Should High Schools teach Numismatics?
braddick
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It would be an elective curriculum.
I think tied in with coin collecting is history that would be more interesting to students.
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Sounds like an upper-middle-class school district teaching history and basic arithmetic skills (successfully) and lacking a Chess Club.
Not until they do a vastly better job of teaching spelling, grammar, punctuation, geography, history, arithmetic, science.
No. There are a lot of elective subjects I think deserve a higher priority that aren't always prevalent in high schools. Computer programming, web design, auto shop, wood shop, home economics, personal finance, journalism, creative writing, marketing, geology, just to name a few. The most appropriate place for numismatics would be as a small topic in an anthropology class or economics.
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"Numismatic categorizations, if left unconstrained, will increase spontaneously over time." -me
No way, for the reason stated by posters above me.
High schools should make Finance a required subject.
No.
No. Most (public) high schools aren't doing a good job teaching students more critical subjects. This is the reason why many colleges feel compelled to offer remedial subjects like English composition or 9th-10th-grade mathematics.
Alan Stahl, who has written many articles and some books on numismatic topics and is curator of numismatics at the Princeton library, has taught a senior seminar on numismatics (emphasizing ancient and medieval coins) on occasion. I honestly don't know why something like a numismatics course would be deemed important enough to take as an undergraduate college student. There are simply too many other, more foundational subjects that would seem (to me) to be of higher priority. Students shouldn't be given dessert before they have eaten their veggies.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
No!!! Emphatically NO!!! Get back to teaching the proper topics.... My wife is a college professor, and shows me the horrific levels of remedial instruction necessary for incoming students. Cheers, RickO
Old school but high school never taught the fundamentals of balancing your checkbook, how to have a thorough understanding of insurance, the uniform commercial code and a host of other disciplines.
OJT.
With a child currently in public high school, NO
There are a lot of basics that need to get taught first
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When I was in high school, I had a teacher who was very big into collecting, and he sometimes would side track from history book to talk about it. I remember he even brought in a binder filled with coins to be passed around the classroom!! He knew I was into coin collecting, and he gave me some coins. I remember he had a gold coin in there from the gold rush!
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Nothing has been left unsaid that needs to be. That's all I have to say.
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I went to get a coffee the other day. The young woman behind the counter ( probably 19 or 20 yrs old ). The coffee came to $3.10 so I handed her a 5 dollar bill and a dime. She stood there with the most puzzled look on her face for about 3 mins, Then I explained to her that she owed me $2 in change. That shows how well the schools are doing with Math class.
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It should be a 'required subject' for the parents of the students too.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
I agree. When it comes to finance, there are so many hidden fees that are not taught in schools.
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Why would they want to teach anything that could be useful once you get out of school LOL
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When I was at Framingham State for "College Academy" they had a very popular course on numismatics.
All one has to do is read the message boards here to confirm this thought.
Maybe a club, but no more than that.
The Boy Scout merit badge is about right, for those interested.
Yeah, that's not as bad as when it's $3.80 and I give them a five dollar bill and a nickel.
Perhaps one could add a few dealer (OK, at least one) websites to the list.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
I have to agree. I teach upper division undergraduate science courses at a major R-1 institution... we need students that require less remediation in order for them to successfully complete our program and get Board certified in their field...
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@streeter .... When I was in High School, we were taught the fundamentals of balancing your checkbook, how to have a thorough understanding of insurance. It was part of what was then called 'Social Studies'. Cheers, RickO
We had one coin class in the restroom and it was called "pitching pennies".
Apparently, it's too complicated since you weren't using a form of electronic payment.
No, the kids have the attention span of a gnat
Maybe after they get back to teaching the 3 "R's" and history.
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In my experience, todays kids are extremely smart.
They all have a personal computer in their hand with access to the worlds knowledge instantly and they know how to use it.
I could see it being incorporated into a history, art and even science lesson because it has a connection with all three. I'm not sure about it being a stand alone subject for the reasons many have already expressed. Unfortunately the U.S. is lagging behind in the basics so the time and dollars would probably better spent on emphasizing the three "R's"
No
^ This!!
