking less and less responsibility for our children and just expecting someone else to do everything for us.

But you do learn this ... it's maths, and covered in basic accounting and economics when I was about 13 ... maybe you weren't paying attention in class OP. School teaches you the foundations so you can apply in life, never thought I'd use algebra but even that can come in handy and need ro figure out the value of "x" who would've thought!

I really can't stand this attitude and agree with many PPs.

1. It is a parent's job to teach life skills. We do not point at nurseries and say that they are responsible for toilet training or weaning, so why does that stop as children get older? Whether it's cooking, finance, laundry etc. it is not a school's role to parent children.

1. Education is supposed to be about more than what parents can teach you. It's meant to be broad and there should be intrinsic enjoyment in the acquisition of knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Who cares if you've never worked out the area of a triangle since school? It's just supposed to be interesting and broaden your mind to the intellectual capabilities of mankind. Maths has a beauty and it's a shame to reduce it down to "what do i need to get by in life?".

Sick of hearing what schools should and shouldn't teach!!

Teachers should stick to the maths English history etc snd provide a safe learning environment THATS IT!!!

All else is the responsibility of the parents.

@Daniella36 Someone I know well and respect as a person once said to me that the most valuable skills you can teach as a parent are reading, writing and arithmetic (not maths), swimming and driving. With those skills you are safe to operate as an adult, have something to offer an employer, and the basis to build up. I would add cooking skills to that list.

Plus the understanding of an alarm clock!

Maths teaches the skills required to understand finances and financial products. Granted not complex algebra or trigonometry but having good understanding of numbers, calculations and how to read and interpret data is very useful in lots of situations.

Absolutely this. Maths gives you the skill to say, hang on, that can't be right, those numbers don't make sense. Which is useful when somebody tries to sell you a financial product, or tries to convince you that an endowment mortgage, referenced by a PP, is a fantastic idea, or tells you that you can never lose if you buy cryptocurrency, or attempts to convince you that a MLM scheme is a good idea, or quotes margin rather than mark up to make their profit look lower, or tries to charge you for the same thing twice (useful when managing large contracts in professional life). Or asks you to make a stage model of Stonehenge (one for the Spinal Tap fans).

It's the confidence to challenge other people's presentation of numbers and statistics. You're less vulnerable to being swizzed, or misled by bad science.

This 💯

This is such a dumb response. Maybe because those people will then go on to be engineers etc. If we only teach the basics and what 'most' people use on average, we'd have no doctors, scientists, chemists, plumbers etc. The world would come to a halt pretty soon!

Exactly, even my 8 year old nephew can work this out! He knows if he wants to buy x toy, he'll need to save £x to get it!

Goodness me, yes. Nothing can put you off of English literature more than sitting in English Literature classes. Shakespeare intended his plays to be watched and enjoyed live, not for pupils to spend hours hunched over a highlighter pen.

They do learn about types of interest for GCSE’s.

Absolutely, DD15 helps me with the house budget every 6 months now, she is very aware now how much daily life costs.

Basic budgeting, mortgages, pensions..... Needs to be in education.

I work with young people, mostly disadvantaged and the whole concept of mortgages and pensions will be irrelevant as it is to their parents. Not because they are feckless, but when you cannot afford to heat your house or pay to feed your family- for many reasons which are mostly down to the lottery of their birth, upbringing and subsequent life chances-teaching about pensions and mortgages just seems irrelevant.

Every single school I work with are very proactive in trying to give these young people the best they can outside the expectations of the curriculum. Helping with uniform, school meals, transport to school, nurture and alternative time tables. During covid they were amazing in visiting and undertaking welfare checks, providing food parcels, working with us (child protection social workers) to get laptops out, provide in school provision for the most vulnerable- work on paper for those who may struggle online etc. Waving after school club fees/ breakfast club. The list is endless.

It seems to be the answer for everything is the school can do it. As previously pointed out, for many young people, this should be something parents are doing. For the most vulnerable, schools are a very safe place. The real issue is that all other services for them and their families no longer exist because they have not been funded for the last 13 years.