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Comment by tcbasche | Hacker News Reader

I would argue that most people in life will never even go near the stock market let alone be expected to learn all those different bits and pieces.

How would that help the average high school graduate?

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Finance is more than the stock market. When I took a class on personal finance, I, too, wondered why it wasn't taught in high school. Personal finance gives you a basic grounding in: - How the economy works and how it affects you - Income taxes - Employee sponsored health care plans/FSAs/HSAs - Life insurance/annuities and health insurance - Budgeting and cash flow - How stocks and bonds work

So yes, there is coverage of the stock market, but it is a very narrow slice of the pie when you're talking about an entry level personal finance class.

I started studying economics, personal finance and financial markets a few years ago. I very quickly realised that although economics was the most interesting -- the study of how people interact with other people. It had the least to do with money.

I think a lot of people would change their political views/personal opinions if they understood a bit more about economics.

They don't go near the stock market in the way a sizeable % of most countries populations doesn't go near politics and doesn't vote, that doesn't mean it's an approach that puts society first - in general it's a selfish approach. Not knowing how markets work and how they affect your life, your retirement, taxes, is knowingly eschewing knowledge about a pretty important part of life.

I don't know if it should be taught in school or if people should just be responsible adults and learn about it, but more people understanding the stock market would be the best way to have proper regulations and stopping it all being labeled as a boogeyman that the rich old white man uses to fuck everyone else over.

I never thought about that; the latter point about having an understanding to take away the power and mysticism around it. I guess it's like the tech industry - and it's easy to forget we're part of something most people also don't understand.

More importantly, where are we going to find the time in an eight hour day to teach more things? What is going to get tossed to the wayside?

People have already complained that arts, music, civics, home ec, and trade classes were tossed to the wayside for APs and STEM. What else is left to toss?

That's the eternal problem when you start with the status quo - a zero sum give and take - a battle betwixt pressure groups

There should be a top down revision of the curriculum every decade - you start by defining the final result - after 12 years of compulsory education what does every citizen and illegal need to know and to what exact degree? What is the minimum number of hours of instruction that can be used to achieve this? Then you realize you need 20 years of education to get to the desired final state. So you have to start thinking creatively: can these two topics be taught in the same lesson by integrating the knowledge into a larger coherent approach? Can the same math lesson that teaches percentages also advance a basic understanding of credit card interest? YES IT CAN.

Teachers, some of them, the ones that use the same lesson from their 1st year teaching 20 years on, are stuck in their ways and have unions to protect their inertia. The only way you can shake it up is to throw them out of their comfort zone by making top to bottom changes at intervals - sorry miss math teacher, you're not going to be able to use that goddamn lesson plan again this year - that's not how we roll in 2021.

The kids have already too many hours of schooling. It is packed and we are not at "minimum number of hours of instruction" at all. We are basically over maximum number of hours.

That wasn't related to my point at all

I completely agree on school being too many hours and too many days per year. I've read research on the inverse correlation it has with creativity.

uhh what do you mean? 401ks and pensions are all invested in some equity based funds, it would be great to understand how the underlying works since it's what your retirement depends on

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