Should children be taught how to budget at school?

happymoneysaver79

apologies if this question has already been asked.

Most people using this site will have learnt home economics (might be called other things) at school, where we were taught how to bake a cake or sew on a button but was anyone actually taught how to manage their money from planning shopping lists to saving money or spending in a responsible way? Do you think that this is a responsibility of the education system or a skill that parents should be passing to their offspring (providing that their parents arn't in debt themselves)?

I personally think that this is an essential skill that should be taught at school, I would be interested to hear what you think.

msmicawber

I wasn't taught money management at school, but then I'm middle-aged so the curriculum was quite different when I was at school.

No, I don't think children should be taught budgetting etc. at school. I think their time at school should be spent learning those things most parents can't teach them such Physics, Maths, etc. I get annoyed at the constant attempts to add to the curriculum subjects that aren't academic. Things like PCSE or citizenship or whatever it's called.

PasturesNew

Ditto the above:
1) Stop stuffing the curriculum with stuff
2) How can teachers teach a new subject they don't know themselves

Managing money is something that is learnt/seen at home (or not) ... followed by the wild excitement of earning your own money .... and what you want/have .... and how scared you are of debt -or- not being liked as you don't have the aforementioned item(s) ....

While the principles can be learnt at school, most people would just see it as another boring lesson to get through, and wouldn't apply it anyway.

Really, it's part of life's learning curve.

And how can you teach a subject about budgetting when there could be so many variations/twists/turns in an individual's life that they have no control over.

Let people be. If they want to get in debt, let them.

Nobody likes a lesson they aren't ready for.

olly300

Teachers are not substitutes for parents and people need to remember this.

Parents should be teaching kids how to cook, clean, basic budgeting etc.

Schools should only teach kids how to read the small print, what interest means, how to calculate it and where to look to find more information, but to do that the kid would have to be around GCSE age.

The government already tells parents who use Surestart how to play with their kids at different ages but should actually inform all parents regardless of background at what age it's appropriate to teach cooking, budgeting etc. with ideas on how to do it.

I was taught by family members how to basic things including cooking before school covered this stuff. And when school covered this stuff it was between 3 and 5 years later and badly done.

Talking to other children in my class it seemed that 60% of them had been taught how to do things by family members.* I grew up in an inner city area which was socially and ethnically diverse. And suprisingly whatever the Daily Mail brigade like to think it was the children who came from a well-off nuclear family with mum as full-time carer who couldn't do basic stuff like boil an egg or go to the local shop/supermarket with some money and buy a range of goods that fit in their budget. (The brighter ones actually learnt by going over to a friend's house and asking to be allowed to make a meal.)


*It was done in the boast fashion i.e. "I can make spagehetti bolognese", "I can make a chicken curry"

msmicawber

Did anyone see Martin recently on TV showing some teenagers a few of the basics about reading small print and then setting them tasks to find the best credit card and utilities deals, etc? It was very good and both my children watched it.

I was taught bugetting and other life skills by my parents, started to earn my own money, ignored all their advice, and in no time had an overdraft. It was at that point that all the advice and information they'd given me over the years flooded back and I was able to get a grip and do some MSE and Old Style things to get back in the black. That was 30 years ago.

I've made sure that I always showed my children why I was buying a particular thing when we're out shopping, or why I choose to shop in one shop rather than another. As they've got older, I've started showing the small print on the credit card and bank statements and lately introduced them to the snowball calculator. My older child receives a monthly allowance and I've let her get on with it as she won't learn to live within her means and budget if she doesn't have some experience of handling money. Despite all my best efforts over the years, she's awful at it!

To be honest, I don't see how all this could be included into school lessons even if I did think it a good idea. As with other skills, money management has to be built up over years and through experience.

happymoneysaver79

Interesting...

Looking back at my own education I can honestly say that there were things that I learnt that were and are still not relevent to the way I live my life now. Can you say that teaching children woodwork for example is more important than equiping them with the skills that they need to survive in this world? After all how many children go into carpentry/joinery compared to the amount that will be in serious debt by the time they are 30? Surely the amount of children that go on to university these days would benefit from learning how to manage their money? Schools already teach sex education because some parents don't want to/don't know how to teach their children about it, personally I can't see the difference, I think that many of us on this site could say that a large uncontrollable debt is about as restrictive as an unplanned teenage pregnancy. I know that in an ideal world parents should educate their children about money and allow teachers to concentrate on other things but how many actually do?

happymoneysaver79

msmicawber wrote: »

Did anyone see Martin recently on TV showing some teenagers a few of the basics about reading small print and then setting them tasks to find the best credit card and utilities deals, etc? It was very good and both my children watched it.

I was taught bugetting and other life skills by my parents, started to earn my own money, ignored all their advice, and in no time had an overdraft. It was at that point that all the advice and information they'd given me over the years flooded back and I was able to get a grip and do some MSE and Old Style things to get back in the black. That was 30 years ago.

I've made sure that I always showed my children why I was buying a particular thing when we're out shopping, or why I choose to shop in one shop rather than another. As they've got older, I've started showing the small print on the credit card and bank statements and lately introduced them to the snowball calculator. My older child receives a monthly allowance and I've let her get on with it as she won't learn to live within her means and budget if she doesn't have some experience of handling money. Despite all my best efforts over the years, she's awful at it!

To be honest, I don't see how all this could be included into school lessons even if I did think it a good idea. As with other skills, money management has to be built up over years and through experience.

