This is a great article. I think it's so true. Sex ed yes, should be taught to kids, but so should finances. Being a teacher in a life skills classroom has made this an even more prevelant issue for me. I hammer into my kids the concept of counting money, making change, and balancing a checkbook. We're starting a student store so they learn that you don't just "get" things, we work for our money and what we spend matters.
Lori, what a great article! I completely agree with the premise that students need economic education. My experience with savings in my 20s and 30s was dismal. I wish I would have had a better education in finances earlier in my educational career. I found it interesting that children that come from a family that has wealth tend to manage money and finances better than the kids who don’t. I liked the comparison of sex education class to personal finance class. If Americans could accomplish a basic understanding of money and savings as we did in the downward trend in teen pregnancies, we as a society would be much better off.
ReplyDeleteThis is a highly relevant issue. On Facebook there are constant funny images about "I never learned anything about money, or how to balance a checkbook, or how to do my taxes", and these truly are things that should be learned in school. In special education, more of these things are taught because it is assumed that these students will not simply "pick up" the skills in other places of life. Why in general education is it assumed that students will learn these skills in other areas of life? In the halls of the middle school I work at, there are posters made for projects in an 8th grade math class for the math of how to buy a car, or a house. It seems like a great, real world type project that teaches essential financial skills!
ReplyDeleteThis article is great and so true! My co-worker and I had this same discussion about teaching finances. I have a whole lesson planned around this. I wish I had been taught about finances growing up. My parents never discussed their finances around me and I never knew how much was Dad was paid. It is critical to learn these skills to get through life. I see my own children struggling with knowledge about insurance policies and I think that is something that should be taught as well.
ReplyDeleteSuch a great article! This is so important and yet such a missing piece in our school system these days. I think it is an essential piece of education to prepare all students for living independently as much as they can. I remember back when I was in high school it was a required class to take along with the elective of Home Economics students were more well prepared for the skills that are needed for living independently. Teachers should include this in the curriculum as much as possible in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI totally love this article! I asked my students to tell me the cost of an average 3 bedroom home in Salem, Oregon and they responded anywhere between $180 and $800,000. This was the same result for buying a car, groceries, rents, etc... Now it is part of an interesting lesson plan in Social Understanding and World of Work classes as students need to know what things cost, how to budget and how to plan financially when they finish high school.
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