<p>
</p>
<p>What do the standard high school diploma graduation requirements include in your area?</p>
<p>Remember that *skilled<a href=“i.e.%20good”>/i</a> blue collar jobs not requiring a bachelor’s degree do require a reasonable base of skills in reading, writing, and math (consider the example of a service manual for a car, or a carpenter determining the lengths of wood to build an A-frame with specific angles).</p>
<p>Also, high schools typically require at least a basic understanding of US history and government, since people just out of high school become eligible to vote (of course, the understanding of US history and government among voters and college-educated politicians is often questionable). Some voting decisions would be helped by understanding of science, economics, etc. (would politicians be able to make some of the “liar, liar, pants on fire” claims if everyone had a good enough understanding to realize that they are false?).</p>
<p>In addition, consider concepts like compound interest and probability that creep into daily life. Should high school graduates be sent into the world unprepared to make informed decisions with saving and borrowing, or comparing the risk of various choices of action?</p>