Math has never been my forte. I did fine with the simple parts of math, like addition, subtraction and those two wily characters, multiplication and division. Then the math gods started to throw in letters and symbols. When that happened the math part of my brain slammed the book shut, packed its bags and left the building.
One of those symbols was %, the percentage. The teacher might as well have been speaking a foreign language at that point. I didn't get it. When I was out of school, I still didn't get it. One day I went to Dad, he was good at math, and asked him to explain percentages to me. I had forgotten that Dad wasn't very patient when it came to explaining things that he figured you should already understand. Like the time he tried to teach me how to play golf. By the time we got to the green closest to the pond, I was ready to hunt frogs and he was good with that. By the time we ended our percentage lesson, he was frustrated and I was in tears. I do understand percentages now, but I was an adult before I had that "Ah ha!" moment.
Give me a magazine full of articles about quantum physics and I will read it cover to cover. Oh I love quantum physics. All those stories about waves and particles absolutely fascinate me and somehow I understand what they are talking about, but don't ask me to explain it because that takes super math. The waves and particles are just bouncing around in my head where the math part left a hole. A quantum physicist I will never be, but it sure makes for a mighty fine sounding title.
Having the basics in math can still be of great importance especially when it comes to the money tree. I tried to plant one once, it didn't produce a darn thing so what I had heard all those years was true....Money doesn't grow on trees.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a quantum physicist to understand that if more money is spent than the amount of money coming in, eventually, that house of cards will collapse.
I think every child, once they learn the very basics in math, should be given a check book and a monthly dollar amount to work with, well, I guess in this day and age it would have to be a debit card but you get the picture. Then they should have a list of things that they know have to be paid for every month. If there is any money left over at the end of the month, they need to learn what is the best thing to do with it. If there isn't any money left at or before the end of the month they need to understand that means THERE IS NO MONEY! Nope, none. I really do not believe a one day trip to the 'Reality Store', when a student is in high school, teaches this lesson. Money is simply a means of exchange, it has no emotion, it doesn't make people happy. In fact, spending more than what is actually there makes people miserable.
If we keep robbing Ringo to pay Paul, Ringo is going to go broke. Yes, I know it's 'robbing Peter to pay Paul', but Paul and Ringo go together better. But Ringo is a pretty smart cookie, he understands the math, he gets the percentages, he knows how money works. Sooner or later he will get tired of being taken advantage of, cut his losses and rebuild his wealth. Then he will take his money and get as far away from Paul as possible.
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