Many things that are taught are not directly useful "as is" but they're more about "learning to learn" and using rational method. It's like complaining that students in IT don't learn whatever programming language or technology is the latest trend. The point is to learn enough so that when they need to use a new language, they'll be able to learn that one by themselves. About teaching to use spreadsheets, I don't think it would change much. You presume people would use them if they'd been taught but I think there is no correlation here.
people who are really interested (e.g. because they're interested in personal finance) will use them whether they've been taught or not (people can learn by themselves for small things and get more and more competent from there)
lots of people, even if they've been taught, will simply never use them, just like they'll never do much about personal finance
I'm not sure if I started using spreadsheets before or after learning trigonometry, but I certainly hadn't had any "spreadsheet lessons", and school had already taught me enough that I could discover spreadsheets by myself.
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Many things that are taught are not directly useful "as is" but they're more about "learning to learn" and using rational method. It's like complaining that students in IT don't learn whatever programming language or technology is the latest trend. The point is to learn enough so that when they need to use a new language, they'll be able to learn that one by themselves. About teaching to use spreadsheets, I don't think it would change much. You presume people would use them if they'd been taught but I think there is no correlation here.
- people who are really interested (e.g. because they're interested in personal finance) will use them whether they've been taught or not (people can learn by themselves for small things and get more and more competent from there)
- lots of people, even if they've been taught, will simply never use them, just like they'll never do much about personal finance
I'm not sure if I started using spreadsheets before or after learning trigonometry, but I certainly hadn't had any "spreadsheet lessons", and school had already taught me enough that I could discover spreadsheets by myself.Post: Running the Numbers
Link to comment from August 31, 2021