Why Schools Need Financial Education
Author Abanti Ahmed December 19, 2019
My older sister went to a private university and the expenses were staggering. Financial aid was a bust and banks were difficult. My parents took out loans and struggled with the payments, but they didn’t carry this burden alone, I did too. I didn’t just sit and watch the struggle, my acute awareness made it difficult to make any financial decision without thinking, “I’m going to run out of money.”
According to a report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), childhood financial attitudes, habits, and norms develop between 6-12 years old. Did those bad money habits come from those trinket sales and scholastic book fairs we had in elementary school? Didn’t you also have that piggy bank and save a ton of money, only to spend it all?
When I was a sophomore, I took a financial literacy course at a university and attended a financial literacy workshop provided by an internship. All of these opportunities were outside of school, but they should’ve been in school.
We mirror the money habits of our parents and adapt to bustling atmospheres with our friends. Money is a lifeline and a currency for our well being. It’s just like how time was a currency in that Justin Timberlake movie and the wealthy can live forever.
Students have accumulated $1.45 trillion in student debt, so do these young individuals who “have their whole lives ahead of them” know how to handle their finances? Maybe they do know about credit cards, interest rates, and banks, but their behavior and attitude toward money stays the same. Implementing a four year financial literacy course with a focus on behavioral finance not only informs students on the finances they’ll deal with, but will change the bad behavior and habits associated with money.
Financial-literacy education was responsible for a 0.1 percent change in financial behaviors, so you may ask, “then why make schools offer them if they don’t do anything?” The key part of this is financial behavior. Many financial-literacy education courses that exist don’t integrate lessons about developing positive behaviors and attitudes which results in this 0.1 percent change.
High schools should offer financial literacy education that teaches students how to manage their finances and develop positive behavior, habits, and attitude toward money-- encouraging students to implement what they learn in real life. The biggest flaw with existing financial literacy education is that it neglects the psychological aspect when teaching students about credit cards, banks, and loans. “Money is more about mind than math,” said by J.D. Roth, the author of Your Money: The Missing Manual.
“It’s essential to our future,” Tenzin Khando, a junior at TYWLSA, said when asked if high schools should offer financial literacy classes.
A financial literacy course would make every aspect of education better: the success in this course would sprawl into math, science, and english because students would be taught how to create smarter goals and habits.
“We’re focused on our core classes, but we need classes focused on benefiting our future,” Rezwana Ghani, a senior at TYWLSA, said.
In My Pedagogic Creed, John Dewey, an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, said, “I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living. I believe that the school must represent present life” He believed that we are educating individuals into a changing society which would soon be under our dominion.
In middle school, my goal was to start doing my homework at 4 p.m. everyday, but it didn’t work out because I realized a goal isn’t just something you want to do, it’s what you need to change. I was well aware of what I shouldn’t have been doing, but I succumbed to today’s digital age. Then again, the problem was me, but I was in middle school… give me a break. Maybe, it would’ve been different if our education system adapted to our changing world or reflected what students need to learn.
Some school districts in Oklahoma have weaved financial literacy into many school subjects, but some skeptics wonder about the qualifications of teachers, the funds needed, and how it will fit into already crowded periods. Some feel that we’re not in the position to handle delving into financial topics, even though we're taught about organic compounds in chemistry and logarithms in algebra.
We can make budget. We can hire financial literacy experts and this course can even help the way schools manage their own budget. We can eliminate unnecessary spending on useless televisions and LED lights which mask the fact that students have to use prison quality bathrooms, but that’s besides the point. The point is that financial literacy education is possible and just like Oklahoma, we can weave it into many school subjects, or have it stand alone as its own course. (The required number of minutes, credits, and years that other core subjects need can and should probably be adjusted to fit financial literacy.)
When Khando was asked about whether or not she has financial help, she said, “No, my parents struggle with it too."
“While there is no full class on financial literacy at TYWLS, there are programs/units that are a part of the 12th Grade Advisory and Economics class that attempt to address this need,” Scott Melcher, the 12th grade Government and Economics teacher, said. “This year, there is a partnership program called Invest in Girls that focuses on financial literacy in young women. This will be a part of advisory. In the previous years, we've used an on-line program called Ever-Fi. This took place both in Economics class and in 12th Grade Advisory.”
I appreciate the efforts to teach financial literacy in senior year, but telling me about financial aid, scholarships, and student loans in my senior year is not going to alleviate my current anxiety around whether or not I can afford the college of my choice.
“There are a lot of forms to fill out,” Ghani said. “It’s looking tough financially.”
“If we don’t know how to handle our finances, how are we going to live without debt?” Khando asked.
“This is a very practical, real world skill that is crucial as people head off to college,” Melcher said.
This financial literacy course can’t ultimately solve everything or 100% guarantee success because many people are trapped in a poverty cycle, the prices of our necessities are increasing, and living wages are decreasing. This course is a step toward a new generation of financially literate people who can possibly have the power to change that.
