Comments on: Why not teach money management to kids in high school?

By: mamajama

mamajama — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:18:28 +0000

‘Money smarts’ should definetly be taught to high school students. I think the reason that it is not is because there are already so many subjects that are required for a diploma and there is just no more room in the curriculum. Perhaps it would be better to integrate this kind of program within a math class as a 2 week unit or in an economics class. I think school administrators would be more willing to teach kids about money if they didn’t have to create an entirely new course.

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By: Jilly

Jilly — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:00:47 +0000

1) I could not possibly agree more — I work in a social work agency and the root of 7/8 of the cases we see comes down to poor money management or stress related to money — it manifests itself everywhere. I don’t necessarily think high schoolers will retain any of the information taught in a one-semester class, but I do think this should go hand in hand with math classes, and be a curriculum of life skills that we begin during middle school and continue throughout college — even to desensitize money as a topic of conversation, or to demystify things like the stock market and investments would go SO FAR toward establishing some kind of equilibrium. There are business classes available as electives in many schools, but are being phased out by our systems of standardized testing and teaching to tests.

2) Re: parents being responsible for most of this teaching to date — makes one wonder whether parenting classes should also be institutionalized as preemptive rather than disciplinary practice. Sex ed is only the beginning and lord knows parenting goes hand in hand with finance. Nothing to curtail the birth rate like a good understanding of the economy…

By: Brad

Brad — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:02:11 +0000

If my wife had been given the chance to learn about finances in high school there is a pretty good chance that she wouldn’t have a lot of the debt that she has now. Her parents tried to teach her, but they obviously didn’t do the best job of it since she graduated from college several thousand dollars in debt.

It’s a shame that it isn’t taught … I honestly don’t understand why it isn’t.

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Use Blurb Exchange To Promote Your Niche Blog | Blogthority — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:58:38 +0000

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By: Robin Bal _ FortuneWatch

Robin Bal _ FortuneWatch — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:59:14 +0000

Thanks for the mention about my post mate, appreciate it. Schools definitely need to focus on Personal Finance as a compulsory subject. I agree not all are going to follow what they learn but many will.

I started working at 20, had a decent income, knew nothing about Finance Management, end result I kept spending what I earned, needless to say I landed up in unnecessary debt many time. Guess I had to learn the hard way, today if I look back I could have retired yesterday, had I known a little about how to manage my money.

Good post. Take care and cheers.

By: Pinyo

Pinyo — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:30:52 +0000

@m – thank you for your passionate response. I do agree with two points you made (1) there should be formal teaching of skills needed in life and (2) [some] parents cannot be counted on to teach their children real world life skills.

As far as striking a balance between purely academic subjects versus real-life subjects, I think it’s a very difficult question to answer. It would be very hard to decide how to trade off what we already have for these life skills subjects.

Or do we just extend the school hours?

By: m

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 21:21:08 +0000

As a former high school teacher, I believe much of what is being taught in public schools is a complete waste of time.

So many Americans are not informed in the most basic but essential topics, such as how our government works, current national and world events, basic history, geography, personal finance, career and job information, health, fitness and nutrition issues, and career and work issues.

We should be teaching children first and foremost the skills needed in life. How can we leave such important teaching up to parents, many of whom don’t have the skills and knowledge themselves, don’t have time to teach it, or for whatever reason manage to teach these things to their children? There should be a systemic effort to prepare Americans for real life for their own sakes as well as for the benefit of society in general.

What good is chemistry or algebra when one leaves school not even knowing how to create a resume, what a 401k is, or what careers will allow one to live a decent life and which will leave one struggling for a lifetime.

I received NO financial teachings at home and as a result, despite being fairly responsible with my money (as best as I knew how), having a solid, supposedly top notch education, and having worked very hard for many years, I am in my mid 30s with nothing to show for many years of hard work and only now starting to learn about personal finance. I am now struggling every day financially and may never catch up or get to a point where I am not struggling just to get by (due to a variety of factors in my life right now).

Parents can not be counted on to teach their children real world life skills. We must begin teaching these things at school to ensure that as many youth as possible are able to bring to adulthood skills needed for both personal and societal advancement and success. We are doing a large disservice to our youth and our nation’s future, and that is not even taking into account the poor state of so many American public schools and the lack of quality education children recieve in general in any subject, especially in schools in lower income areas.