Why don't we teach personal finance in school?

[starshard0]

I took multiple personal finance courses as well as business management and marketing classes throughout middle and high school. I wasn't aware that I was the exception to the rule until I began reading stories of people getting themselves into financial debacles. Luckily, I've managed to avoid the allure of credit cards, student loan debt, and many of the other nasties that have befallen my peers by being smart about how I use my money.

[Lisa23]

Personal finance, and how to raise a child! Those are the two I'd like to see added. Bag the home economics, they can learn that easy enough.

[starshard0]

In my high school home ec actually incorporated personal finance and child care. Neat huh?

[wwstewart]

In my HS, we had an Intro to Business/Economics class, Recordkeeping (which covered balancing checkbooks, etc.), and our Home Ec class (which I did not take) taught basic child care. My grades in Biz/Ec, Recordkeeping, and Computer kept me passing...heh.

Personally, I would like to see more focus on 'life skills' and less emphasis on 'pass a major test that affects your life but isn't really relevant to it' stuff.

On the other hand, that's a big reason that we homeschool our kids. That way, we can ensure that they learn what they need in order to have a decent life.

[starshard0]

I always sort of wanted to be homeschooled when I was a kid, but then I remember all the great times I would have missed, like getting picked on.

[wwstewart]

When I lived in southern California (El Centro - no offense) not only was I the fat kid, I was the fat white kid, so I got picked on every day. It got tiring. I got in fights constantly, and somehow I was the only one who got in trouble for it, even when I did not start it, did not throw the first punch, and even when I was followed by groups of kids, jumped, and then the teacher would grab me by the arm, cuss me, and drag me to the office like I started the whole thing.

*breathe deep*

Sorry, I have bad memories of being picked on in school. I moved to Texas and things got better.

I used to want to do homeschool as well, but looking back, it's probably best (for me) that I didn't. My parents were nuts...lol.

[starshard0]

Would you recommend home-schooling to new parents? I've always thought it would be a good idea to home-school my future kid(s), but it seem like it would be a lot of effort. I can see how it would be a good idea from a personal finance point of view.

[Victor V.]

I live in Brazil, and here public schools are shit. I study in a small but good private school, where some teachers and some students interact as friends.

I find it amazing that my Math teacher and my Geography teacher sometimes merge their classes to talk about economics, and they said that they will teach us how to invest and will let the people who want to invest while they are explaining to invest and do some dynamical things about it on their classes.

[starshard0]

That sounds pretty cool. Private school is one option I overlooked due to it's cost. I really feel like I missed a lot of good financial learning opportunities in high school.

[wwstewart]

I would definitely recommend home schooling, but only if you aren't a total nimrod

There are so many benefits. You get to spend more, quality time with your kids, you have control over what they learn (which is why there are so many religious home schoolers - your kids don't have to be taught things that you feel are wrong AND you can focus on more career-oriented learning), teaching is more hands-on, you have a better grasp on the things/people that influence your children, and frankly, it's cheaper.

Home schooling is a good thing. Don't let the liberals tell you otherwise