Except for that troubling “sexting” craze, today’s teenagers are pretty darn smart. Definitely worth listening to.
As reported on Sunday, Snohomish High School seniors taking government and law classes recently drafted bills for state lawmakers to consider this session that would require financial education be taught in high school. The students hope schools will do more to teach teens about mortgages, interest rates, credit and the importance of savings.
The best idea would integrate finance into math classes instead of creating new classes and an extra graduation requirement. Schools would have to figure out how to work the lessons into the curriculum.
Student Harrison Outlaw said financial lessons will make math seem more relevant. “I haven’t once used a quadratic formula outside math class,” he said.
Amen. Not everyone is going to be a scientist, mathematician, doctor, etc. But everyone is going to have a bank account. Hopefully.
With bad economic news on a continuous loop, it’s good to see students demanding such education. They don’t want to make the same mistakes they see resulting in foreclosures, mountains of debt and 401(k) losses.
Critics say that money matters, like sex, should be taught in the home. But we’ve totally confused politeness and privacy (don’t ask people how much money they make, etc.) with what should be common knowledge and openly talked about (everything financial that isn’t private). Students should know about interest rates before that first credit card solicitation comes in the mail.
Like financial education, schools also have a mandate to teach scientifically-based sex education. Like financial education, it is also often shunted to the side by the myriad graduation requirements students already face. But try and think of two topics more real-world than money and sex. Or one where bad decisions have more dire consequences. Or one that parents might be more unprepared or unwilling to teach.
Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who gave birth in December, told CNN that telling young people to be abstinent is “not realistic at all.” She declined, however, to discuss birth control with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren. She did say: “I’d love to (be) an advocate to prevent teen pregnancy because it’s not, like, a situation that you would want to strive for, I guess.”
Critics say she is confused, talking out of both sides of her mouth. Not really. What she’s trying to say, without insulting her parents, is: Sure wish I had been taught about birth control at school, since I wasn’t taught at home.
Definitely worth listening to.
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