One of the best summaries I've seen about the history and goal of public schools.

Why they don't teach money in public schools

From the author:
The public school system as we know it today was intentionally designed and established around the 1900s, marking a departure from the historical norm where children learned skills directly from their parents to survive. While ancient Greece had school systems, they were the exception rather than the rule throughout history.

The current public schooling system entails compulsory, government-mandated education for children of the same age, learning together in an environment that may seem disconnected from their future endeavors.

However, the system's design has a specific intention behind it. Although many people are dissatisfied with the system's performance, understanding its deliberate setup is crucial.

0:00 Introduction
1:17 Prussia Schools for Soldiers
3:11 US Schools for Employees
7:38 U.S. System is Now Failing
10:20 Competition
13:15 Why Money isn’t Taught
15:04 What I’m Doing Instead
18:25 Other Alternatives

Homeschool.

It's really the best option these days. There are a few other solutions, that are not as bad as public school, but I don't believe public school to be a responsible option anywhere in this country anymore.

I also learned how to write and address a letter, which judging by how horribly people write addresses on envelopes must have stopped around 30 years ago.

Who’s going to teach it. School teachers are no better with money than anyone else. I would say 80% of the population is terrible with money and no one thinks they are so gettin a curriculum that every can agree on would be next to impossible.

Look how many people well into their 60’s on here are still getting car loans and are thinking they are gaming the system by having ten credit cards because of the points or miles or etc.

I taught myself by reading and observing my parents. I have never had a business course. Frankly learning about money is not rocket science. These days there are plenty of online courses as well.

Back in the day ... we learned in school, but that was the 50s. 60s and 70s.

Things are different now. Our daughters learned in private school growing up and also being part of our financial planning.

One of my subjects when I taught the group home boys was the Dave Ramsey course designed for middle and high school grade levels. It was received well by the students.

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
I also learned how to write and address a letter, which judging by how horribly people write addresses on envelopes must have stopped around 30 years ago.

What's a letter?

Is that like when you print out an email?

In fairness I think businesses have been failing for years. When I took the Florida general contractor exam in 2008ish the figure then was that 90% of business owners couldn’t figure 10% profit on a 1$ cost product.

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
In fairness I think businesses have been failing for years. When I took the Florida general contractor exam in 2008ish the figure then was that 90% of business owners couldn’t figure 10% profit on a 1$ cost product.

There's an old joke:

Contractor One: I buy it for $1, and sell it for $5.
Contractor Two: Yeah, four percent isn't bad.

quote:

Originally posted by AKSuperDually:
Homeschool.

It's really the best option these days. There are a few other solutions, that are not as bad as public school, but I don't believe public school to be a responsible option anywhere in this country anymore.

I’ll disagree somewhat.
Homeschool for younger years maybe. However there is no viable way for most folks to teach things like chemistry, biology, anatomy, trigonometry, etc. when they get to more advanced High School classes.
A well vetted small private school with lots of parental input is a better choice for many folks like us.

In regard to public school there is no chance any of my kids will be attending public school.

We have been pretty fortunate with our kids. The public schools they went to were great and my kids also had great friends and parents who cared about them. My kid's elementary school principal was very hands on and new every child in school by name and also knew who the parents were, as she would be outside for morning and afternoon child pick up. She was well liked and respected and didn't follow the trend of today's woke culture.

Couple of quick anecdotes. I’m in financial services and have been into money and things since my first job at 13. Took honours gov and econ in high led to my college degree in economics and career in banking last 25 years

Yesterday 2 colleagues in our southern ca office went to a low income school and gave a lecture to some high school kids about basic finance and money and credit etc. had a PowerPoint and they gave some bank branded swag. Was well received. Then I looked it up CA AK and WY only states that do Mot have any financial literacy requirements coursework needed to graduate high school. 47 other states have some form of required course and Ron D just signed a law in FL that a 1/2 year class in financial literacy is now required to graduate.

I thought that was something they taught in home economics. My wife still talks about a class she took a home economics in public HS late 80s early 90s that among other things like how to bake and cook and sew things (not advanced obviously) but the teacher also added how to balance a check book, make a simple household budget and even got the kids some 1040’s from local library or irs office not sure and had them prepare a sample tax return. Maybe this teacher was just ahead of their time. But at least exposure to it and the basic concepts could help a lot of people. And showing kids where they take your taxes ( paycheck withholding and then if you still owe writing a check on April 15). Maybe a kid went into accounting over it. Maybe the teacher was an early acolyte if Dave Ramsey and didn’t say it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ElToro,

They are too busy teaching pronouns and revisionist history . Not to mention standardized tests that nobody cares about but the State . My granddaughter wanted to learn cursive writing . My wife had to teach her .

Homeschooling is an option, but you have to make sacrifices, and it's up to each person to determine if the sacrifices are worth it. In my family's case, the answer is no. Both my wife and I work full time. We do this so we can afford many things that simply would not be possible if only one of us worked. We also moved to a semi-rural area that has very good schools. The video above talks about this. If the schools in your area are not good, move.

My kids will go to 1 of 2 high schools. Depending on the year, each of those high schools is in either the top 5 or top 10 for our state as determined by standardized test scores. My boys are in fifth and sixth grade. While my sixth grader is smart, the fifth grader is really smart. For the past few years he's been in math class 1 grade level higher. He's been in sixth grade math all year and he's now in the top 1% for math for sixth grade students.

My wife and I each save 20% of our salaries for retirement, and to put into our kid's 529 accounts. We're going to pay for their undergraduate work in a STEM field. If only one of us worked, this would probably not be possible. We would also like to stop working at age 60 or so. Maybe not stop working all together, but quit the "rat race" of the corporate world. Our goal is $2 million in retirement savings. Again, this would not be possible if we home schooled.

When I first started in education we taught
the “Dave Ramsey” system, that was discontinued long ago.

quote:

Originally posted by ElToro:
I thought that was something they taught in home economics. My wife still talks about a class she took a home economics in public HS late 80s early 90s that among other things like how to bake and cook and sew things (not advanced obviously) but the teacher also added how to balance a check book, make a simple household budget and even got the kids some 1040’s from local library or irs office not sure and had them prepare a sample tax return. Maybe this teacher was just ahead of their time.

They still do this. My ex-wife is a public high school teacher. She teaches "Family and Consumer Science", which is the modern day "Home Economics", and it's a requirement for all high school students in her district (and it might even be an Arkansas state requirement). In addition to the food science topics like cooking and nutrition, the class also covers personal finance topics like budgeting, interest rates, taxes, etc.

So not all public schools are failing to provide personal finance instruction.

We didn't have that FCS/Home Ec requirement back when I was in public high school just barely more than a couple decades ago, but we did have an Economics class that was a requirement for graduation. It not only covered overarching economic topics like economic systems, supply/demand, et al, but also delved into personal finance topics. (At my high school, Home Ec was an elective not a requirement, and just covered things like sewing and cooking.)

quote:

Why they don't teach money in public schools

Because then they would grow up as Republicans.

Going to high school in Iowa when its schools were supposedly all in the top 10% of the nation, I remember a couple pages in one class that mentioned budgets and making a list of groceries with the cost of each. That was it. Zero mention of differences between checking and savings accounts. Zero mention of interest, loans, taxes, or anything else related to money.

Those were the best schools in the nation according to national test scores. To this day, the highest paid school employee is the football coach.