Financial Education

Proposal:

We should be teaching children, especially teenagers, how to manage their personal finances at a minimum. Some schools already have classes for this. The schools that don’t already have classes for this, should add them.

Discussion:

Finance is the management of resources such as land, improvements, equipment, and money; the management of usage of resources including investments, debts, and expenses; the management of risk affecting the resources; the accounting for assets and liabilities; and the management of cash flow. Of course there are other topics and a lot more depth to each of the ones already listed here.

The study of finance is also an opportunity to learn about the history of money and to learn about other currencies from around the world and how economies can be separate or interconnected and what are the effects of that. To the extent such additional information is included in the class, it should be to enhance individual learning by providing more context, and not distract from the learning objectives of the course.

Beyond personal finances, students who want to learn more should have an opportunity to learn topics such as finances related to having a job, being a freelancer, or running a small business.