Schools around the world teach students the same curriculum: Mathematics, Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science. Students learn these things because teachers believe that those subjects are essential for their everyday lives once they get older. However, many students claim that schools need to teach kids about taxes, owning property, and managing money, which raises the question: Are schools teaching students the right things?

When you think about it, when are you ever going to need to know about Ancient Mesopotamia, or how to find the area of a rectangular prism? Students believe that we need to be taught how to manage and pay our taxes, as well as how to purchase our first car and house, and that schools are robbing us of that learning experience. In our everyday lives, we would need to pay our bills instead of reading a short story, and kids believe they are wasting their time going to school. 

To figure out this question, we asked a student and a teacher what they thought about the curriculum. Sophomore Ethan Mariluz said, “I don’t think they are teaching students everything; most of the core classes we take are stuff we only need now.” Ethan is on the side of the argument that schools need to teach students different things compared to what they are teaching now. He didn’t say what they needed to fix, but we got the message. 

On the other hand, teachers believe that there is nothing wrong with the curriculum. They claim that everything we learn in school will affect us in real life when we get older. Mathematics is necessary for jobs such as construction work and accounting, while science is useful for doctors and scientists. Other subjects can help students who want to be teachers. 

We asked the Geometry Teacher, Mrs. Teresa Sutton, the same question, and she said, “Excellent classes are being offered, but… I would like to see a course offered that teaches skills that can be used to earn money with. Entrepreneurial and Finance Skills and Technical Skills.” Mrs. Sutton seems to be more on the side of schools needing more subjects for kids to learn. She is fine with everything the school has now, but made a few suggestions as to what the school can do to improve. 

Personally, I think that what school is teaching is fine, but it definitely needs more stuff added to it. A lot of things that we are being taught now are going to be very useful in the future, and a lot of you guys are going to regret not paying attention down the line. However, a class based purely on paying taxes and buying properties should be mandatory. Sure, most schools have the Financial Literacy class, like Coral Glades, but that class doesn’t teach us everything we need to know about finances. 

There is a very good argument as to why schools are not teaching us the right thing, but it is not like it’s a huge waste of time. Only some classes tend to be useless. What do you think, are schools teaching students everything we need to know, or are they missing a few key elements?