Why Finance Should be Taught in Elementary School!

Many people under the age of forty years old, including myself, did not learn about personal finance in grade school. While teaching the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic are important, students should also be exposed to personal finance prior to entering college or the workforce.

I can remember learning spelling words and multiplication tables in school. However, if you are like me, you did not learn about the dangers of credit card and personal debt until after you signed up for your first credit card in college. Therefore, it is a mystery to me why an important subject such as personal finance is not offered as a part of every elementary, middle school, and high school curriculum.

The federal government should mandate that personal finance be a part of every school’s curriculum. There are too many adults in financial despair and in many cases, it starts from a lack of knowledge of how banks and credit card loans and other forms of debt can affect almost every aspect of your life, including your salary and how much you pay for a home. Bad credit can cause you to pay a higher interest, thus paying more for a loan, over the same period of time as someone with good credit. Also, employers are allowed to run a credit check on someone before hiring him or her. If your credit is poor, you might not get the position that you are qualified to receive based on your experience.

As a nation, we do not benefit from people filing for bankruptcy or losing their homes due to foreclosure. It causes banks and other financial institutions to tighten their credit requirements. Schools and the federal government need to make personal finance part of the mandatory curriculum from first to twelfth grade. If personal finance is taught from an earlier age, there would probably be fewer people struggling to pay their bills as adults.