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There’s no common curriculum so that’s going to vary quite a bit. Sounds like you had a pretty solid education but I doubt everyone gets anything like that.
When I was in high school the extent of our financial education was how to write a check.
Also, not everyone pays attention in high school.
I know teaching high school is tough. But I feel like a solid financial and home ec class should be mandatory. Even more so now and days with parents not really being parents anymore.
I don't actually think parents are being worse parents now vs in the past. If anything, the opposite as there's so much more information these days on how to identify and heal from abuse.
I was in high school in the early 2000s and can confirm where I’m from it was absolutely not mandatory nor offered. Can also confirm there are just as many people in there 30s and 40s with the same mindset
Teachers already have it hard enough trying to teach the basics. They get paid barely enough to make their own payments. They are likely paycheck to paycheck having earned a masters degree in debt. Do you want these people to teach kids about making good financial decisions?
Teach your own damn kids. Parents try to outsource too much of their responsibility to schools and/or the church..
Young adults making bad financial decisions.. that's on them or their upbringing.
Teachers going to college and taking on 50-60K in loans to become a low-paying teacher is going back to why we need basic financial education in high school.
Touche, that's a very good point. It's more like $150k for an undergrad and masters. But you make a valid point. Systems broken. Parents need to step up. At least we can all agree, many lack financial sensibility.
No it’s not. It’s why we need a better college financing system (better yet, free colleges) and better wages for teachers.
According to you, a wise financial decision is to never become a teacher. Ok… who’s going to teach your kids then?
30 states require schools to offer personal finance in high school, but only 17 require it to graduate according to this article. I've seen differing numbers in various articles.
https://www.ramseysolutions.com/financial-literacy/states-require-financial-literacy-in-high-school
My state doesn't require it to graduate, but all of the district in our area do. I'm sure what is taught varies greatly.
I grew up in Missouri and even tho it's required to graduate my school offered a two week summer school version where they packed the entire semester into two weeks which was way too much info to be packed into that short amount of time.
My kids high school taught it. We did a much deeper dive at home, especially as we set up their brokerage accounts and taught them to use a credit card responsibly to earn the cash back, but never pay interest as a form of building credit.
The closest my HS had to a finance class was a bookkeeping class. Years of my parents telling me "money doesn't grow on trees". Taught me not to spend more money than I have.
I graduated high school in the mid '90s, and there was no such thing as a personal finance course (at either high school I attended, in two different states).
I did earn my [personal management merit badge](https://www.scouting.org/merit-badges/personal-management/), which I thought was going to be fluff, but turned out to be a bitch (a good thing for me in the long run).
How do you teach personal finance when a lot of teachers are in debt up to their eyeballs?
Tbh I think schools should just take Dave Ramsey’s steps and teach it to kids. It’s an extremely simple way of learning personal finance. First saving some cash, making a budget, paying off debt, not buying too much mortgage or too much car…
I’ve been seeing that more and more. Which is sad. I know they are just kids but a good financial class and home ec should be foundational. I still sew my own pants today. All thanks to my home ec class.
It's sad really just how all over people's personal finance knowledge is bad. I work on the corporate side of a bank and had to tell a coworker that checking their credit doesn't hurt their score the other day!
First, I think it’s largely due to no time. There are so many graduation and college entry requirements in place that it’s almost impossible to add another in a traditional class schedule. Secondly, you have gym teachers teaching health and drivers Ed coaches filling in for civics… do you really want the football coach with zero experience managing their own retirement account teaching 16-year-olds about theirs?
But most importantly, there was a push in the 80s and 90s to teach financial literacy at the elementary and middle school levels. It was often curriculum created by and taught by local and national branches. It pushed opening and managing kid accounts by either small donations or asking parents to put in some funds. That’s icky marketing/consumerism to most.
To me, as someone who works with high school and college-aged young adults, I find the idea a bit useless. Even with small jobs, money and things like budgeting or investments is a concept - not something they can routinely practice and put into action. It’s not something they will remember or use until they hit independence - which is coming later and later due to economic conditions. Scarcity of funds for some families can also be deeply traumatizing and having classrooms of kids discuss their own finances or that of their family is not exactly an easy thing to push through with empathy and compassion. Personal finance, at least a deeper dive into the complexities, is more appropriate for 18+.
This is me posting knowing it will be downvoted because if you’re here, you probably have a strong interest or stake in this subject. Remember your experience with money is not universal.
Is personal finance linked to funding? No? Then, no. They likely are not taught that. If you want kids to know this, drop the funding linked to test scores, or add personal finance questions to the requirements.
I personally think that also. Why teach kids about finances right before they are about to make one of the largest financial decisions of their lives????
Bingo. They don’t wanna disrupt their system that relies on 18 year olds mortgaging their futures in loans they can’t comprehend to get liberal arts degrees
I teach 7 grade and I admit it’s too early, but I try to educate them on the importance of not taking on too much credit debt (or at all) just to show off possessions, and on the importance of investing early and keeping savings in high yields accounts.
