Should money matters be taught in school?

beecher

I think people's attitude to money comes from the way they're brought up, and although teaching children about money at school seems laudable, I'm not sure how much difference it'd make. It is all very well knowing about the risk of taking on too much debt, but only if you've been brought up to be sensible with money will you avoid it.

sarahs999

Kids should be taught the value of money right from the moment they enter school and before that by their parents. Already teaching my three-year-old the value of his Christmas fiver from an Aunty by showing him the different things he can buy with it. Niot working yet though. Fiver falls out of a Christmas card nad he says, 'Look mummy, a ticket!' lol

StevieJ

Ingsy wrote: »

Hello. Long time reader, few time poster here.

Having read a lot of threads on the MSE forums, one thing seems to keep repeating itself - the lack of knowledge of borrowers as to what their actions could lead to. People my age (27) have perhaps grown up with credit cards etc and see credit as eing intrinsic to their way of life.

Having bought a new build (it was 4 years old when we bought it) 2 bed flat 4 years ago I'm fairly sure I'm now in NE, even though I've been on a repayment mortage since day 1. No credit cards or other loans though mean that I'm in a lot better position than a vast number of people my age - I put this down to being brought up to save for stuff before buying it. I now hate to feel in debt to people, which I'm pleased about, in a way.

Some people blame the borrowers (they borrowed to much money! They were greedy! etc) some blame the lenders (every day new offers of credit cards come through! etc).

So, here are the questions:

1. If you had the power, would you introduce teaching money management in schools?
2. If yes, at what age and, more importantly, how exactly would you do it?

May be more appropriate if they taught it in the banks :eek:

stephen163

I'm a little sceptical about how effective teaching primary school children about money matters will be. One day they would be doing addition, the next day subtraction then suddenly they would be thrown into the world of compound interest, APR's and debt. These concepts are far too advanced for this stage.

Secondary school is a different matter. Here children should be exposed to the world of personal finance.....but again, i'm tempted to question the benefits this will bring. I'm of the belief that the majority of people already have a good knowledge of how loans work and the consequences of debt (etc.) and the reason people do run into trouble is a tendency of some people to gamble on a future outcome (be it future house price rises, increases in personal income..), or, a compulsion to buy in a reckless manner (credit card debt) without thinking about repayment. I believe behavioural tendencies drive these 2 things. Compulsive behaviour and the tendency to gamble will always exist.

StevieJ

Cleaver wrote: »

My personal opinion is that myth and fairytale shouldn't be taught in mainstream schools. Of course, you're correct that religion is still prevelant in the world and one needs to be vaguely knowledgable about the subject so you can be respectful towards others and understand religion's place in society. But in the 21st century I think we should be striving to evolve our ideas somewhat and ensure that religon is not given such an elevated presence in modern society. A couple of hours at home being taught by parents on the different religions should be more than enough - do we really need 12 years of religious education throughout our eductaion anymore?

Of course, if you want to base your child's education around a faith or belief then there are plently of schools available to you out there that will provide that service.

Strangely they appear to be the best schools

Cleaver

stephen163 wrote: »

I'm a little sceptical about how effective teaching primary school children about money matters will be. One day they would be doing addition, the next day subtraction then suddenly they would be thrown into the world of compound interest, APR's and debt. These concepts are far too advanced for this stage.

You can teach primary age kids about money without it being too complicated in the same way you can teach primary school kids about English without getting them to read Shakespeare.

edgex

Yes, it desperately needs teaching to people.
Ideal place is secondary schools, the children/pupils are old enough to know what money is etc, & are not far off from having to deal with it themselves.

Its quite a small subject, so would only need a few lessons, could probably be done once a week for a month, maybe involving a small project, like running a bank for the month, with 'fake' money.

stephen163

Cleaver wrote: »

You can teach primary age kids about money without it being too complicated in the same way you can teach primary school kids about English without getting them to read Shakespeare.

That's already done then. In a limited kind of way.

vivatifosi

beecher wrote: »

I think people's attitude to money comes from the way they're brought up, and although teaching children about money at school seems laudable, I'm not sure how much difference it'd make. It is all very well knowing about the risk of taking on too much debt, but only if you've been brought up to be sensible with money will you avoid it.

In my family we were never taught about it and there are plenty of my relatives suffering as a result. If you only get 1 in 10 kids taking it on board from these homes we'd still be significantly better off as a society.

I like the Royal Society Christmas Lectures format, it must be possible to design something like that which is portable, practical and above all fun that can go from school to school and make learning about finance memorable.

Sultana

Mine had at least a couple of sessions on personal finance in Year 10 PSHE. My son was the one who explained the difference between secured & unsecured loans to the rest of the class.. And they got info on employment law/rights as part of their work experience programme.