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Never a slave to one plastic brand will I ever be.
I'd have to say no.
@ErrorsOnCoins Yes they have access to all the information in the world, but instead they post selfies of themselves on social media all day or pictures of what they had for lunch.
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Should a high school course in finance be offered? Absolutely, but a course in numismatics? Absolutely not.
An art history professor could perhaps touch on certain aspects of numismatics in one of his college-level courses, since art museums tend to classify coins as utilitarian objects. However, I have to agree with the points ricko made. A significant number of first-year college students continue to lack the fundamentals in reading, writing, and creative thinking skills. At least, that's what I experienced each and every year during my 19 years as an art professor.
I also believe that personal finance should be a mandatory class in HS, so they can balance a checkbook oops I mean debit card and not get into excessive credit card debt.
US history should include the Coinage Act of 1792 and the establishment of the US Mint. That would encourage some students to further study numismatics. Maybe even a chapter on Robert Scot and his coinage designs.
Not in my experience. I am sure some kids do, I just don't know any that do it "all day".
Social media is just a form of communication. Way, way better than a hand written letter delivered by Pony Express.
One look on social media and its easy to see that they aren't learning anything useful on there
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Depends on what you look at. What are you looking at?
There are a million subjects that are extremely informative for the inquisitive mind.
I avoid social media as much as possible. Yes there may be tons of informative subjects out there but I am just saying thats not what the kids are doing with what they have at their fingertips. Maybe a few, but I think in general that they are doing mindless things online
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True Story ....
Just a few days ago, my 14 year son brought up the "Art of War" by Sun Tzu. I am like what F? Such an odd boy.
I had heard of the "Art of War" before I but googled to bring myself up to speed.
Afterward we discussed and still do the 9 lessons from a wise man.
I know for sure he learned of it on the internet. Most likely from a video game.
Some kids are like that. Very smart kid you got.
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civics lessons, social skills, and personal hygiene belong in teenage education. everything else is a distraction at this point.
I remember that!! ...but ours was behind the ground maintenance building...
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I used to be asked by teachers to give presentations in classes. I asked what the students were currently studying in history and then gave a talk about that time period using numismatic items as visual aids. The talks were generally well received with many students asking meaningful questions.
Unfortunately I’m not invited much anymore……….
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
But can they use that knowledge in a face-to-face conversation? Methinks not.
How could they teach about coins when they can't even teach history?
I have been out of high school for over 11 years now. My high school's number one failed subject was history. No wonder since all the history teachers did was copy notes onto the board from the "teachers textbook" for the students to then copy into a notebook. They made it boring. I stopped taking notes and would just pull out the textbook they gave us (that we never used) and I read it instead. Never took notes again and always had A's. My world history teacher my sophomore year, literally told me that the history department had a meeting because of me. He wouldn't tell me what they said, but I was told that if it wasn't for my grades, they would have taken the textbook away and forced me to take notes like the other students. After that, we had assigned seating in every class already, but for the rest of high school, no matter the history class, I was assigned a seat in the back of class.
The sad thing about it was that the textbooks were so poorly written and strayed from the history so much that the only benefit of reading them was to ace the tests as the tests were all based off the textbooks.
My world history class would teach about the Greeks and Romans and then skip a few centuries right into the middle of 15th century Europe. No biblical history, no crusades, just Julius Caesar and then right to King Henry VIII. It was just nonsense.
Could you imagine a public school showing a Byzantine coin depicting an image of Christ? It isn't a question whether they should they teach numismatics, it is just simply that they would never teach numismatics, as then they would have to actually teach history. Can't imagine what high school history is like today.
Civics 101, 201 and 301 before graduation
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@gonzer you have to give the gnats a little bit more credit than that LOL
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The problem that today's kids have, is that they don't retain the information they have learned. Rather they just retain how to find the information.
That's a big problem considering how wrong Wikipedia is most of the time. It's almost like saying that the smartest coin collectors get all their information from YouTube videos.