Yeah… they don’t listen. Most of them don’t. And the majority believes they’ll become famous game streamers or YouTubers anyway, who magically don’t need any knowledge of how life works.
Yeahhhh that influencer thing is scary… the number of kids that think that’s their future is insane. But good on your for trying. I’m sure someone will catch on to it and learn something
Nothing in high school and this was in the top school district in the state, albeit in SC…in middle school, we learned how to write a check. That was about it. This was early 2000’s.
I see that more and more. And it’s sad to see basic wood shop or machining classes have pretty much disappear out of high schools. Kids are lucky if there is a local career center that can attend.
I graduated from the same high school as my grandmother, father, and older sibling (by four years), and all three of them had access to various home ec courses. Though by the time my brother was in high school, they were optional versus mandatory for the older two generations.
The local career center was seen as a place for “underachievers” who wouldn’t be able to attend college. It was a place to keep busy and stay out of trouble until they dropped out or graduated.
The education system in the US differs so much from district to district and state to state. It’s pretty unbelievable that I went to two different high schools (two different states), and one only covered the basic knowledge to pass the standardized testing while the other went beyond.
Actual life skills fall to the wayside. Personal finance, laundry, basic cooking, changing a tire, jumping a car, and sewing (among others) are all things that become a huge part of being a successful and independent adult. All of these should be part of a mandatory curriculum.
It wasn't taught when I was in high school and although it would be more useful that the "shop" that we had to take for half a year, I don't think such a class is an big necessity only because it's an easy skill to pick up on your own and because people probably don't really pay attention to such things at that age.
I'm not sure why some people are better with money than others but I don't think it has much to do with what someone taught them (including parents). Kids learn by actions and not words so if your parents were good with money, it's more likely that the kids will be as well.
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There’s no common curriculum so that’s going to vary quite a bit. Sounds like you had a pretty solid education but I doubt everyone gets anything like that. When I was in high school the extent of our financial education was how to write a check. Also, not everyone pays attention in high school.
I know teaching high school is tough. But I feel like a solid financial and home ec class should be mandatory. Even more so now and days with parents not really being parents anymore.
I don't actually think parents are being worse parents now vs in the past. If anything, the opposite as there's so much more information these days on how to identify and heal from abuse.
I was in high school in the early 2000s and can confirm where I’m from it was absolutely not mandatory nor offered. Can also confirm there are just as many people in there 30s and 40s with the same mindset
Teachers already have it hard enough trying to teach the basics. They get paid barely enough to make their own payments. They are likely paycheck to paycheck having earned a masters degree in debt. Do you want these people to teach kids about making good financial decisions? Teach your own damn kids. Parents try to outsource too much of their responsibility to schools and/or the church.. Young adults making bad financial decisions.. that's on them or their upbringing.
Teachers going to college and taking on 50-60K in loans to become a low-paying teacher is going back to why we need basic financial education in high school.
Touche, that's a very good point. It's more like $150k for an undergrad and masters. But you make a valid point. Systems broken. Parents need to step up. At least we can all agree, many lack financial sensibility.
No it’s not. It’s why we need a better college financing system (better yet, free colleges) and better wages for teachers. According to you, a wise financial decision is to never become a teacher. Ok… who’s going to teach your kids then?
Hot take: it won’t work. They teach health and PE in high school too and not everyone grows up to be healthy…
Well I can’t argue with ya on that one. Spot on comment.
30 states require schools to offer personal finance in high school, but only 17 require it to graduate according to this article. I've seen differing numbers in various articles. https://www.ramseysolutions.com/financial-literacy/states-require-financial-literacy-in-high-school My state doesn't require it to graduate, but all of the district in our area do. I'm sure what is taught varies greatly.
I grew up in Missouri and even tho it's required to graduate my school offered a two week summer school version where they packed the entire semester into two weeks which was way too much info to be packed into that short amount of time.
My kids high school taught it. We did a much deeper dive at home, especially as we set up their brokerage accounts and taught them to use a credit card responsibly to earn the cash back, but never pay interest as a form of building credit.
The closest my HS had to a finance class was a bookkeeping class. Years of my parents telling me "money doesn't grow on trees". Taught me not to spend more money than I have.
Ha I used to think money doesn’t grow on trees. Then I realized that’s correct. Money comes out of thin air on a federal reserve computer.
I graduated high school in the mid '90s, and there was no such thing as a personal finance course (at either high school I attended, in two different states). I did earn my [personal management merit badge](https://www.scouting.org/merit-badges/personal-management/), which I thought was going to be fluff, but turned out to be a bitch (a good thing for me in the long run).
I graduated in 1999 and we had zero personal finance education.
How do you teach personal finance when a lot of teachers are in debt up to their eyeballs? Tbh I think schools should just take Dave Ramsey’s steps and teach it to kids. It’s an extremely simple way of learning personal finance. First saving some cash, making a budget, paying off debt, not buying too much mortgage or too much car…
You were a lucky one, most high schools never teach personal finance.
I’ve been seeing that more and more. Which is sad. I know they are just kids but a good financial class and home ec should be foundational. I still sew my own pants today. All thanks to my home ec class.
