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Taxes...In the Classroom?!

With tax season at its peak many people are wishing they had the skills and know-how to file their own return without the need to pay an accountant or purchase a software to do it for them. If taxes are such an essential part of adult life, why don't we learn them in school? The answer is: you can but you aren't required to. This is something that I was surprised to learn throughout my time as a student as well as in my exploration of the Ontario Mathematics Curriculum during my time in the Teacher Education Program. There are courses offered, such as MEL4E: Mathematics for Work and Everyday Life that provide the necessary knowledge needed for topics such as taxes, budgeting and interest that are key skills to have for everyday life.

Despite the huge benefit that taking a class like MEL4E would have, it is often stigmatized and seen as a course for students who don't excel at math or won't need math for their future education. How strange that we categorize our students who take other 4U or 4M math courses to be more knowledgeable and in general terms "smarter" than those who take courses such as MEL4U? What determines what "smart" means in terms of mathematics? Is knowing how to calculate the derivative of a complex function more important than knowing how to file your own tax return? It seems that in the world of education it is!

In my opinion, requiring all students to take a MEL course would be a huge benefit to not only the students who take the course, but to the teachers who teach them as well. I know that I do not have much of the knowledge that is taught in these courses and I would love to learn it to be able to use in my own life. I think that as future math teachers it is so important to share these types of courses with our students during course selection and to reduce the stigma and stereotypes surrounding them so that students feel comfortable and confident enrolling in them. Sure, it is important to have students who can use the quadratic formula and graph sinusoidal functions - if that's part of the career path that they wish to take - but it is also important to have students who are knowledgeable in terms of functioning as an adult in society. Rather than creating a one-or-the-other dichotomy in our school system we should encourage the practice of both!

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