TV shows like the Kardashians, and Real Housewives that purport to be Reality TV do not show a reality that promotes academic values.  A common questions I ask children is, “Who are your heroes?” 

Personally I find a lot of inspiration from the story of Michael Faraday.  A scientist of humble origins from a time when scientists where the pop stars of the day.  Faraday changed lives as we know it inventing the electric motor.  He was also responsible for many other breakthroughs in science, but the contribution of electrical motors was a real game changer.  I love watching documentaries on historical scientists.  But this is just one way to show the value of education.

In our lives we often use our education, but may not realize it.  Taking children with you to the grocery store for instance, or using their help in assembling a recipe can provide real life examples of when math with fractions can be not just relevant but useful.  Your child will almost surely be excited to eat a meal in which they played an important role!

Another instance where students can use their academic skills in a family setting is discussing the story arc of a movie, or critically reviewing a news story of interest to the family.  For example perhaps a family can discuss a recent news article, not just for the content, but for the quality of writing, how it could have been made more convincing, and why the author chose to wrote the article using his or her chosen writing conventions as opposed to perhaps the writing that is observable in a how to article, or a trade magazine.  If a student wants a raise in allowance, or a toy you can ask them to write an article explaining their interest, and providing critical feedback about how they can improve their writing. Children are capable of being quite convincing if they are properly motivated.

To provide a story that allows children to see the value of education I commonly tell children a story as follows.Let’s imagine that you own a McDonalds.  It is estimated that one in every eight Americans has worked at McDonalds.  (source: http://ow.ly/JBM5a). Many jobs are very similar to jobs at McDonalds, for example jobs at Burger King, Wendy’s Popeye’s etc.  It is estimated that almost half of the U.S. workforce has worked a fast food job at least once in their lifetime (source: http://ow.ly/JBMdK).

So after informing students of this fact I say that there are multiple jobs that they can assign people to.  Someone to sweep the floors and clean the equipment, someone to be the cashier, someone to make the burgers, and someone to be the manager.  I say that the cleaner gets minimum wage, the cashier makes a little more and that the manager can make about $20 an hour.  I explain how decisions the manager can make can have a huge impact on the profitability of the store.  

For example if the manager can be on top of things such as keeping up employee profitability, making sure the floor environment is clean, and also assuring that all materials are on hand and ready to assure fast and efficient operation of the business that instead of selling 20 to 25 burgers per hour, the business can sell 25 - 40 burgers per hour.  I ask students usually at this point to explain if they see this as reasonable or possible. 

I also explain that of course burgers are associated with accompanying sales of drinks and fries.  If we estimate that each transaction with a customer nets a profit of approximately three dollars , and we can estimate that each managed store on average conducts thirty transactions per hour then we can estimate that these stores are pulling in nine hundred dollars an hour.  However without a good manager these stores would not get the fifty percent boost in productivity and would only make six hundred dollars an hour.  (it is important to remember that the fifty percent boost on the net is calculated on the original number, so fifty percent of six hundred is actually three hundred and the sum is therefore nine hundred..)  

The difference of three hundred dollars multiplied by twenty four hours equals a net difference of seventy two hundred dollars per day.  

If students cannot follow the calculations conducted in this short presentation, I tell them that they are not yet ready for management.  I then point out that if they have made basic calculation errors during our session that they may not be ready for the position of cashier, for even a mistake of five dollars in only five percent of daily transactions can lead to a difference of how much?  

Why don’t you do the math?  It’s fun!

Anyways, students often do not plan to go into a career in food service, but this little exercise can show a student that if they aspire higher, that they will have to use the lessons they have learned in school!

Keep Studying!