Why isn't financial management taught in high school?

We have liberals wanting to put nonsense like "Sally Has 2 Moms" in Kindergarten curriculum, but no liberal that I know of has ever suggested teaching financial management and responsibility to high school students.

The truth of the matter is that the average young American knows about as much about proper money management as the average black female HS student knows about birth control - this is a huge part of the reason that so many Americans are 'poor', they can't and don't manage their money worth squat and end up unable to afford bills and basic expenses.

A couple months ago I met a person who told me they were going to get kicked out of their apartment because they couldn't afford the rent and bills despite making above min wage as an ass. manager - however they regularly would go to the bar and buy $6 shots, and smoked Marlboros for $5-6 a pack. One night they spent over $100 at the bar on drinks at the bar - I suggested that they either quit drinking and smoking or at least cut back, and maybe find a cheaper brand (such as rolling your own cigarettes, or buying cheap liquor and having an occasional drink at home instead of spending $6 on 1 shot) - and they basically looked at me like I was nuts to even suggest that.

This right here is the real problem with this country - not the 'greedy rich people', or lack of welfare, or rising costs of food that keeps Americans poor - American ignorance keeps people poor and destitute. If Warren buffet had lived like the average American does today, he'd never have become a billionaire - he'd be a food stamp user begging for handouts.

 

From a student's perspective, I suggest you should question everything more than you do already then you'll start to see things more clearly. You think if Americans truly had the education they required that we'd be in such messes these days?

 

Responsibility, whether of the financial type or any other, doesn't quite fit into the educational agenda - errr... curriculum.

 

I'm sure responsibility can go a bit farther than just that in the "curriculum" lol

 

Easy.

Your current Establishment [too big to fail...too big to jail] requires for its survival that you remain ignorant, addicted, in debt, and entertained.

 

Many high schools have introductory business, accounting, and finance classes, but they are electives, not part of the normal school curriculum. Either way, financial responsibility boils down a lot further than having academic knowledge on money management. It is something instilled in humans by society as a whole, starting, in my opinion, at the lowest level: the family.

 

Why aren't domestic skills like cooking taught in high school,, or are they? Have Americans lost the art of cooking so they frequent fast food joints?

 

There are cooking classes taught in high school, but once again, they are electives, not part of the normal school curriculum.

 

"Why isn't financial management taught in high school?"

Taxcutter says:
Because government-paid teachers are as clueless as the students.

 

The should put basic life skills as the main curriculum, and cut superfluousness stuff like algebra and have it be the electives instead.

 

I remember one of my high school teachers actually making this very point. She said that high school was basically nothing but daycare for teenagers because it doesn't really teach kids anything useful for the real world such as financial management. Now that I'm older, I think she was probably right.

 

Tee hee hee.......

And you nailed it right here. The epidemic of people buying what they want and then begging for what they need. By no definition is this responsibile living. And yet remarkably when anyone suggests these people change their spending habits, they are vilified as being "greedy" for not wanting to just give them more money. What would that even solve? These people can't even responsibly manage the money they have. Does anyone honestly think they would spend more money any more wisely? The reality is that their bar tabs would just be twice as high and they'd still be struggling to pay their bills. Because their lack of money is not the problem. It's their inability to stick to a budget.

The problem is that the inmates are running the asylum now. And when you have irresponsible people calling the shots, then everyone else is pretty much screwed. Because they now outnumber the rational, responsible people and they have the power to take money away from them by legislative force.

 

i think you could be right!! but i would also say teachers and parents are clueless about finances!! when you're conditioned to not be responsible ( doesn't matter who you are ) then you pass that on. and this is like 99% of americans.

 

Yeah, actually you have a point here. It's hard to argue with that.

 

Ya, it's ALL those evil teacher's fault.....it's all on their shoulders and let's just ignore those with the PRIMARY responsibility of educating their kids, the PARENTS.......PARENTS are too stupid to teach their own kids basic finances and it's all somebody else's fault(How TOTALLY Republican).

 

Gosh, YOU haven't heard of any Liberal suggesting financial management in high school so it must mean that NO Liberal has. Baloney!

Well, I have......have suggested many times that high schoolers learn EXACTLY how much having kids costs and that credit cards are not free money.

But when will their PARENTS start telling them that???

 

I must disagree, given the huge human capital deficiency the postindustrial world is trying to overcome, which requires redoubling efforts at reorienting the skills of current generations in the workforce, and ensuring future generations have the necessary skills to enter what is becoming an increasingly STEM dependent economy. Doing otherwise basically ignores this issue.

 

As others have said, it is taught, however, it is taught as an elective. I remember taking that elective myself, and I learned the 10-key process among other things.

Perhaps we should make such classes mandatory. But then again, many students already spend a lot of time in the classroom as it is. Do we replace a different subject for it? Do we make students stay longer to learn it?

 

When slightly more than half of workers in our nation make less than $27,000 per year (that's the median wage), most people don't have much to manage, they pay their rent, buy their food, pay the payments on their used cars and cloth themselves. They live paycheck to paycheck, with very few extra's. Now some talk about our poor having large screen TV's, etc. But all you have to do is go onto Craigslist and you can find (wealthier) people virtually giving away such things so they can buy the latest and greatest. So the poor may have stuff, but their income is very limited, and a rent increase, or an increase of the variable rate on a loan can put them over the brink financially. These people do n't have anything left over to put into savings. A $1,500 car repair can bankrupt them as can a child's broken leg since they are unlikely to have health insurance.

We are seeing this now with the Boomers (I am one, but my financial situation is substantially better than most) most of whom have less than $100,000 saved for retirement. Many had much more 5 years ago, but their 401K's were crushed in 2008 and with job losses they have not had the means to recover, as I have). Many Boomers have given up trying to save for retirement since they believe that medical costs will wipe out anything they save. They will keep working as long as they can or are allowed and then depend on SS and Medicare and Medicaid to survive.

What's really sad is that most of them actually did what the financial advisers recommended they do for a secure retirement, and they were screwed. The only way financial planning works is if the system isn't rigged. And since the 1980's our system has been rigged by the financial industry to make sure that whatever wealth the middle class has is stolen from them by the wealthiest.

 

in this case i would say it's not a gop thing. even upper class white kids are stupid now. it's not a party siding. our country has gotten weaker over the years. our parents don't study with kids, our schools don't tach basic info, and our society as a whole doesn't understand money or discipline.

 

it doesn't matter your education level. if you're conditioned to not be a go getter then more than likely you won't be a leader. just sayin.

 

To an extent yeah, but when kids don't have a positive moral influence they're more likely just to imitate what they see on the media, or what they see their peers doing.

 

i have a friend in kentucky where most of the population is on disabilty and living at home with their parents. most of them are conditioned to just coast in life. you just can't flip the switch when you have 2-3 generations of living like that. can it be done? yes. more than likely? no!! same concept as what the thread is touching on.

 

Lliberals prefer ignorant, needy subjects.

 

Your thoughts in several posts in this thread are valid and noted. That said, personal choice and responsibility prevail.