Greg Mankiw is a professor of Economics at Harvard University. He has written an introductory Economics textbook that is widely used in AP courses around the nation. He has served on the Presidents Council of Economic Advisors, and is a real star in our field. In this New York Times article, he spelled out his advice for the college bound. Read the article and leave your comments. Do any of his points hit home for you? Remember no copying your fellow student's comments.
36 comments:
The "Learn some Psychology" point made the most sense for me because I thought really realizes the importance of learning how the human brain works. Especially an economist. But I guess they do.
Hannah Enyioma 6th period
The "Learn Some Finance" topic grabbed my attention because it describes the life of a lot of students. Too often students are taught unnecessary things in school, none of which transfers to real life. Learning finance would help students know what to do with their money, how to invest wisely, and how to manage expenses.
The "Ignore Advice As You See Fit" caught my attention because even though it may be obvious, we all want to have the right advice when we are on our way to college and leaving our home. But sometimes even the advice that is given to us wouldn't be applicable so students have to believe what they think will help them in the future and help them reach their goal.
Learn psychology was most intriguing to me. In my mind, psychology teaches us how to manipulate other people which can be essential for moving upwards in the world. In a more positive tone, psychology will also teach people how to get along with their coworkers better as well as manage employees to the best of your ability. Overall, I just think psychology is one of the most beneficial and interesting subjects one can learn
Personally, i would probably be able to relate mostly to the last section about only accepting advice as I see fit. It basically says to keep your own objectives in mind but simultaneously accept the advice given from those who have already been there. It's only reasonable. Generally, i just believe that this is a good state of mind as we all prepare for college.
Salman Bawani 4th
The Finance section especially interested me because learning finance should be a basic skill all students should graduate with. Many students each year go into debt and are not saving as much because they are financially illiterate. Finance is the class that can help everyone be financially stable.
Psychology is what stood out for me. Understanding how one mind works can help you understand how to manipulate a situation into your favor, and in the business world that skill could be greatly utilized to have gain the advantage.
The "Learn some Finance" section really stood out for me. It really is true that high schoolers don't graduate with the tools to make smart choices; something really essential especially considering that many students take out loans to study and end up struggling to pay them back. I would strongly advocate for a high school course in financial planning, to teach students about student loans, debt, 401(k) plans and social security. High school is also time when many students begin to take on part-time jobs and it can be really useful for them to learn basics, such as social security. The article also talked about learning about risks and returns and when students are beginning to enter the workforce, learning financial planning can help them prioritize what to spend money on and how to start saving money.
Varsha Martin
2nd pd
The section on Psychology is what stood out for me.Behavioral economics, along with the related sub-field behavioral finance, studies the effects of psychological, social, cognitive, and emotional factors on the economic decisions of individuals and institutions and the consequences for market prices, returns, and resources.The section told me the importance on how mind is essential when it comes yo the studies of economics, or anything that is related to business world. The section also depended on how our mind gives us the clue to the stock life.
Minnu Augustine
Period 2
The section “Ignore advice as you see fit” really hits home for me because it reminds to take each person’s advice with a grain of salt. They have learned valuable lessons from their experiences and we all will too through our own experiences. This section of the article reminds us that although we are more inclined to listen and go with the opinions of others, we should ultimately focus on what we want as individuals. Relating to economics and life, we should do our research to make smart decisions that benefit us rather than just going by the first thing we hear someone say.
Chloe Benson
Period 2
The section "Learn Some Finance" really stood out and intrigued me because I honestly can relate to what he says. Personally, I don't know as much about the economy that I should, thus I'm taking AP economics. Although we are young, in a matter of years we'll be needing this knowledge and it's important that we go into college having some experience in it. A large amount of high school graduates do not know exactly how the market works or what stocks and bonds when we should and I feel that is a problem that needs to be fixed. If more graduates are going to come out with better financial knowledge, then there has to be changes that start in the classroom.
Jignesh Mehta
Period 6
The section about learning economics because it describes how there are many forces that may sway those who don't know whats going on in economics and can often be swayed by economists who would try to take advantage of them.
The movement for people to do their own return plans and social security maters also increases the need to learn how to properly manage money. It also helps to learn statistics and other mathematical fields in order to help manage this. It is very important to go to college because these facts help the average college student immensely. The changes to classroom policies will never be enough to match the high school economics class to AP or College economics classes.
-period 6
"A Course Load for the Game of Life"
Economist professor Gregory Mankiw definitely covered the basic must-knows when picking classes in college to understand the modern day broad study of economics. One class that I wholeheartedly support to take is statistics. The economy is always dynamic, changing from one peak to the next depression as consumer demand and supply constantly play catch up with each other. The data collected from individual days would be tremendous, not to mention overwhelming if there was no way to group and interpret what the pieces of datum mean- that's when statistics come in. One additional suggested class to take in college for a general understanding of how to think -decision-making- is philosophy. I believe that that class can deeply study the attitudes and ways of thinking behind behaviors and decision making.