“There are students who have a lot of responsibilities in their families and at work that allow them to have a lot of exposure to these things while some struggle a lot too,” Melcher said. “There are some students, however, that have had very little exposure to this stuff. That's why it should be a priority to focus on these skills while they are still in high school.
According to a report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), childhood financial attitudes, habits, and norms develop between 6-12 years old. Did those bad money habits come from those trinket sales and scholastic book fairs we had in elementary school? Didn’t you also have that piggy bank and save a ton of money, only to spend it all?
When I was a sophomore, I took a financial literacy course at a university and attended a financial literacy workshop provided by an internship. All of these opportunities were outside of school, but they should’ve been in school.
We mirror the money habits of our parents and adapt to bustling atmospheres with our friends. Money is a lifeline and a currency for our well being. It’s just like how time was a currency in that Justin Timberlake movie and the wealthy can live forever.
Students have accumulated $1.45 trillion in student debt, so do these young individuals who “have their whole lives ahead of them” know how to handle their finances? Maybe they do know about credit cards, interest rates, and banks, but their behavior and attitude toward money stays the same. Implementing a four year financial literacy course with a focus on behavioral finance not only informs students on the finances they’ll deal with, but will change the bad behavior and habits associated with money.
Financial-literacy education was responsible for a 0.1 percent change in financial behaviors, so you may ask, “then why make schools offer them if they don’t do anything?” The key part of this is financial behavior. Many financial-literacy education courses that exist don’t integrate lessons about developing positive behaviors and attitudes which results in this 0.1 percent change.
High schools should offer financial literacy education that teaches students how to manage their finances and develop positive behavior, habits, and attitude toward money-- encouraging students to implement what they learn in real life. The biggest flaw with existing financial literacy education is that it neglects the psychological aspect when teaching students about credit cards, banks, and loans. “Money is more about mind than math,” said by J.D. Roth, the author of Your Money: The Missing Manual.
“It’s essential to our future,” Tenzin Khando, a junior at TYWLSA, said when asked if high schools should offer financial literacy classes.
A financial literacy course would make every aspect of education better: the success in this course would sprawl into math, science, and english because students would be taught how to create smarter goals and habits.
“We’re focused on our core classes, but we need classes focused on benefiting our future,” Rezwana Ghani, a senior at TYWLSA, said.
In My Pedagogic Creed, John Dewey, an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, said, “I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living. I believe that the school must represent present life” He believed that we are educating individuals into a changing society which would soon be under our dominion.
In middle school, my goal was to start doing my homework at 4 p.m. everyday, but it didn’t work out because I realized a goal isn’t just something you want to do, it’s what you need to change. I was well aware of what I shouldn’t have been doing, but I succumbed to today’s digital age. Then again, the problem was me, but I was in middle school… give me a break. Maybe, it would’ve been different if our education system adapted to our changing world or reflected what students need to learn.
Some school districts in Oklahoma have weaved financial literacy into many school subjects, but some skeptics wonder about the qualifications of teachers, the funds needed, and how it will fit into already crowded periods. Some feel that we’re not in the position to handle delving into financial topics, even though we're taught about organic compounds in chemistry and logarithms in algebra.
We can make budget. We can hire financial literacy experts and this course can even help the way schools manage their own budget. We can eliminate unnecessary spending on useless televisions and LED lights which mask the fact that students have to use prison quality bathrooms, but that’s besides the point. The point is that financial literacy education is possible and just like Oklahoma, we can weave it into many school subjects, or have it stand alone as its own course. (The required number of minutes, credits, and years that other core subjects need can and should probably be adjusted to fit financial literacy.)
When Khando was asked about whether or not she has financial help, she said, “No, my parents struggle with it too."
“While there is no full class on financial literacy at TYWLS, there are programs/units that are a part of the 12th Grade Advisory and Economics class that attempt to address this need,” Scott Melcher, the 12th grade Government and Economics teacher, said. “This year, there is a partnership program called Invest in Girls that focuses on financial literacy in young women. This will be a part of advisory. In the previous years, we've used an on-line program called Ever-Fi. This took place both in Economics class and in 12th Grade Advisory.”
I appreciate the efforts to teach financial literacy in senior year, but telling me about financial aid, scholarships, and student loans in my senior year is not going to alleviate my current anxiety around whether or not I can afford the college of my choice.
“There are a lot of forms to fill out,” Ghani said. “It’s looking tough financially.”
“If we don’t know how to handle our finances, how are we going to live without debt?” Khando asked.
“This is a very practical, real world skill that is crucial as people head off to college,” Melcher said.
This financial literacy course can’t ultimately solve everything or 100% guarantee success because many people are trapped in a poverty cycle, the prices of our necessities are increasing, and living wages are decreasing. This course is a step toward a new generation of financially literate people who can possibly have the power to change that.
“There are students who have a lot of responsibilities in their families and at work that allow them to have a lot of exposure to these things while some struggle a lot too,” Melcher said. “There are some students, however, that have had very little exposure to this stuff. That's why it should be a priority to focus on these skills while they are still in high school.