Should personal finances be taught in public school?

[spidey07]

I've railed on this many times. On the one hand part of me doesn't think it's the responsibility of public schools to teach extremely necessary life skills and the parents need to be doing it, but at the same time people just aren't teaching such skills at home because they just don't have them. I was watching a local school board meeting and a parent was bitching about how her kid doesn't know how to address an envelope and how that's the school's fault (seriously?).

If I had to make a decision I'd go with teaching basic principles of personal finance in school. Cover the need for savings, what debt really costs, the impact of compound interest (on savings, and debt), when it's a good idea to get a loan, when it's not, etc.

 

[Zebo]

Yup and guns. Really the basics.

 

[rcpratt]

My brother took a personal finance course in high school and he's still dumb about money. I don't think it would help.

 

[Crono]

Yes.

True, a lot of it is common sense and principles people can figure out on their own, but there are a lot of pitfalls that a course in personal finance could help people avoid.

It certainly wouildn't hurt, and some more "practical living" education in addition to the current curriculum I think is needed.

At least make it an option/elective course.

 

[Sluggo]

Now they only teach the kids what is on the standardized tests, so get it put on the standardized tests, and the kids will learn it.

 

[alevasseur14]

We did have a personal finance course in HS. It was an elective but I did take it. Filling out fake checks for homework was awesome at the time. LOL.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

<obligatory "You expect the gubberment to be able to teach financial responsibility?" post>

 

[IronWing]

Yup. Explain how interest works.

Explain the mechanics of bill paying. Seems real basic but I've been amazed by how many folks consistently rack up late fees when they have the money to pay their bills.

Explain how payroll taxes work. How tax refunds work and why they aren't free.

Explain the difference between a credit card and a debit card.

Explain what insurance is.

 

[spidey07]

My brother took a personal finance course in high school and he's still dumb about money. I don't think it would help.

Yeah, but at least he doesn't have the excuse of "I didn't know, it's not my fault!"

 

[Engineer]

Absolutely!!!!

100&#37; agree!

 

[mizzou]

a resounding FUCK YES!

let's call it common sense 101!

we did have a quick personal finance lesson in some class, I can't remember what it was to be honest

 

[Schadenfroh]

Yes

 

[theflyingpig]

No. If you are too stupid to manage your own money, you deserve to loose it. Everyone knows this.

 

[lxskllr]

It should be an elective that's strongly encouraged.

 

[IronWing]

No. If you are too stupid to manage your own money, you deserve to loose it. Everyone knows this.

Lose. Write it: "lose". See? It isn't that hard. You don't write "Everyone nose this." People would think you were a tard.

 

[Zebo]

No. If you are too stupid to manage your own money, you deserve to loose it. Everyone knows this.

Well there are some pros to that too. Who would eat out or buy anything if we all read millionaire next door and lived by it. Economy would be locked tight as a drum.

 

[mmntech]

We had two courses in high school. Grade 10 "Business" and Grade 11 "Math for Personal Finance". One was basics. How credit cards work, how to make a budget. The other was how to calculate annuities and stuff like that. I took both. The latter was the only math course I nearly aced. Never again!

Just gotta teach kids the one basic rule. Monthly revenue > total monthly expenses including credit cards. Then you won't run into problems.

 

[Zebo]

I come from mixed school. It's easy to get wealth if you deprive yourself of earthly treasures both material and psychological however what's the use in accumulation if you can't enjoy earthly pleasures? I think most people think the same way naturally even though they don't conceptualize it.

 

[spidey07]

It should be an elective that's strongly encouraged.

You can strongly encourage electives as much as one wants, lead a horse to water thing and all that. I believe it should be mandatory. The goal of public education is to give the student the skills and knowledge to succeed, and personal finance is crucial. Otherwise they kid just follows in their parent's footsteps.

I've got Zebo's back on firearm knowledge should also be known but dat's a whole nutter thread.

Remember, the question isn't about should kids learn this because obviously they should (post if you think differently). They will need this skill throughout their entire life. It used to be taught at home, it no longer is because the knowledge/skill is being lost.

 

[techs]

I absolutely agree. Things like how compounded interest works, and how to figure it out, etc are unknown to probably 95 percent of Americans.

It's not something that falls into the realm of parental responsibility. That's what schools are for. In fact, relying on the parents to teach such things is absurd.

I posted on this awhile back. Even the correct way to keep a check register is unknown to many people. At my junior high school they had an "experimental" class to teach things like this. To this day I marvel at how people can't fill out a check properly.

btw they also taught keyboarding, how to calculate nutritional values of food, etc.

I always wondered why this stuff never caught on as required classes.

btw I also think that basic disease education should be taught. Things like the difference between viral and bacterial infections, etc. I always thought that first aid should be required learning.

 

[mmntech]

I come from mixed school. It's easy to get wealth if you deprive yourself of earthly treasures both material and psychological however what's the use in accumulation if you can't enjoy earthly pleasures? I think most people think the same way naturally even though they don't conceptualize it.

 

[theflyingpig]

Lose. Write it: "lose". See? It isn't that hard. You don't write "Everyone nose this." People would think you were a tard.

No. I will continue to post incorrect spellings and grammatical errors to piss off fools like you. It makes me happy to make you mad. Everyone knows this.

 

[F1N3ST]

You noob, my HS had a PFI class.

 

[Zebo]

I dunno about that. Two incomes are better than one. My wife made more as a nurse than I did till about 6 years out with MS, in materials. YMMV.

 

[MrMatt]

I've railed on this many times. On the one hand part of me doesn't think it's the responsibility of public schools to teach extremely necessary life skills and the parents need to be doing it, but at the same time people just aren't teaching such skills at home because they just don't have them. I was watching a local school board meeting and a parent was bitching about how her kid doesn't know how to address an envelope and how that's the school's fault (seriously?).

If I had to make a decision I'd go with teaching basic principles of personal finance in school. Cover the need for savings, what debt really costs, the impact of compound interest (on savings, and debt), when it's a good idea to get a loan, when it's not, etc.

Absolutely should be taught. It could be part of a basic accounting course perhaps? My mom started showing me how to budget/do taxes when I was in the 3rd grade I think. I'm much better for it today. I can't believe that at 28 I'd say about 50% of my peers still have no clue how to budget.