For my final project for college, I am compiling a report on financial literacy in K-12 public schools in the United States. The goal of the project is not only to show the need for financial literacy courses, but also to design a general course schedule that could be used to accomplish it.
Why Do We Need Financial Literacy?
When students graduate high school they are immediately thrown into one of a few different scenarios (if they aren't lazy and rich).
They go to college
They get a job or internship
They attend trade school
They volunteer somewhere
They start a business
All of these options have something in common. You still need money to survive doing them. Some more than others with college often requiring loans or a business needing seed funding but all of these options still require an understanding of personal finance to support the individual. Everything in our society functions around finance at the end of the day and we need to make sure that students know what is going on so they can participate in that society.
Right now, financial literacy is not a mandated course in all 50 states in America. Though there are states taking the initiative to require these types of courses, they are disjointed and all teaching something slightly different. It is my belief that this type of coursework requires unity so that students around the country can have the same type of baseline knowledge on something that will be following them for the rest of their lives.
What Would The Class Schedule Look Like?
It is my belief that the courses should be spread out over the course of 4 years to reinforce concepts throughout the high school experience.
Freshman year would involve introductory topics such as "what is debit", "what is credit", "what are loans", "why do I need to budget?", etc. The goals here are to get students familiar with the basis for topics that they will dive into the rest of their high school career.
Sophomore year would dive into some ideas such as mortgages and rental housing. Also we could begin some discussions regarding insurance around this time. These would be slightly more in depth than the previous year.
Junior year would be the nitty gritty of taxes. Nobody likes taxes and nobody really likes junior year, but both are needed to make it through in our society. Topics would include tax returns, filing taxes, basic accounting concepts and so on.
Senior year would involve looking at investments and the future of markets. This would inevitably involve lessons on cryptocurrency and emerging markets that will likely be important in their financial lives going forward.
Implications?
Of course I am probably missing some financial concepts, but it is a start. By educating our children on issues that they have thus far been forced to learn through trial by fire, we can begin to create a more equitable financial future for the people of our country.
Right now so many people are starting far behind a lot of their peers because they may not come from wealthy backgrounds or have anyone to teach them these concepts at home. By providing these lessons through public schooling, we are making steps at evening the playing field and allowing for meritocracy to finally have a say in the outcome of our students' lives.
Tell me what you think about this. What would you add? Do you think it is a good idea to be financially educating our children?
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I definitely agree. The current system doesn't teach them reality and they tend to suffer. When I was high school, I had no idea about taxes or how to budget things properly. I didn't get any allowance so I was already kind of frugal so it was fine for me. The only problem was I didn't understand the idea between compounding and investing so I was behind for a few years.
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I'm still behind and I'm on a financial blogging site 3-4 hours a day. It is really something that needs to be addressed at an early age
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The biggest topic should be “where money comes from”. I would give a brief primer on the Federal Reserve System. Our educational system does not discuss the ins and outs of the legacy system. Nor the dangers of fiat currency and the real reason why blockchain came into existence. The younger generation need to know the truth since they will be the ones who inherit this mess. Or rather the ones who will have to fix it. :)
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Absolutely genius point. I would have included it but my brain was not thinking libertarian enough. I think this would be a great aspect to add and I will do so when publishing my actual thesis!
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Unfortunately the only thing I ever learned about money in school was how to write a check, I imagine if I had been taught more it would of had a huge impact on my life. Kids need to be learning this stuff.
Some people have not even learned that! It's very important to develop some kind of understanding early
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Unfortunately the only thing I ever learned about money in school was how to write a check, I imagine if I had been taught more it would of had a huge impact on my life. Kids need to be learning this stuff.