does your kids school teach finances?

[sparkysgirl]

do they teach about credit reports? should they?
do they teach checkbooks? should they?
what else should be added to our education system?

[rduell]

They don't even teach them how to balance a checkbook. I think personal finance should be a core class that everyone has to take. Give them the basics: how to write a check, balance a checkbook, make a budget, etc. and then also include life & disability insurance, retirement planning, etc.

I know that when I graduated I had no idea how to figure out if I could afford a purchase or how to budget. I had to learn the hard way and I'd really like to see our future generations not have to do that.

[tinapbeana]

hehehe! my mom, sister, and i all believe high school students should have to work as a waiter or waitress for at least a semester in order to teach them about good service, not to mention a bit of a reality dose! i think this would tie in well to a school course about finances, as they'd have their own real world money to work with.

[fairy74]

I don't think this is usually part of the school curriculum at all, unfortunately . I was lucky in having a 5th grade teacher who made all our math problems about budgeting and saving and tried to tie social studies into a financial perspective as well. But I think that is very uncommon, although I will forever be grateful.

[PrincessPerky]

Oh my school teaches all sorts of great finance stuff, how to keep bills down, how to budget a checkbook, how to budget for fun, and saving, and giving, and emergencies, and making change (without the register teling you how)

We learn about how to make money, and what things are worth, and about prioritizing, and what is a real need vs a want..

Man I love my school........I homeschool

as for do I feel they should, I feel that public education should cover 'enough reading and math to pay your taxes/bill' that aught to cover the checkbook........but right now it is too busy teaching everything and anything..kinda hard when the scope is so big, a buisness will never be able to replace a parent, who has a job of teaching EVERYTHING and ANYTHING to a child needing all of it to succeed in the world.

[fairy74]

Right on Princess Perky!!!

[Cheetahwoman7]

*smile* Time to throw my two cents in the ring. I teach fourth grade and my students are getting a hands-on education about finances, especially in regards to running their own business. We have finally settled on selling "smelly" pencils and use the information from the sales to create math word problems.

This Wednesday was our first day of sales and the students learned that after selling $64 worth of pencils, they actually made NOTHING!!! Sales - Cost = Profit and since our cost is about $152, we'll need to have a couple of more good sale days to make those $$ up. They're amazed that they're not earning anything when they see all the money that they've counted.

My students have to count out all the money, learn how to roll it appropriately, and run the checks and balances to know if any of the cashiers have made an error, or if we had any pencils stolen. Each student has a job, they work in shifts and each must be on time or we'll have to close down our "store" for the day. They are truly learning in a fun and (soon to be) "profitable" way.

All of the profits go towards their fieldtrips (which are no longer funded through the school). I can hardly wait to see how the business turns out this year. On average, each year my class makes between $600 and $1200 net profit, depending on what we're selling. An extra bonus, students learn how to be responsible, can do well on math word problems, and start thinking with a business mentality, all at the age of nine!!!!

[Ima saver]

I think that is great cheetah!!

[Cheetahwoman7]

Thank you...I'll let you know how it all turns out! Had to take the $$ home over the holidays. Just can't see leaving it in my desk, giving someone the opportunity to "borrow" it permanently. Counted up all the sales we've had this year (Halloween pencils, marbles and these smelly pencils). We have $225 so far in profit after accounting for all the costs. When the students come back from the break, we'll see how they did with their individual pencil sales.

Happy Holidays!

CJ

[PrincessPerky]

I think that is an awesome way to teach the children about sales and profits.

[rduell]

That is a great idea. I wish more teachers would do things like that.

[cptacek]

We had to set up a budget in FFA. Had to track what we spent and what we received, accounting for everything.

We also had to figure out (theoretically) how to make money on a farm for FFA. Considered capital investments, operating expenses, market cycles, etc. to see if what we were thinking about farming would make us money.

In math, you do the interest rate thing. I had like a gajillion years of math (that's what my masters is in) but the lessons seemed to be more about memorizing the formula than with what it actually meant. That should have been driven home more...

[Cheetahwoman7]

When I taught special education adults, I gave a class in working with checking accounts. Students learned how to deposit, withdrawl, and balance their checkbook, along with learning how to write checks and track them. This was all done before they could open up a "real" account so they wouldn't be overwhelmed with their own money. They also needed to learn that just because they still had checks didn't mean they still had money to use them!

Some graduated on to learning about budgeting their $$ to cover all of their monthly bills. Others however, never made it past the initial class.

