Teaching Economics Only in Fourth Year During K+10 Was Just Plain Absurd

I could remember one of my memories was having a teacher like the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago in high school. She was a pretty strict and brilliant woman like the late senator. Some say she was unreasonable but I wouldn't say that. She was temperamental but she made sense (most of the time) when she was angry. She did flunk me in the first grading but offered to help me as well. Though, I was thinking that economics in high school was rather hard to understand. When I look back--I had a brilliant teacher but the education system was dumb. Maybe, it was for the best that she left the Philippines with my science and math teacher. I ended up thinking it's too bad I wasn't able to communicate with her during my commerce days.

I could think about how learning economics at the University of San Carlos-Main Campus was fun. I think about microeconomics, macroeconomics, and economics during my graduate school days. I think about how the struggle with economics, later on, wasn't so bad compared to high school. Maybe, because I learned better study habits since I never experienced having back subjects. Sure, I had some barely passing grades (my first two accounting subjects) but I didn't get that with my economics. I did have basic economics during my Associate in Computer Science days for one semester. I felt that economics was truly a fascinating subject only during commerce.

I ended up reflecting back on how it's absurd to teach economics only at fourth-year high school in K+10. Economics should be gradually learned in both middle school and high school. That's why I'm for K+12. Economics needs to be gradually introduced and not just a one-shot deal for an entire year. Economic literacy is something that was barely taught. I confess that I even once thought of going to a coffee shop as an "arrogant gesture" without knowing why coffee shops sell higher. If premium ingredients are used, if salaries are high, if the cost of utilities is high then shouldn't customers pay for both the good food and the ambiance? It's like how I paid PHP 250.00 for my Monte Cristo sandwich set in Jolly Bubble because it's a cafe that operates for long hours. If coffee shops don't charge high then they can expect to go bankrupt from using premium ingredients and having a nice ambiance. Some restaurants have service charges to have net profits to keep it going.

Economics is something that shouldn't be waited until college before you know its application. It's something that should be taught as soon as possible and not just during the graduating year. I feel so stupid I only learned how economics is part of life in college but not in high school. Math formulas related to economics run all our transactions. A year of economics before college doesn't even cut it. Somebody may get a high grade in economics during that time. However, I'd like to ask if there was any actual learning really even there? Economics is part of life so why teach it shoddily? Even a brilliant economics teacher is wasted if that's the case.

If economics were taught in both middle school and high school--I could expect students to learn more about it before college. Economics isn't that easy in the long run since it requires plenty of analysis. Microeconomics and macroeconomics are two different but related subjects that are better studied separately. You need to learn the micro before you go to the macro. I think students will learn how economics is part of life better when it's taught in middle school and high school than just being taught in the graduating year.

Why I Support Taiwanese Politician Yeh Yi Jin's Proposal for Taiwan to Drop Zhuyin Entirely (in Favor of Pinyin)

Taiwan News It may be news from 2018 (meaning, five years ago) but as a person who sees the importance of Mandarin in the international market, I still want to react. Not surprisingly, Yeh Yi Jin lost the Tainan mayoral bid because of her controversial statement to abolish Zhuyin from Taiwan altogether . She may have lost the race but I'm still supporting her for this. It's not because I kept failing hard in Zhuyin back in my days. It's because I feel that as time goes on, some things need to be dropped like asking students to submit their reports written via typewriter or asking documents to be faxed when email (and modern standard mail) are more reliable. Like I argued with an investment before, I said, "You can't fax a book. Can I just mail it?" The bank kept arguing it had to be faxed. Unfortunately stubborn boomers, stubborn boomers, everywhere, right? From The Free China Post , this is what's said about Yeh's argument: Yeh argues that using zhuyi...

The Lesson of "Bad Genius" is More Than Just "Cheating Never Pays Off"

Sometimes, much truth can be told in fiction, right? Talk about how the great Jose Rizal revealed much truth in his fictional novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo . The digital age today would create more entertaining media. I may encourage book reading over movie watching. However, some movies may do more than entertain. They can also address a real issue. It was said that a cheating scandal in China inspired the producers Jira Maligool and Vanridee Pongsittisak to create the film Bad Genius . Right now, there's even a TV series presumably because a movie can't always deliver the message one wants. How does the whole thing go? I was inspired to watch this film because of comments from a Facebook friend's post. The post also talked about how students cheat because the system cares more about grades than learning. As the world becomes more global, exposure to Thai cinema is definitely not surprising. Sure, one can talk about the South Korean wave or the increasin...

When the Education Cares TOO MUCH About Grades, Schools Produce Idiots Instead of Intellectuals

During the pandemic, I was left in limbo thinking about my poor performance under K+10. It was something to think about that a classmate of mine who was both a summa cum laude and an honor student, ended up posting on his wall, "Students cheat because the education system cares more about grades instead of learning." The class salutatorian of our batch even commented about the good old days. I always had that feeling of insecurity and envy towards people better than me. But as Warren Edward Buffet would say, "Don't hate successful people. Learn from them instead." One of them is currently a teacher and the other is in Canada. I thought about my insecurities especially when I used to believe I was descended from a fine scholar and my family was a family of scholars. I remembered the time I was taking MBA and got conned. I was asked, "Is that what MBA taught you?" I got touchy and ended up admitting, eventually, that I was only taking MBA for the presti...

