The goal of schools is not to prepare you for capitalism. Luckily, they’re one of the few institutions that are still concerned with human values beyond money.

You could argue it would be valuable, from a practical sense, to additionally offer classes on personal finance, sure, but it’s abhorrent to use music lessons as a mocking point or suggest that somehow the school should teach finance instead of all other subject matters.

What’s wrong with teaching music in school? I never got on with it, but some of my classmates genuinely loved it. And now that we’re adults they aren’t professional musicians by any stretch of the imagination, but they still enjoy playing just for the fun of it or as a hobby.

Few people I know do financial literacy as a hobby, no judgement though if that’s what helps you unwind after a day at the office.

This is stupid.

In school they had us practice recorder in ghe 4th grade, ages 9/10. I took accounting in highschool, ages 16/17.

We did both. Not only did we do both, these two lessons were taught at very different stages of education.

The recorder is not what was stopping them from teaching your finance.

Yeah let’s teach 4th graders that read at a 2nd grade level and struggle with multiplication economics, this seems rationale

“Financial literacy” is victim blaming. Our economic system doesn’t need to be this complicated. You’re forced to invest or else your savings are destroyed by inflation. But these investments all involve trusting various institutions, and you have no way of knowing which ones are safe. Oh and don’t put it all in one place; you need to find multiple solutions. By the time you’re old or disabled, it’s your fault you’re in this mess.

Our economy is essentially forcing the public at gunpoint to make a prediction about topics they know nothing about. It’s a design not for the humans who exist, but for perfectly informed spheres.

Teaching finance is important, but being exposed to arts or different subjects like trade can be beneficial. A well rounded education to maybe spark an interest. Just think we had a whole world of accountants.

I remember how in 6th grade my (i assume) well meaning teacher decided to have a theme week where we were to pair up, boy and girl and pretend to be a couple and figure out budgeting, finding rent prices for apartments and what kinds of jobs we could have.

That was the week I unlocked existential anxiety that never went away lol. Didn’t help that every adult in my life told me to not worry about it and that it would take many years before budgeting like an adult would be relevant for me.

There also weren’t any further classes about this type of stuff so I just walked around from age 12 and onward panicking about how I would fail at life because I was bad at math.

Weirdly enough I still remember that the boy I was paired up with insisted we should have a cat and that we should call it Møffe. I remember that our budget was very bad and full of holes and our teacher would come over from time to time. “What about the electric bill? What about the water and heating bill? Remember taxes.” Every time she would remind us of something we had overlooked or missed, it felt like my nervous system was being electrocuted.

Pretty hardcore to just throw this type of assignment at 12 year olds with no warning and then never speak of it again.

As an adult I am terrified of spending money on anything that isn’t food or bills. My boyfriend constantly has to remind me that we are financially safe because I feel like we could end up on the streets any moment. It’s not all a result of that one workshop, but it planted the seeds for that anxiety to grow and blossom into what it is today.

I think a budgeting workshop would be a great idea for older kids who are approaching adulthood and are more ready for it. But holy shit, don’t do that to actual children who can’t even grasp the concept of taxes and rent money yet.

Now they don’t do either.

I learned this in like the third grade. I don’t think a third grader can be taught financial literacy.

But the fact that I didn’t learn anything about loans or credit scores in high school is bad, yes.

Why not both?

Shit, that’s even a Yamaha. They make a pretty decent entry level recorder.

Maybe they tried. It’s not like you remember how to play this thing perfectly either.

Just an observation from a mathematician: I’ve never heard this comment from someone who was competent in high school maths. Whenever I mention that I’m a mathematician and someone responds how they “never got on” with maths, usually the next thing to leave their mouth is some gripe about financial literacy.

I do wonder how many people got their first spark in making music through these recorder classes. I figured that’d be the main purpose, introduce kids to a form of art they might later develop a passion for, which would make it pretty much ineffective as I believe most people passionate about music didn’t catch if from recorders.

But apparently, it’s to teach kids how to read music which makes a lot more sense now that I think about it but still feels like something some English guy decided was part of a well-rounded education and nobody’s bothered to question it since.

I’m not saying that reading music isn’t important or anything just that it’s use is probably much more limited to professional spaces since the advent of recording devices, music notation is still pretty kick-ass though and I see why someone would still want it as part of the curriculum.

Personally, I think it’d be really fun if music classes could use apps like GarageBand or something- that way you could use whichever instrument you prefer and also play around with things like pitch and stuff so it’d have this sense of exploration. But, even aside from cost concerns there’s already issues with how digitized educations so I’m not sure taking away analog instruments is really the best idea