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Yesterday on one of the newsradio stations I heard about what IMHO is a great idea that has been implemented in the Oceanside high school.
They have added a new requirement for graduation: All students, in their junior or senior year, must take a course in Money Management. This course not only teaches them the basics, such as how to use a checkbook (and you'd be surprised at how many highschool graduates have never in their lives written a check), the various mechanisms of loans, interest, investment types, and most importantly how credit cards work and how to avoid getting sucked into credit card debt.
The requirement was the brainchild of the highschool principal who was appalled to find that his just graduated own child had no clue how to write out a check and that a typical bank statement was as incomprehensible as ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
IMHO this is one of the most practical educational ideas I've heard of in decades. Especially since we as a nation have seen firsthand the effects of personal-financial ignorance and/or irresponsibility. Our public schools teach sex education as part of the required curriculum -- financial education is just as important IMO.
I hope many more school districts will follow Oceanside's lead and add this sort of course as a graduation requirement! As a taxpayer I am not generally fond of adding more mandated courses but in this case I would even support it at the state-mandated level because of its real-world practical value. Thoughts?
It makes very good sense. My oldest will be a senior next year I have started trying to teach him the basics so when he's off to college, it's one less headache he will have.
Schools in Chicago were doing this many years ago when I attended high school. While I agree it's a good idea, I still graduated with a bunch of bubbleheads who couldn't balance their checkbooks or understand that credit cards aren't an extension of income.
While i think it's a great idea, i do not think it should be a requirement for graduation. My father doesn't know how to balance a checkbook or even use an ATM (b/c my mom does his banking for him) but I would not consider my dad stupid or unable to function in the real world...
sounds like this class is taking it a step further than the stuff they taught me in junior high and high school. The more real world knowledge they give kids the better....
It's funny, I learned this stuff in 7th and 8th grade. I went to a Catholic school though.
That's because they wanted to teach you how to tithe at an early age.
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