[Fern]

I think it should definitely be required coursework. My, the times they are changin.'

I'm in my mid 40s, not THAT old, and yet i remember taking stuff like "Sewing" and "Home Economics" and "Steno" in school. Uh, yeah, that really prepared me for independent living in the 21st century.

[threebeansalad]

I was taught personal finance in school. However, teaching it isn't enough. Having role models who practice preoper financial management is far more effective than coursework. I remember learning that if your opened an IRA with $2k how the compounding would make you a millionaire, but I remember thinking, who the heck has 2K at 18 years old? I was paying for part of my I college tuition and while working low-paying jobs . If I had $200 in my bank account it was a good month! I'm not opposed to teaching PF, but we can't expect education along to be a cure-all.

[rob62521]

When I was in the elementary classroom, I tried to do a couple of exercises on money and finance. I would give them a scenario and they would have to try and figure out how much money they could spend on stuff in the Sunday's inserts after they paid their bills. We would go through and first ask where they wanted to live and look at rentals and how much and deduct. The same with a car. Then the monthly expenses. They were amazed they had to get a smaller house or car or both. One year a local bank gave us checks and checkbooks and did the exercise like a real account, just no money. One kid went home and taught his mom how to balance the checkbook. She was elated at the parent-teacher conference.

Unfortunately, we don't do too much of that. Being in the inner city, we are too busy trying to make adequate yearly progress on the state mandated tests and our kids come to school ill prepared to read and do math. So we stick to the basics trying to toe the mark on No Child Left Behind. As a result, we don't get to teach basic life skills anymore -- we have to teach to the test.

[PrincessPerky]

I have often thought that while my kid will not be a marked failure if he doesn't memorize all 50 states and thier capitals (in alphabetical order) he will be a failure if he cannot budget, cook enough and clean enough...or rather seeing as I am the parent, I will be the failure.

priorities, priorities...sorry but I do not drill my kids in much of anything, I save the 'you MUST do this' for things they really must do, budgets, cleaning, cooking, these things they MUST do....factoid A or factiod b, can be figured out when your work is done..in your free time...(the root word meaning of school is 'free time')

[rob62521]

You are fortunate that you don't have to abide by the state and federal guidelines saying students must take the state tests and a certain percentage must pass. We have many special education kids who simply cannot do the work, yet they are tested and according to the test do not meet or are on academic warning. What possible good can this be? They are in special ed. for a reason. Of course the special ed. rules also say you have to have a certain iq to even be in some form of special ed. so there are kids who fall through the cracks. They may not be able to read and write at grade level or do math at grade level, but could be a part of society if we could teach them things to help them like budgeting and work ethics, but no our every brilliant legislators say it's more important to pass a test. That way they can say if a teacher and/or school is doing their jobs. Grrr. Sorry, I had to vent. I've seen some of these kids sit and cry because the test is too hard. It's not that the teachers haven't done everything possible to prepare them, but if you are a fifth grader and you read at second grade level and you won't ever read any higher, it's a frustrating experience.

[kealina]

i was lucky i had some great teachers... i remember in 5th grade we made each class it's own "state" in our "country".... we printed up some money one of us kids designed and, we had businesses, paid rent for our stalls, sold stuff to each other, etc... we could even take out loans from the bank and deposit our profits, etc... then at the end of the project the teachers held an auction where we took our "money" and bid on real items like books or snacks...i remember pooling my funds with my "business partner" for some snacks.... it was great fun...

[PrincessPerky]

IT is good to homeschool...and the trouble is...most people don't see it that way......most people are all for regulation of schools....which I can understand, but I would just rather take it into my own hands.

Vent away..maybe if enough people vent, more would see why homeschooling is more personal, more tailored to the kid....if mom and pop are expected to be in charge of the kids education maybe they would be expecting more life skills and less higher math (nothing against higher math, just saying first things first)

Gov't does NOT know best...look to the future when you educate your kid, not to his future college scores, but to his future house, spouse, children, and bank statements..will they say 'never learned how' or 'to rushed to take care', or 'competant and knows what he is doing'? So far I think my sons will say 'to busy giggling to pay attention' -might not have the cleanest house/bankbook, but it sure will be a fun one anyway, since that is my 'guess' I work on grounding him, without ruining the fun...sofar progress has been made...slowly...but since I have no external timeline, I have well one step at a time, one day at a time, build on what he knows...teach him what he will actually need to know, and actually need to do for adult life...let the factoids follow where they may. (and actually he loves factoids, so plenty fall in)