Students are the future... Every year 10s of thousands of high school students are graduating across Canada to either continue their education or join the workforce. They are young, sharp and excited about their future full of opportunities. So why is it then that so many students leaving secondary schools feel financially unprepared for the world?
According to the Investor Education Fund (IEF), which conducted a study of Ontario high school students found that 70% realize the importance of financial education and want to see financial topics discussed in the classroom. (IEF, August 29, 2012)
Tom Hamza, President of IEF says "...Learning how to use a budget, manage debt responsibly and save money are essential life skills for young adults... Students will stand a much better chance of long-term financial success if their schools prepare them with these skills." (Newswire.ca, August 29, 2012)
In my personal opinion I could't agree more! I'm actually shocked that it isn't part of curriculums today to at least touch upon the basics of money management. I remember learning about surface areas and volumes of cylinders inside of other weird shapes in grade 8. Looking back now I can only think to myself... Why the hell was I learning that garbage!?! I have literally never applied any of those lessons to anything relevant in my life and I swear we must have spent at least 3 months learning those formulas. Isn't that sick? Funny thing is, Math has always been my strongest subject throughout my school career, so I was always good at that stuff and for what? Who's making these curriculums up? I want to meet this group of individuals so I can slap them.
It's not all bad though, it looks like there is hope for the future of secondary education. I feel grateful that there are non-profit organizations such as the IEF that take this situation into their own hands and try to correct it. In association with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), they are developing lessons starting from as early as grade 4 to bring students relevant information about the basics of money. I'm positive that this program will be successful and bring about changes throughout Canada's schools.
It's funny to think, what could have been. I was the opposite, I hated math throughout high school and my marks reflected that. People these days have to hire "professionals" to manage most of their finances. Nobody hire's a professional to handle their trigonometry or logarithmic equations.
ReplyDeleteYet, we still have an increasing amount of people in debt or bankrupt each year. Which leads to economic collapses and financial turmoil. It would be nice if somebody would wake up smell the stench that is our financial ways. But, perhaps we're doomed to live in a world where a square route is more important then a balanced cheque book.
As a recent high school graduate and first year post secondary student I also wish that I had more previous knowledge of finances before leaving high school, there are allot of things we learn in high school that even in post secondary we never have use for again, such as calculus, as we are not allowed to use calculators in university. I also wish that they had perhaps an option , or at least integrated some knowledge of formatting (such as APA, or MLA style) into secondary learning, because as a new university student I found it quite a shock to the system to have to learn these two styles, and the differences between them, in such a short period of time(several hours). This is just one of many ways I wish secondary school would have better prepared me for university, perhaps they should start integrating these lessons into other classes, such as math for financial learning, or English/science for formatting, or even perhaps creating a class for post secondary prep.
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