Who should be teaching financial literacy to the kids?

[tru_m.a.c]

Yes, I pulled this from TLR. But it's a good question.

There was a time when high schools taught home economics, civics, and certification in a trade. Now not so much.

Should high schools be required to teach financial literacy of some sort? Or should that be on the parents?

Personally, I think the schools should be teaching it. But what are your thoughts?

I think there are studies out there that show that financial literacy classes don't have the long lasting benefits that we'd hope.

With that said, imo the clear answer is the parents. Parents have to budget every month. Why wouldn't you want your child to understand financial risks and rewards? Obvious answer to this is that most parents try to hide their finances from their children until it's time to file a FASFA. This is either due to embarrassment or they don't want their child spreading their info to other people (teens have big mouths and stupid habits).

 

[Shogun]

I’d like to see a more nimble education system... one where curriculum and such were decided as close to the ‘teacher level’ as possible.
There simply no way a federally, or state ran system will be able to quickly adapt to its various student bodies, local economies, etc.

Unfortunately the ‘federally run everything’ crowd is tone deaf to anything other than expanding federal oversight.

That, I agree with.

 

[mastermind]

It should be both.

You used to be able to learn how to drive from your parents and in school.

 

[acri1]

I think there are studies out there that show that financial literacy classes don't have the long lasting benefits that we'd hope.

With that said, imo the clear answer is the parents. Parents have to budget every month. Why wouldn't you want your child to understand financial risks and rewards? Obvious answer to this is that most parents try to hide their finances from their children until it's time to file a FASFA. This is either due to embarrassment or they don't want their child spreading their info to other people (teens have big mouths and stupid habits).

The problem with this is that you're assuming most parents are financially literate and are even able to teach that.

That's just not a safe assumption. Especially kids that are poor/working class and/or don't have both parents around. Parents can't teach kids what they don't themselves know.

 

[Shogun]

The problem with this is that you're assuming most parents are financially literate and are even able to teach that.

That's just not a safe assumption. Especially kids that are poor/working class and/or don't have both parents around. Parents can't teach kids what they don't themselves know.

I wouldnt be quick to assume teachers are financially literate either. If we were we sure as shyt wouldn't be teachers lol

 

[ill]

The problem with this is that you're assuming most parents are financially literate and are even able to teach that.

That's just not a safe assumption. Especially kids that are poor/working class and/or don't have both parents around. Parents can't teach kids what they don't themselves know.

This 100%.

It doesn’t have to be a wholly in depth financial class. Just the basics like taxes, debt, college loan financing, etc. Stuff that has real world application. We don’t need to make kids experts in finance during high school but we should provide the basics so they can hang in our capitalist world where everything revolves around money.

 

[KingBeez]

One of my life goals is to start a non profit offering either summer classes, after school programs, or at home financial tutoring for kids, while providing night classes for adults. I have a more detailed plan than, but I want to keep them under wraps until I become more financially stable, literate, and experienced myself.

Coming from a family where financial literacy wasn't taught in school or in the household, I had to seek out my own knowledge, a privilege many kids and adults in poverty stricken areas can't do, or don't know where to start.

I think it's imperative that inner city children, especially black children, should be taught these lessons from an individual who grew up in similar circumstances that they may find themselves in.

 

[StatUS]

For some reason they stopped doing home ec in high schools in my area. In Middle School it was a mandatory class where you baked cookies and learned how to balance a checkbook for 45 minutes a day

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

i think it should be part of school curriculum, one semester. sure it would be great for parents to teach it, but that assumes parents are financially literate which we know isn't the case for 3/4 of america. i used to work in summer business programs for high school kids, and the kids who had financial literacy and wherewithal were definitely those from more affluent background, putting the onus on parents ensures the majority of people never have the knowledge and exposure to the financial literacy to help improve their plight.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

im all for teaching it, but what exactly does that mean?

dont buy shyt you cant afford? this is how credit cards work and they fukk you over? i cant imagine reaching adulthood without any common sense when it comes to spending money you don't have

i took a class in college, it taught me how to prepare an income spreadsheet (both for budgeting and to understand tex impact and pre tax deductions), target goals for savings & retirement (built compound interest spreadsheets - although calcs are easily available on the net now), understanding your 401k/IRA, life insurance, entry level investment vehicles - stocks, bonds, mutual funds, CD's and MMA's, managing credit, debt payment schedules (built spreadsheets to understand mortgage and student loan repayment/amortization). it's not hard to replace one semester of all the damn history classes we take with this, this isn't a hard curriculum, and it gives students tools they can apply. now if or how they apply it, that's on the kids.

