Why is personal finance needed?
When I taught high school, I taught a year-long personal finance class for seniors. This class always attracted students who needed one more math credit but weren’t interested in taking pre-calculus or calculus. We learned such important topics and life skills, but my room was full of students who only signed up because they wanted an ‘easy math credit.’
I did a little research this morning to see if I could find how many states require personal finance or financial literacy as a graduation requirement for students. I had mixed results. Some states require financial literacy in economics classes. Some require it as a stand-alone class for a year or semester. Some just require that students hear about it in high school somewhere. I had trouble nailing down an exact number because some states have pending legislation, but as of writing this, the number is definitely less than 25. You can see some of the most recent numbers here.
Less than half the states in our country require students to learn about how to budget, manage money, or file taxes before graduating. I know that many will feel that this is something that should be taught at home, and I agree. But this isn’t always the case. Students should be exposed to multiple methods for budgeting, managing their money, etc. Then they can pick what methods will work the best for them as they head out into the real world.
The dreaded ‘When will I ever have to use this?’
Every math teacher I know has heard the question, ‘When will I ever have to use this?’. Sometimes, not always, I get where they’re coming from. In Arizona, where I taught, Algebra 2 is a graduation requirement. Probably not a popular math teacher opinion, but if you aren’t going to college, a lot of those math skills won’t be useful to you daily. (If you tell my students I said any of this, I’ll deny it.)
But financial literacy is where this changes. I’ve never gotten this question when teaching students how to file their taxes – which requires all kinds of math skills. Or how to use the 50-30-20 method to budget their money – which requires problem-solving and knowledge of percents.
There are so many reasons why our students should learn these valuable skills, and I hope that more states will see their value and add them as a required curriculum in the future. But until that happens, I hope you’ll look for ways to teach these skills in your own classroom.
Will financial literacy improve our students’ standardized test scores? Nope. Will they improve our students’ quality of life and help them avoid financial mistakes after they leave high school? Absolutely.
If you’re looking for resources that can be used to incorporate financial literacy into almost any course, I’ve written some. I’ve compiled the ones I feel are essential for high school students at the link below.
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