Sheryl Shajie, period 4
By reading the article “A Course Load for the Game of Life” by Gregory Mankiw, I realized exactly how important economics is in our lives. The point that Mankiw made about high school spending so much time on trigonometry and geometry instead of subjects that are essential and applicable in our daily lives really stood out. I agree with this statement, as I believe that kids should grow up learning subjects that are more relevant in our daily lives than geometry or trigonometry. Because of the lack of education on things needed for daily lives, students are graduating without any knowledge of the tools needed to make smart choices. This is very important because as Mankiw said, Americans are not ready to manage their own financial lives because of the lack of education regarding those skills.
May Liew- Period 6
I think that his advice on taking grown-ups advice is smart thing to consider as we move on from high high school and become more independent. In a world that is constantly changing, advice based on the past might not be the best advice to heed in the future and it is our job to pave our own paths into the future. We have to make our own decisions whether we choose to follow the ones before us or take some risks. However, I agree that it's always smart to take into consideration the wise words before we make decisions because we can always learn from the past but we shouldn't be afraid to break away from tradition. It makes sense to take both psychology and statistics as a foundation to life because it impacts us on a daily basis. Learning what motivates people and how people behave can also benefit any individual when it comes to working and interacting with people in the future.
Dr. Mankiw’s advice on why to learn economics was the most profound for me. Not previously realizing the vast application of economics outside of its own field; the analytical skills along with the knowledge of ordinary business life, which is “the real world”, learning economics provides is worth the time to learn the course. Learning economics can be done at home with a book rather than spending thousands of dollars to go back to college or for anther degree. The benefits that learning economics provides is something to consider when selecting my fields of study at university.
PER.2
The section "ignore advice as you see fit" by professor N. Gregory Mankiw stood out to me the most and is the most relatable because I will soon be experiencing that in my life. even though following advice from your elders is a good thing, it is not always the smart thing because in a world that is constantly changing the advice from the past won't always help. you should always do what you think is right and will help you in the future as we will soon be independent adults. this doesn't mean you should not listen to advice but to always have your own plans for the future.
The section learn some psychology really opened my eyes to the fact that not many people are actually rational when dealing with money and economics. i feel that this is true because as a teenager im not very rational with the way i spend my money. i tend to see something i want and i tell myself that i have to have it right now, so i spend my money no matter the consequences. however after reading this article it has made become more aware of the way i spend money
It may be confirmation bias, but the section where he talked about how employees of big failing companies fail to diversify: the biggest rule of business, told me the average American is not the brightest. They may work the hardest and have technical education, but this specialization has left them inept in other fields.
Merina Thomas
6th period
In Professor Mankiw's article on the importance of economics, the sections regarding psychology and statistics stood out the most to me. Having taken psychology last year, I learned many things that I use in my daily life, which in turn helps me understand people better. Since I am currently taking statistics, I learn the importance of understanding numbers. Just as Mankiw says that everyone is given an abundance of data, but no skills to interpret it, students are also taught many ways to perform math skills, but no understanding of what their figures mean.
The "Learn Some Statistics" section stood out to me because I think that statistics is a very useful math because it is applicable to the everyday world. I am in a statistics course right now and there is only one class available so I think that confirms the idea made in the article that too much time is focused in on geometry and trigonometry classes in high school. With so much data coming at us after we graduate high school and enter the real world, statistics is a good way to help organize and interpret the data especially in economics.
Nima Jamshidi
Period 2
One thing he said that really resonated with me was the part where he said a lot of the math we learn in school wouldn't be very useful to us in our daily lives because I used to think this every day when I was taking those courses. It was interesting to see an adult acknowledge this and then recommend a math class he thought would actually be useful for us. This is nice because, since we are about to enter college, it's time for us to start committing ourselves to learning things that will be useful for us later on in life rather than things we're never going to use again.
Jake Hudson
Pye 6
The " Ignore advice as you see fit" really pulled me in especially now when picking colleges. Every single review and person has a different opinion on which career path and college is the best. This is extremely overhwelming for me as a student and a senior and I am sure that others feel the same exact way as me. Also, many asults think that their opinions are facts and truly want the youth to follow what they did and this makes advice bias and hard to follow
The section of the article where economist Joan Robinson is quoted as saying that "one purpose of studying economics is to avoid being fooled by economists" really stands out to me. Everyday we are bombarded by advertisements skillfully crafted to make us want to consume anything and everything that is hawked at us. Robinson's quote does offer a good reason to learn at least a little bit of economics; to recognize when and why people and corporations alike try to trick us into consuming. The author also made a good point about learning some economics to understand the complex and ever changing economy that guides the world from the individual to national affairs.
