Why Teach Financial Literacy Before High School?
By Kenny Lu and Kubo Pokorny
Financial literacy. Undoubtedly, a skill that, if mastered, can reap unimaginable rewards, and yet, it is not taught in many elementary/middle school curricula. There’s not one single person or party to blame for this. Most people will go their entire lives without knowing financial literacy. Not because they can’t, but because the systems put in place make it difficult for one to make decisions like this. There are so many barriers and obstacles in the way that when compared to the comforts of a couch or a television make mastering financial literacy seems so far away, unreachable almost. So, what happens if we were to integrate financial literacy into the education systems of lower grades?
One of the biggest dangers of skipping early financial education? Kids are exposed to the spending world before they ever learn how money works. As we enter an age dominated by screens, buying things and services has never been easier. There are people professionally trained to try and get you to buy their products. Evil, trained manipulators called marketers. It’s not common to walk down the toy aisle and not hear a child whine for something on the shelf. Marketers are smart. They know how to appeal to younger audiences. Now, it is just business. At the end of the day, it’s another person trying to put food on the table. With that being said, if kids were financially literate, then imagine all of the issues that would be resolved.
Smarter buying habits would see a decrease in poverty rates and homelessness, and when those same kids grow up with stronger financial foundations, the impact isn’t just personal—it’s societal. By intervening at an early age, the minds of young people can be moulded to know what is the difference between a need and a want, instead of seeing anything bright pop out and start whining to their parents. So much of those taxpayer dollars can be redirected into improving other channels that need funding. Whether that be infrastructure, transportation, etc. The amount of money that can be used more ethically is insane.
Of course, teaching financial literacy isn’t without its challenges. To begin, there is no promise that they will listen to or retain any of this information. It may just go in one ear and straight out the other. Creating the right curriculum and hiring the right people to teach these subjects is another. Most people who are proficient in financial literacy tend to keep their tricks of the trade to themselves or do not want to spend their time on an hourly wage. That is a problem I am hoping to fix.
Through the nonprofit organization, Vancouver Institute of Business and Science (VIBS), we teach younger students the importance of financial literacy and other underrepresented subjects outside of school. By creating free, interactive workshops and tutoring services, we aim to open up young minds to the fact that there is more out there than what they are doing right now in school. Change doesn’t have to start from the top. It can start from one student, one conversation, one workshop at a time.
