My Experience of 'Useful Maths'
When I reflect on when I was in high school completing mathematics before the Australian Curriculum was established, I was always frustrated that we would be learning statistics and calculus which I knew I was not going to use in my future profession (physiotherapy). My friends and I always said how we wanted to learn ‘useful mathematics’, which we thought meant to be able to save money to buy a house and complete taxes for when we work. I felt we had very little financial based mathematics in class and consequently, I believe I still have quite low financial literacy. My husband talks about investing money, stocks and shares, but I barely know how to get involved in this and how to control it. When I bought my house I needed large amounts of help from my parents, the banks and friends who had been through the process before. I feel I never had access/knew how to access programs to increase financial literacy and always thought it was something important that should be used at school...