You are obviously a caring parent who has provided the opportunity for your children to learn for themselves with guidance from you, these are essential parenting skills and you have put them to good use. I too will be teaching my dd by my mistakes and giving her a budget when she is old enough because I would not want her to be in the same position as I am now. However, what about the children who dont have help from their parents? I think that if the subject was taught even in a basic, practical way obviously at GCSE age it would reinforce the message being taught by the responsible parents and hopefully catch the rest.

Hapless_2

Can you say that teaching children woodwork for example is more important than equiping them with the skills that they need to survive in this world? After all how many children go into carpentry/joinery compared to the amount that will be in serious debt by the time they are 30?

It is taught in school, it's called Mathematics, at least it was when I retook my GCSE at 27!

Practical subjects such as woodwork, metalwork, cookery (or "food tech..!!!!!!??? as it is now) and needlework are still essential skill in todays modern world. Just as essential as knowing what the terms on a credit card contract means. How many people pay someone (on a credit card) to put a shelf up or deliver a meal, or alter a pair of trousers? How many people throw things out because the hem has come down only to buy a new pair on the plastic?

If children in todays world have any sense they will avoid loans, overdrafts and credit cards like the plauge and use that odd stuff called cash. Don't have the cash for it? Don't buy it.

The biggest problem these days is debt and bankruptcy is not stigmatised. There is no scandal in bankruptcy anymore, no it is not acceptable to be bankrupt. THAT is what kids need to be taught. Too much credit = debt, unable to repay debt = bankruptcy, bankruptcy = bad.

msmicawber

Hi happymoneysaver, and thank you for your kind comments.

I don't think the example that you've given (of sex education) is a very good one, however. We have very high teenage pregnancy rates in this country and appalling sexual health despite the teaching of sex education in school. It has been ramped up over recent years in the hope of combating these problems, but to no avail. I suspect that many parents who would have taken on this responsibility themselves now don't because they believe it's dealt with in the curriculum.

From what I've read, those European countries with the best track records on sexual health and teenage pregnancy keep the emphasis on it being parents' responsibility backed up by education, rather than the other way around.

Did you hear the Terence Higgins Trust representative on the radio yesterday? Apparently, most of our teenagers think that HIV is curable. And this despite having lessons in sexual health on top of the 'birds & bees' stuff that was all I was ever taught in school.

happymoneysaver79

Hapless wrote: »

It is taught in school, it's called Mathematics, at least it was when I retook my GCSE at 27!

Practical subjects such as woodwork, metalwork, cookery (or "food tech..!!!!!!??? as it is now) and needlework are still essential skill in todays modern world. Just as essential as knowing what the terms on a credit card contract means. How many people pay someone (on a credit card) to put a shelf up or deliver a meal, or alter a pair of trousers? How many people throw things out because the hem has come down only to buy a new pair on the plastic?

If children in todays world have any sense they will avoid loans, overdrafts and credit cards like the plauge and use that odd stuff called cash. Don't have the cash for it? Don't buy it.

The biggest problem these days is debt and bankruptcy is not stigmatised. There is no scandal in bankruptcy anymore, no it is not acceptable to be bankrupt. THAT is what kids need to be taught. Too much credit = debt, unable to repay debt = bankruptcy, bankruptcy = bad.

In woodwork, I learnt how to make a teatowel holder, was never taught how to use a drill or put up a picure, both of which I have learnt to do myself over the years. Of course learning how to sew is a fantastic skill, I am not saying that it isn't also learning how to cook is vital if you want to live a healthy life. I was always useless at maths, this could be due to the fact that my maths teacher was so frightening it was hard to concentrate! But a maths lesson does not teach you how to manage your finances - yes you can apply the maths that you have learnt to any financial situation (if you know how) but until I discovered this site and became more money savvy I wasn't able to!

I thing that bankruptcy shouldn't be stigmatised and I don't think that some of the people that have gone through or are in the process of bankruptcy would thank you for that comment! People go bankrupt for many reasons as I am sure you are well aware and being in debt is not a new thing it is just easier these days.

Doom_and_Gloom

My parents helped me alot with learning how to budget. From when I was 11 I was given responsibilities around the house and paid £15 a month for doing them. With this money I had to buy my own treats and things they didn't or couldn't buy for me.

When I turned 14 I was encouraged to get a paper round (I had been offered one when I was 8 that my sister had been doing with me helping her, but had to wait to be 13 to do it even though I had showed the company I was responsible enough then to do it hehe). The paper round made me on avereage £10 a wk for a Wednesday only paper. So I earned overall £55/month with my pocket money and paper route. At this point my parents stopped buying my clothes and stopped paying for cinema trips and said I had to budget for these with my money, fair enough really. I managed to do this and also saved a fair bit of money.

Now at 18 I earn on average £250/month and get £200/month for my parents to help towards living costs. I pay for basically everything on my own now (they still pay towards my college equipment and things of the like though). I'm a happy budgeter and just about to get my first visa debit card NOT a credit card although I was offered the chance to have one :eek: (had visa electron before but lost it Thursday ). I think my parents have done a wonderful job with teaching me the basics of life; cooking, budgeting, cleaning (good as I'm a part-time cleaner now, hehe) aswell as other things. They wanted to make sure I learnt from their mistakes so the fact they were in debt and had a mortgage was never hidden. I believe they gave me the incentive to be so self suficiant (to the point that I refuse to borrow money from friends and don't even like to borrow from my boyfriend OR my parents!!)

All in all it's the parents responsibillity, however those that have serious problems with money and do not admit it are not going to teach their children well so schools could give a helping hand here.