Comments on: Why Isn’t There Universal Personal Financial Education?

By: Monica

Monica — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:56:08 +0000

When I was in grade 10 (in B.C.) there was a required class called Business Ed. I remember we had to plan how we would furnish our first apartment and things like that. Nobody took it very seriously.

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By: Nivek

Nivek — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 19:50:40 +0000

You’re right about there being a lot of people profiting from the ignorance of others. However, I don’t think it’s a matter of willful ignorance. I think it’s often a matter of “you don’t know what you don’t know”.

The USA’s mortgage crisis underscores the need for more universal financial education. In a world economy, decisions made in ignorance can have a ripple effect that spread well beyond the country of origin.

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By: Canadian Dream

Canadian Dream — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 03:05:45 +0000

Guiness,

Now that’s an idea. All I have to do is write the textbook first. *grin*

Matt,

I don’t disagree that we all make money off each other, we just make more off the stupid people.

I do have to disagree with you about the purpose of school is to prepare you for a job. But I’ll save everyone the very long story on why.

John,

Best of luck with that. I would love to hear how things turn out for you.

White Eagle,

Well that’s good to hear you had a class on it and some of your teacher’s cared. I didn’t get anything until my third year at university in my Engineering Economics class. I guess better late than never.

Mariam,

Parents teaching their kids is by far the best way to give personal finance education. The issue of course is you need the parents to have the knowledge in the first place.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. This has been interesting.

Tim

By: mariam

mariam — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 02:53:47 +0000

White Eagle, I think that class was offered too at my high school. It was either that or a typing class. For some reason, my family wanted me to take typing so I could complete assignments faster. Their reasoning was that it was more practical (?) Little did they know I perfected my typing not in that class but later by “chatting”.

However, maybe I learned from my family through osmosis as I am pretty responsible with money.

By: White Eagle

White Eagle — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:47:26 +0000

I remember taking an Introduction to Business class in Grade 10. It covered everything from mutual funds to car purchases and mortgages to the stock market and everything in between. We had this thick textbook that was ‘donated’ by the local Scotiabank branch. It was by far the most useful course I took in high school. Another teacher made us read a book called “Don’t Wait to Buy a House, Buy a House and Wait” for his class. I guess I was lucky to have at least a few teachers who cared about passing their PF knowledge to us. Hopefully John Gallant will do his part for future generations…

I totally agree that there is no incentive for the government to institute a mandatory course in personal finance.

By: John Gallant

John Gallant — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:15:09 +0000

I am in an education program right now at the University of Prince Edward Island and I am planning to have an extracurricular activity during my practicum teaching centered on personal finance education. If successful and when I become a full time teacher, I am going to push for more of it to be taught in the curriculum (they do see some material in some math courses). I will push for a full course in the topic. I’ll let you know how it goes.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:47:11 +0000

I completely disagree with your conclusion that we need stupid people to make money off of. Even smart people still need oil, insurance and financial services.

If you understand that the sole purpose of school is to prepare you for a job then it becomes easy to understand why personal finance isn’t part of education. I’ve never seen any jobs advertised with the requirement that you be good at personal finance. Hell, even some financial advisors are probably horrible with their own finances.

There’s no conspiracy. Personal finance isn’t taught in school because it won’t help you get a job. It’s the same reason why entrepreneurship isn’t taught.

Having said that, I’m in favour of a complete education overhaul to teach these subjects to students. It’d be great to have an education system which teaches you about the world and generalized subjects in addition to specialized skills.

By: guinness416

guinness416 — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:59:12 +0000

I lived in an extremely wealthy, old money town in the States for a while and a lot of the teenagers there took finance & investment classes at the library in the summers. Their parents were very cognizant of the money these kids would be seeing in their lives and there was a huge market for the classes.

I bet similar classes would be popular in a lot of communities – maybe something you can teach in your local library when you retire at 45!