Young people don’t know how to save
“So many young people go to college without the basic understanding of the value of saving versus spending. Credit card companies prey upon these vulnerable ‘adults;’ lending companies that charge 100+% interest get away with their predatory habits [owing] to the lack of financial literacy. … [This is] why we are in debt nationally and globally. This skill and understanding has to be addressed and should be part of the graduation requirements for high school. I am addressing this from having done the paperwork for B, C, and D mortgage loans and decided that teaching before the train wreck was more productive.” —Angie Brummett
It’s the responsibility of mathematics teachers and parents
“As a part of the high school curriculum, no, financial literacy should not be set apart as a dedicated course. So much of it naturally arises from general math and can be covered through real-life applications included in the core mathematics. Students just need to have the connections pointed out to them, and practiced in textbook or supplemental exercises. I do support in-school investment clubs as an extra-curricular activity. A better choice would be to raise mathematics requirements, and adopt textbooks that offer financial literacy as one part of a concept. Ideally, families need to spend more time with their children, and involve them in budgeting and bill paying, insurance shopping, investments, tax filing, etc., and use correct terminology with their children. Excellent parent resources, provided by government and not-for-profit agencies, abound. Insofar as the financial ramifications of student loans, that could be more legitimately handled as part of extra-curricular college orientation and pre-planning sessions.” —Jay Matthews
Parents aren’t responsible, so schools have to be
“I agree that financial literacy should be taught in schools. Yes, there was a time when financial education took place in the home and in the community. We can say those times are, for all intention purposes, gone! If anything, the recent economic events in the nation have proven several points: A great many people are unfit to give this training to their children. The evolution of the community and the economic partners that surround these people are the very people who will make money from the mistakes that these children will make in their ignorance. You can say that it is in this way that they will learn, as we did. … In the end, all of us will suffer the repercussions of this lack of experience and instruction. I would encourage teachers to make time, and take time, for this important piece of our students’ education.” —Barbara Podbielski, curriculum consultant, Columbiana County Educational Service Center, Lisbon, Ohio
It takes a village to teach financial literacy
“That we are even having this debate underscores the problem of disciplinary parochialism and deniability—if I can claim something is ‘not my job,’ I can avoid responsibility. Now I know that most teachers take on more, not less, responsibility; I also understand the frustration that comes when teachers are asked to do more, often with even fewer resources of time, staff, or funding. On the other hand, life is like that, too—and while I believe we should ask students to envision better, more ideal social norms and communities, we also need to equip them to live in the real world. So even though I teach college English, I will regularly incorporate other disciplines into our discussions of essay writing, argument and persuasion, and literature. I choose articles which cover personal finance as well as many other topics for journal response writing, and students have written very perceptive responses to some of these articles indicating that they had never stopped to think about financial realities, about what a reasonable estimate of their own future earnings might be, or even about the possible need to scale down their personal consumption, particularly to economize for a specific need or goal.
“But the burden must not fall entirely on schools. Parents should be teaching their children the realities of income vs. expenditures, budgeting, saving, borrowing and repayment, investing, retirement and health account funds, and personal credit. Community organizations and business should find it in their best interests to develop these skills and concepts in the public at large by providing free classes in public libraries, community centers, even their own places of business–classes for adults who never received this training but also classes for students at different levels.” —Deborah S. DeCiantis, Ph.D., associate professor of English, adviser to The Mountain Laurel North Greenville University
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