 

[the cac mamba]

i took a class in college, it taught me how to prepare an income spreadsheet (both for budgeting and to understand tex impact and pre tax deductions), target goals for savings, understanding your 401k, life insurance, entyre level investment vehicles - stocks, bonds, mutual funds, CD's and MMA's, managing credit, debt payment schedules (built spreadsheets to understand mortgage and student loan repayment/amortization). it's not hard to replace one semester of all the damn history classes we take with this, this isn't a hard curriculum, and it gives students tools they can apply. now if or how they apply it, that's on the kids.

i dont have a problem with that in theory just not sure how many high school kids that would reach

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

i dont have a problem with that in theory just not sure how many high school kids that would reach

it's about early exposure, some of those high school kids are going straight into the workforce, no college, so this will help. those going to college have cushion to figure more of this out before going to work - using summer jobs and internships as the litmus test. this isn't going to make every kid a warren buffet or jim kramer, just like 4 yrs of math doesn't make kids into mathematicians, but the exposure and familiarity with the terms is a big start,.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

The problem with this is that you're assuming most parents are financially literate and are even able to teach that.

That's just not a safe assumption. Especially kids that are poor/working class and/or don't have both parents around. Parents can't teach kids what they don't themselves know.

I'm not making that assumption. I purposely didn't specify 401k's/Roth IRA's etc. I simply said a budget.

Every year at tax time people go, "Why didn't we learn about taxes in school!? "

Like, nikka, y'all want to learn about taxes in 11th grade when you have 20 year olds flunking intro to accounting classes?

Just learn financial responsibility. Which is practiced by ALL parents every month/2 weeks they get paid. That's really what it comes down to. Most kids quite literally do not understand the value of money, but we want to teach them the tax benefits of a choosing a high-deductible health plan with a health savings account?

There are multiple levels to financial literacy. Parents are the best teachers as they have to navigate real world examples instead of one-size fits all multiple choice questions:

Don't go to Walmart thinking you're saving money on those 2 for $5 deals

I have to file my taxes every year. Let me introduce you to OUR tax filer this April so you understand the process
Every year I have to make a decision on our families health plan. When the enrollment period opens up we can walk through OUR family choices

At the end of the day that shyt is simply parenting, no?

 

[Deflatedhoopdreams]

School mainly.

The problem with expecting parents to do so is that most aren't financially literate themselves. So you'd end up with mostly only well-off kids learning financial literacy.

This. Saying parents just gets back to only people with financially literate parents teaching good financial practices.

Yeah I basically repeated what you said

 

[Deflatedhoopdreams]

I’d like to see a more nimble education system... one where curriculum and such were decided as close to the ‘teacher level’ as possible.
There simply no way a federally, or state ran system will be able to quickly adapt to its various student bodies, local economies, etc.

Unfortunately the ‘federally run everything’ crowd is tone deaf to anything other than expanding federal oversight.

It’s not that deep. It’s not hard to throw in a class of basic financial literacy in school.

They can teach Chemistry and Physics and Calculus. A basic economic and financial literacy class is easy to throw in.

 

[Elle Seven]

As you used the word "should" in your question, I'm going to say the parents. As an aside, I cannot think of any other scenario in which a parent has a kid and hands it over to a other person/entity with the expectation said person/entity should be as responsible to his/her child as the parent is to be.

At the very least, if a parent has the ability to read, write and do arithmetic, then that mother or father has the basic means to get a library card and check out some books on the subject matter and study this with the child and look at how it applies to their home life. Another method could be to take the child to the bank to converse with a financial advisor or find someone else who knows what they are talking about to impart this knowledge to the child. With social media established as it is, a parent could find like-minded parents and brainstorm ideas or solicit financial experts to come teach their kids at a monthly meeting in the library.

In this country, we all have access to a basic education and can really use that as a foundation to learn about other subjects. If you can read, you can learn and understand new ideas. If you can write, you can express your own ideas and challenge others. If you can do arithmetic, you have a basis for using logic, analyzing and problem-solving. You can do a lot with that as a parent if you can think outside the box and put aside the notion an "expert" knows and understands something you can't learn and understand yourself.

My point is, the parent will always will be the responsible party for a child because the parent was the one who brought the child into existence. And if a parent has a basic education, personal drive and a creative mind, s/he could seek out ways to get his/her child this information if s/he doesn't have it him/herself to impart.

In saying this, I'm not absolving those in the schools system of their responsibilities to the children. It's just that, in all honesty, it is unlikely a teacher will ever care about your child's success as much as you do.