Hi,
I’m still in High School and already I can see some things I’d have liked to have seen being taught;

• Financial Literacy;
• Life is played as a team-sport;
• Life is not over if you do not get a UAI of 99.95

It’s not as important that students have ‘Property Investing Basics 101’ thrust upon them as it’s not for everyone, but what i believe should have been more of a key focus in younger years (Years 7- is the basics of accounting, and accountability for our spending habits (I am talking here about this nation’s Credit Card binging) – The point was raised in ‘From 0 to 100 Properties in 3.5 Years‘:
“For the first time since figures were recorded, in March 2003 the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that household spending had outstripped household incomes“ (p18)

In saying that ‘Life is played as a team-sport’, my point is that although the attitude of individual students is to be better than those around them (promoted by the way that the New South Wales HSC is organised) and there’s nothing wrong with some healthy competition, I’ve seen in the common room of a lunchtime all too often some students getting picked on for being seen by others as inadequate (whether it’s for academic, sporting, social reasons etc).
Hell yeah this is bullying, and sometimes school just promotes nasty behaviour and/or selfishness (maybe this is enhanced by going to a private school, but i doubt it when i’ve been to 5 different schools both public and private). I think i should have renamed that dot-point to ‘Understanding + Tolerance’.

I think the third point is pretty self-explanatory as we’ve already seen some examples in this thread from blondie_bec.

Mysta:

I’d say that’s because school is mainly there as a means of streamlining youngsters all over the country to be similar in abilities (at least in the primary years before electives come into the equation) so they can be shaped into good employees in the future. It’s then no wonder we have people coming out of these institutions thinking only of employment?

geo – I am 17 years old and read ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad‘ when i was about 9 or 10 and fell in love with the ideas of big business and investing, dedicating a lot of my time to it ever since. If you could cram everything there is to know about investing into a course for school, my hat goes off to you cause I have a feeling I’ll be learning more and more for the rest of my natural life.

Lastly, a friend approached me in tears as he was worried about his own future. All I could say was ‘Mate, it’s not the mark you get at the end of the day but the person you become’ – I only hope this was good advice?

Apologies for the mini-essay (and to think i am meant to be on school holidays [hmm]), I figured with this being my first post I’d let you see what I was about as well.

– Matt