That all becomes a giant debate that educators have fights with on what is relavent. Many professions don't have a need for econ and finance. I personally love macro econ but hate micro. Not everyone has a need for shop either. I learned my woodworking skills from watching TV and not the small class I had in 7th grade. Now that doesn't mean all of that shouldn't be offered so that the kids can experience them and make an informed choice on what they want to do with their future.

Wow. I can't remember what my scores were but they weren't that high. I still got accepted into the college that I wanted, so all was good. I did enough to graduate and since I wasn't planning on becoming a doctor I didn't pay very much attention to my GPA.

I'm pretty sure I failed obedience training.

Agreed, but that doesn't mean such knowledge is not valuable to being a responsible citizen. On the same note, I'd say some sort of ethics class could go a long way as well.

Very smart approach to life. I think everyone should know the basics of home repair, writing a check, understanding the stock market and cooking/cleaning.

I thank my old boyfriend for teaching me all about auto mechanics. I drive the car repair people nuts since they see a woman and think I'm an easy mark for being ripped off. I surprise them every time. :)

There's photographic evidence of that. ;)

Most professions requiring advanced degrees already have ethics instruction (Bar admission in most states is dependent upon completion of the MPRE - a multi-state ethics exam based upon a model code of ethics for attorneys). I understand the need for ethics instruction in certain professions where the profusion of conflicting rules and demands may make it difficult to determine what is the correct course of action in a highly complicated scenario.

However, for general everyday life, I'm not so sure a class wouldn't just be a waste of time. If a person is already moving through his day-to-day life in an unethical manner, I doubt a class would have much of an impact.

I went to a public school system with the name Princeton in it. Extremely competitive academically back then. Real crap in sports. It was troubled kids that went to the private school instead of the smart ones.

It's high-stakes gambling. No one truly understands it. Countless Ph.D. theses and billions of $$$ (merely in research funding to study it) have been expended on conflicting theories of how it works. I don't put anything in the stock market that I can't afford to walk away from.

Even people who have taken ethics classes and tests are often unethical. (Time to go check if former CEO of a firm I use to work for has been sentenced yet, nope, must be flipping on a lot of people)

Valid point. But, what about the students that grew up in dysfunctional families that were never taught the basics of making ethical decisions? Perhaps they could benefit from a class like this. You're right though, it may be a waste of time for some.

Yes. There are bad seeds everywhere, in all walks of life.

My personal opinion (and that's all it is), is that if a person has the desire for self-betterment, he will seek out the means to achieve that desire.

My wife is a high school math teacher and I am amazed at some of the stories I hear when she gets home.

Students that tell her they do not have to do work because they do not want to. But even better are the ones who have learned to game the "special needs" system or the ones who cling to mom and dad and rely on them to bail them out of their failing grades.

There are a lot of issues with the education system, from standardized testing, to teachers only teaching the tests, to teachers being pigeonholed because they have to have a certain passing rates.

I think failure is the most important lesson that can come high school. The most common thing that my wife brings up is the fact that certain students do not know the material yet she is expected to "work" with them to get them to the next grade, even though they will not succeed (or will struggle). Sometimes kids need to be held back to retake a subject.

We should be providing opportunity, not handing out success.


P.S. - I am a micro economics person, macro was interesting but I focused more on the micro stuff. I loved managerial economics and the regression analysis math.

I think it can be mixed in with exiting classes such as social sciences / history or what every name they call that stuff now.