The section of the article that stood out the most for me was the part about studying statistics. Statistics was easily the most engaging math course I've taken, and part of that was because I knew it has far more real-world applications than something like geometry. Something else that stood out to me was how he mentioned that students should learn finance. This is especially true because so many people are graduating college and going out into the real world not knowing what stocks are/how to use them and also not knowing how to set up and plan for their future retirement.
Jithin Joy
Period 4
"Learn some finance" stood out the most to me because this should become basic knowledge. Managing your finance is always important, so you should learn how to do it the right way so that you can manage what you have better. Doing this will help you stay out of debt for the most part, and help with making financial decisions in the future.
The "Learn some psychology" section stood out the most to me because well one, I wish to be a psychology major in college and two, I always forget how much psychology ties into all fields of work. When I think of psychology, the only professions I imagine utilizing the study are therapist and psychiatrists. It was interesting to hear that economist can use it to, but after thinking about it, that makes a lot of sense. Economy has a lot to do with people and how they think so it would only be right that psychology would come into play.
Period 6
The Section "Learn Some Finance" caught my attention the most out of the 5 sections of Mankiw's article. What specifically stood out to me was his statement, "they need to study the decisions of fundamental decision making" which was aimed towards college and high school students. I agree with Mankiw on that topic because it is very true that students fresh out of school may remember the formulas and detailed information from their required math and science classes, but they won't know vital life skills for instance like how to financially manage and save money. Finance classes should be mandatory in at least high school rather than certain classes that students never pertain the information from. Despite the fact that many schools do not offer useful classes that can apply to peoples' lives when school is finished, students should make an effort to prepare themselves for their independents lives once college is over.
All his points hit home. No matter where you go in life you will have to encounter the economy, and economists are very tricky people. I have been conned by various people trying to make money, and with a mixture of understanding economy and psychology I can protect myself from those kinds of people. Finance is obviously a need. People with terrible finances end up living in such a disorganized and inefficient manner, which can lead to disaster. I love how he says "one certain thing about the future is that it is far from certain". Living in an Asian household, my parents are always trying make me follow a certain "formula for success" which models after their lives. It's reassuring to know that Mankiw also thinks that it's ok to disagree with the thought that life follows a certain formula.
Nicole Aguilar, 4th Period
I knew that when I saw the choices we had for our blog assignment that this one stood out the most for me. If I really had to pick something that hit close to home with this article is the point about "learning some statistics". I know it's rather unusual, but it feels really encouraging and uplifting when a famous economist speaks about what students really need to focus on in our classes of today. I completely agree when M. Gregory Mankiw stated that students should be taught statistics rather than trigonometry or geometry likes schools make us learn today. I admit, I may come off as a bit biased since Mathematics is not my strongest subject, but I can't deny that trig or geometry applies little to our daily life when we should be learning how to manage data and numbers. Statistics is an extremely important subject to learn in our lives because it applies to taxes, spreadsheets, banking, and accounting, which we will have to do at some point in our lives.
Alejandro Ortiz p.2
The learn some economics section stood out the most especially the last part of this section. Where they speak of learning economics to not be fooled by other economists. This being that there are countless people trying to trick people to allow themselves to profit so it is good to learn economics to keep from allowing yourself to be fooled.
Erica Wong Period 2
Yes, many of his words did "hit home" from what I see. Most students are focused only on math or science because they want to grow up and be doctors, and make money. But once that is attained, how they will manage that money is questionable. NFL players who make millions in their first year end up still going under because they have no idea how to manage their money. Kids these days are usually "helicopter-parented" and when they go off to college, they still rely on their mommy and daddy. Which is pretty sad.
Period 2
The learn from statistics section was the most relatable to me, since it talks about the redundant math topics I've learned in high school.
Considering, the problems the teachers present are never true to life. I have always succeeded on problems that I could visualize over the conceptual problems, so a change in the math curriculum could be beneficial to students like me.
Victor Varghese
Period:2
The section "Learn Some Economics" hit home for me. In that section he said a quote economics is “the study of mankind in the ordinary business of life.” People want to be scientists, Lawyers etc. But its important to have basic knowledge of economy to live in this world. As consumers we play important role in economics. For example, as most of us are getting into college some of us will take loans for studies. It is very important to know some economics. It will play a good role in our life.
Sean Liu
per. 4
All the author's points hit home. I especially agree that high school and college students need some financing knowledge and concept. These information help us make better decisions and organize our future. Eventually, we all have to deal with the economy. It is crucial to prepare ourselves before it encounters so we will be ready to make the right choices when it comes to financial decision making.
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