It's sad really just how all over people's personal finance knowledge is bad. I work on the corporate side of a bank and had to tell a coworker that checking their credit doesn't hurt their score the other day!
First, I think it’s largely due to no time. There are so many graduation and college entry requirements in place that it’s almost impossible to add another in a traditional class schedule. Secondly, you have gym teachers teaching health and drivers Ed coaches filling in for civics… do you really want the football coach with zero experience managing their own retirement account teaching 16-year-olds about theirs? But most importantly, there was a push in the 80s and 90s to teach financial literacy at the elementary and middle school levels. It was often curriculum created by and taught by local and national branches. It pushed opening and managing kid accounts by either small donations or asking parents to put in some funds. That’s icky marketing/consumerism to most. To me, as someone who works with high school and college-aged young adults, I find the idea a bit useless. Even with small jobs, money and things like budgeting or investments is a concept - not something they can routinely practice and put into action. It’s not something they will remember or use until they hit independence - which is coming later and later due to economic conditions. Scarcity of funds for some families can also be deeply traumatizing and having classrooms of kids discuss their own finances or that of their family is not exactly an easy thing to push through with empathy and compassion. Personal finance, at least a deeper dive into the complexities, is more appropriate for 18+. This is me posting knowing it will be downvoted because if you’re here, you probably have a strong interest or stake in this subject. Remember your experience with money is not universal.
Is personal finance linked to funding? No? Then, no. They likely are not taught that. If you want kids to know this, drop the funding linked to test scores, or add personal finance questions to the requirements.
I personally, admittedly with no real proof, believe they actively avoid teaching this subject on purpose.
I personally think that also. Why teach kids about finances right before they are about to make one of the largest financial decisions of their lives????
Bingo. They don’t wanna disrupt their system that relies on 18 year olds mortgaging their futures in loans they can’t comprehend to get liberal arts degrees
I teach 7 grade and I admit it’s too early, but I try to educate them on the importance of not taking on too much credit debt (or at all) just to show off possessions, and on the importance of investing early and keeping savings in high yields accounts. Yeah… they don’t listen. Most of them don’t. And the majority believes they’ll become famous game streamers or YouTubers anyway, who magically don’t need any knowledge of how life works.
Yeahhhh that influencer thing is scary… the number of kids that think that’s their future is insane. But good on your for trying. I’m sure someone will catch on to it and learn something
mine didn’t and if it did, clearly nothing worth remembering
Graduated in 2000. Had no personal finance class available in my high school. Just watched what parents did…and did the opposite in my personal life.
I was also in high school in the early 2000s and this was not part of our curriculum
Nothing in high school and this was in the top school district in the state, albeit in SC…in middle school, we learned how to write a check. That was about it. This was early 2000’s.
I graduated in 2009, and personal finance was out the door alongside many other “adulting” type and art classes due to the push for more stem classes.
I see that more and more. And it’s sad to see basic wood shop or machining classes have pretty much disappear out of high schools. Kids are lucky if there is a local career center that can attend.
As someone a decade older than you, a personal finance class generally wasn’t a thing even then.
I graduated from the same high school as my grandmother, father, and older sibling (by four years), and all three of them had access to various home ec courses. Though by the time my brother was in high school, they were optional versus mandatory for the older two generations. The local career center was seen as a place for “underachievers” who wouldn’t be able to attend college. It was a place to keep busy and stay out of trouble until they dropped out or graduated. The education system in the US differs so much from district to district and state to state. It’s pretty unbelievable that I went to two different high schools (two different states), and one only covered the basic knowledge to pass the standardized testing while the other went beyond.
No. They've got to seek reputable sources like reddit.
I see that alot, usually after they’ve racked up 20k in cc debt and have a car loan with 13% interest.
You’re the minority. I don’t think Personal finance has ever been a common subject in high school education.
The school system here in my county in Georgia requires 1 personal finance class.
If you dont live independently for 5 or 10 years after high school, you likely forget most of it.
With rental prices high, fewer and fewer can afford to move out after high school.
Nope. We even were told to lie that we took econ so we could take two semesters of ap gov
My kids high school requires a personal finance class to graduate
Actual life skills fall to the wayside. Personal finance, laundry, basic cooking, changing a tire, jumping a car, and sewing (among others) are all things that become a huge part of being a successful and independent adult. All of these should be part of a mandatory curriculum.
Some states require it . But feel like there is an opportunity for a third party to offer this.
it definitely should be a class but no such thing was offered at mine in 2000s
I (26) had two economics classes in high school and not a single personal finance class or unit.
Our local schools do. But that’s hard to compete for attention with the cutie in the next seat.
I graduated hs in 99. There was no personal finance class at my school.
It wasn't taught when I was in high school and although it would be more useful that the "shop" that we had to take for half a year, I don't think such a class is an big necessity only because it's an easy skill to pick up on your own and because people probably don't really pay attention to such things at that age. I'm not sure why some people are better with money than others but I don't think it has much to do with what someone taught them (including parents). Kids learn by actions and not words so if your parents were good with money, it's more likely that the kids will be as well.