Janie B. Cheaney: The problem with math

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, May 31st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up nexT: an elite high school in New York City now offers a new kind of math class–personal finance. Here’s World commentator Janie B. Cheaney on the lifelong benefits of teaching practical skills.

JANIE B. CHEANEY, COMMENTATOR: I recall that my high school, years ago, offered a course called “Consumer Math.” It was widely understood as the class that satisfied your graduation requirements for math if you were too dumb to go to college—the smart kids took algebra. The really smart kids took calculus. I barely passed geometry and was relieved to round out my math credits with only one semester of Algebra II. But long after graduation, and dropping out of college, I’ve had reason to regret skipping that practical, checkbook-balancing, back-of-the-envelope course in everyday arithmetic. Particularly when it comes to money. My husband took care of household finances for almost 50 years, and I was glad of it, but when that responsibility came down to me, I was looking at a pretty steep learning curve.

Stuyvesant High School, a historic STEM magnet school in Manhattan, is known for its academically elite student body. Students pass an entrance exam to get in, and once in they’re expected to take a course load that includes advanced science and math courses, including astronomy, molecular biology, and differential equations. But lately one popular class at Stuyvesant has been on “personal finance,” taught by David Peng.

Peng, who also teaches geometry, was prompted to create the finance class by an editorial in the school newspaper, titled “Calculus before Checkbooks?” The editorial asked why Stuyvesant offered such a loaded menu of higher math and enrichment courses—like ceramics and drafting—but budgeting, home mortgages, and the complexities of applying for a student loan were addressed only as a sideline in courses that no one was required to take. Shouldn’t everybody know something about how to manage their own money?

That struck a chord with Peng, who put together his personal finance course for the fall 2021 semester. From the beginning, overflow students volunteered to come in and sit on the floor, even if they received no credit for the class. A school-wide survey revealed that 89 percent of the student body didn’t know how to apply for a college loan—this, in a school where approximately 25 percent of its graduates are accepted at Ivy League institutions.

I’m guessing that in the future, less than half of Stuyvesant’s academically accelerated students will put their trig skills to use, but almost all of them will have to manage a bank account, take out a loan, establish credit, and learn to live within their means—or not. A few of this year’s graduating seniors may break new ground in technology or medicine or astrophysics. But many more of them will produce families and manage households that form societies. Since the 1950s the American education system seems bent toward producing geniuses. But it’s stable societies, not Advanced Placement tests, that allow genius to flourish, and one pillar of a stable society is widespread practical knowledge. Personal finance classes shouldn’t just be offered at all high schools—they should be required. Why aren’t they?

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

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