Trick or Treat: Zero Savings Wins the Best Halloween Costume

It's October 31 tomorrow. I remember writing a Halloween post about protectionist scare tactics . This time, I'm going to address a new issue. A lot of Halloween costumes these days are anything but limited to ghouls and ghosts. Some even dress up as angels and superheroes. Though, some people would still want to dress in the scariest costume, right? The meme above by the Simple Sum Philippines might strike a big point. It's because a considerable amount of Filipinos really have poor financial habits . It's almost as bad, if it not just as bad as the typical American and overspending . The scariest costume is a jar with a label that says PHP 0.00 savings. As Christmas is around the corner, the November sale is around the corner. Why do so many people wait until the last minute? It's easy to reason about living paycheck to paycheck. However, one could examine the many dumb ways that the paycheck is drained after payday (read here ). I believe it's often called ...

Why I Feel "Play-to-Earn" Games are Too Good to be True

I've been running into ads that promise the "play to earn" games even before the pandemic. Some of them featured a game that all I needed was to merge this and that or pop bubbles and boom--I get money! I remembered finding ways to make money online and they encouraged gambling. There's always the rule of thumb in finances--if it's too good to be true then run from it. It reminds me of how I get irritated by those fake game ads and now these new fake game ads? It's already bad enough I was duped into downloading Gardenscape with the fake ads. Now, these fake ads are probably the worst offenders over mobile demos that irritate us with annoying display of stupidity. Any gamer who probably owned a Playstation 3 or an XBox 360 (or any seventh generation console) would remember having to buy credits to buy extra content. A buyer may have had to buy Playstation Points (or the like) to purchase additional content. Later, there's the pay to play online which a p...

My Experience with Pyramid Scams in College Up to Present

Often, a pyramid is often confused with a Ponzi scheme. Both are illegal schemes but there's the difference. A pyramid scam emphasizes on recruitment and selling of products. A Ponzi scheme guarantees high returns for short periods. Both operate similarly but scam people differently. Both should be shunned and be considered defective baskets. I remembered my college days at the University of San Carlos-Main Campus (USC-Main) when I was still a newbie with money. It sucks really when high school didn't teach us financial literacy and people seemingly need to take commerce to do so. One of the biggest scams that hit even graduate school students was the pyramid scam. Even worse, some of those who got suckered with ongoing financial scams were graduate school students of the School of Business and Economics! The Investor.gov website from the United States of America (USA) would tell us these are the hallmarks of a pyramid scam: These are some of the hallmarks of a pyram...

#ThrowbackThursdays: Refuting This Deadly Anti-Free Trade Postcard from the 1910s

Anti Free Trade Postcard From 1910. Corbis via Getty Images / Getty Images I was thinking about a few more anti-protectionist posts and I found this "antique" postcard. Not that I have a physical copy of it (which would be aged by now) but that it's from the 1910s. That would already be 112 years ago when this postcard was first made. Unfortunately, this post card is still used as deceptive propaganda even some time. What should be interesting is that the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic and the COVID-19 pandemic had protectionists taking opportunity over it. After 1918, the world went into the Stock Market Crash of 1929 followed up by the Great Depression of that same year. Events after the postcard that proved the postcard a lie The postcard promoted two lies that protectionism (in the form of tariffs) creates prosperity and happiness while free trade creates unemployment and misery. Here's a definition of tariff from ThoughtCo : The most commonly applied protectionist ...

Cherry's the Spice's Hyderabadi Style Cooking from the Heart

Sugbo.PH I remembered driving across Talamban sometime before the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the restaurants that caught my curiosity was called The Spice or Cherry's the Spice. The letter "i" is shaped like chili to give you this note that the restaurant is targeted towards people who enjoy spicy food. Yet, it has become very popular among Filipino customers. Cherry's the Spice was another one I was curious about but not ready to anticipate the different regions of cooking. It's pretty much cooking in Region V - Bicol Region is different from Region VII - Visayas. This restaurant had a cottage-like feel. This restaurant has won the best Indian restaurant award from Sunstar Cebu . TripAdvisor The type of food here is similar yet different to Bollywood. Bollywood is pretty much North Indian for most of its cuisine. Cherry's the Spice focuses on Hyderabad-style cooking which I compare to the Bicol region. If I'm not wrong, some of its food has fresh coconu...

How I Believe the Public Service Act of 2022 Will Benefit the Philippine Business and Economic Environment

One of the greatest news for the Philippines is the Public Service Act of 2022. The following can be read from the Philippine News Agency regarding President Rodrigo R. Duterte's signing of the new law into action: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte on Monday signed into law a measure amending the Public Service Act (PSA), allowing up to 100 percent foreign ownership of public services in the country. Republic Act (RA) No. 11659 or "An Act Amending Commonwealth Act No. 146 otherwise known as the Public Service Act” as amended was signed by Duterte in a ceremony at the Rizal Hall, Malacañan Palace in the presence of lawmakers and other officials. Under the amended PSA, the telecommunications, railways, expressways, airports, and shipping industries will be considered public services, allowing up to 100 percent foreign ownership in these sectors. Duterte also led the ceremonial presentation of newly enacted laws namely RA 11647 which amends the Foreign Investments Act; RA 11650, whic...

Axie Infinity's Poor Security Should Also Give Me Another Good Reason to Say "No Thanks!"

I haven't returned to writing about Axie Infinity because I didn't get into it. I may have been foolish enough to get scammed by a family friend. However, I started to think that, "If it's too good to be true then don't buy it!" I always wanted instant gratification out of greed and impatience. I think two reasons why investors get into bad deals are because of greed and impatience--wanting the money now. It's also why some people join the drug cartels. Right now, Axie Infinity may have been so last 2018 (and I keep getting a lot of irritating play-to-earn ads on the Internet) but it doesn't mean it's going to be that sustainable. On March 30, 2022, CNBC also reported on this incident where more than USD 600 million was stolen from the makers of Axie Infinity : The makers of one of the most popular blockchain-based online games said Tuesday that hackers were able to steal assets worth about $625 million from the gaming company and its players. The...

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