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Two weeks ago I wrote a post titled: Credit Cards, the good, the bad, the ugly. In the comments, I got a lot of feedback that schools (particularly colleges and universities) aren’t offering any sort of financial education for their students. While I completely agree that there really isn’t nearly enough financial literacy in our colleges, I also believe that financial education should be taught much earlier than college. By the time you make it to college it may be “too late.”
To “catch” kids when they’re still young, impressionable and paying attention, I think you need to reach them when they’re in high school (maybe even junior high?). I mean let’s be real, today our schools are teaching kids about a lot of topics that had traditionally been taught at home by parents. Everything from health and nutrition, to exercise and wellness, drug prevention and safer sex. So if our schools can teach our kids to say, “no” to drugs and put a condom on a banana, why can’t they teach them how to balance a checkbook and use credit cards responsibly?
When I was in high school there was no formal financial education. There were “business” classes offered to some students, but those “business” classes were basically “math” for kids who weren’t planning to attend college. Truthfully, I’m not even sure what they did in those classes because the kids that were on the “college track” took standard Algebra, Pre-Calc, Geometry, Calculus etc. I guess maybe my school thought that knowing how to balance a budget was only important for kids who were going directly into the working world?
Oh the irony!! Doesn’t everyone need to know basic budgeting skills? Particularly if you’re headed off to college to live on your own for the first time (possibly far away from your parents and support system?). Thankfully, I had parents who taught me about responsible spending, paying off my credit card balances in full each month and saving for emergencies. Not everybody does. And if you don’t, it can be a long, hard road to “figuring it out” on your own.
I have a few theories about why most high schools aren’t offering any sort of financial education.
1. They don’t have time. There’s so much required curriculum these days, teachers are maxed out trying to cram everything in. If students don’t pass standardized tests, or don’t do well on them, that’s a direct reflection on the teacher which can result in disciplinary action. My mom’s a elementary school teacher, so I know all about the pressures that are put on teachers today (ones that didn’t exist or were much less “standardized” when she first started her teaching career 30+ years ago).
2. They don’t have money to purchase a curriculum. It’s probably no surprise to anyone that schools these days are strapped for cash. I know Dave Ramsey has a curriculum for teaching high school age kids about personal finance, but it’s not free. So I suspect, if it comes down to purchasing math books or purchasing a personal finance curriculum, I know which one “wins?”
3. They assume it’s being taught at home. Wrong! If parents aren’t reading with their 1st graders or teaching their 9th graders about sex, they probably aren’t teaching them about personal finance either. Not all parents rely on the schools to teach these topics (some do a great job), but I’d be willing to bet that some parents wrongly assume that their kids will learn about money at school.
4. They don’t think the kids will be interested. Umm newsflash, when was the last time your 15-year old was interested in anything you wanted him/her to be? Kids aren’t going to be skipping to financial literacy class. They also aren’t skipping to physics or Brit Lit, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good for their development.
Did your high school teach financial education? What should be taught in a high school financial literacy class? Why do you think high schools aren’t teaching kids about personal finance?
Image: James Sarmiento