I know because in a suburban public high school in the mid 1980s, on the first day of school in homeroom, they passed out our file cards and we had to fill them out. Most of the information was what you would expect – name, address, phone number, parents’ names, emergency contact number, if you had siblings at the school, etc. There was one box for “annual salary” (something must have indicated it meant head of household). If we didn’t know the answers to any of the items, we were supposed to take them home and bring them back. I didn’t know the phone number of my pediatrician, or my dad’s salary, so I went and asked my mom. I remember she was a little taken aback (about the salary), like “I beg your pardon?” and I said it was for the school card. So she wasn’t taken aback enough to call the school to complain or anything. She told me and I filled it in and returned the card.
Looking back on it, it seems unbelievable to me that they would ask and people would fill it in and return it in a completely non-confidential way. Coincidentally, it worked out well for the purposes of this thread because my dad was around the same age then as I am now.
Dad, at his peak, in his 40s, made about 1000 Au$ a day as a silk. When he later moved into government work as a judge he earned less than I do now, but had a great pension.
What does “silk” mean in this context? Like a screen printer, maybe?
I know what my Dad made because he told us. He was always very open with us about money and what things cost. He wanted us to understand which jobs earned what. How else could we make informed choices about how we wanted to live and what we wanted to do in order to earn that lifestyle? He also had us make pretend investments and track stocks to see how those investments played out.
My summation has always been this: It’s not about teaching kids the value of a dollar. It’s about teaching them how worthless they are, and how many of them are required in order to get through life comfortably.
