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Comment by elijaht | Hacker News Reader

Honestly- I don't think 99% of students will care. And those that do are largely the type that will not need this class (well off, or already would be doing this research, for example).

I think it's really hard to care about 99% of personal finance until you are in it, and thankfully most students in this class won't have to care about the material immediately. And the material is bottom of the barrel in terms of intellectual stimulation and a surprising large body of material. Without "hooks" like actually paying rent, electric, etc. it feels so abstract that nothing sticks well.

We had a course like this required as part of my high school graduation reqs and among myself/friends it was hugely ineffective.

I don't know what the best way to solve this problem is, but I'm dubious this will benefit anyone

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> Honestly- I don't think 99% of students will care. And those that do are largely the type that will not need this class (well off, or already would be doing this research, for example).

we subject students to learning about stuff few of them care about. what's the argument for keeping all of that material, but rejecting this?

> Without "hooks" like actually paying rent, electric, etc. it feels so abstract that nothing sticks well.

what are the hooks for getting other high school material to stick?

There aren’t any. Many of the students complaining about being forced to take pre calculus also tend to forget it. OP’s point was that teaching them is useless if they’ll just forget it.

>Honestly- I don't think 99% of students will care. And those that do are largely the type that will not need this class (well off, or already would be doing this research, for example).

yeah because they find other subjects more captivating? May as well replace one boring subject with a boring one that at least has more applicability to real life.

I took an independent living class in high school that taught me basic checkboook balancing, cooking, cleaning, etc and while I didn’t care then, I can’t say I didn’t learn and retain anything.

I was required to pass a personal finance class in high school, it resonated with me, and I am far more comfortable than most people my age. A class may not resonate with every person, but for those who take the lessons to heart and grasp the incredible potential of exponential growth, it will be absolutely life changing.

Possibly but I think a lot of what can be taught would be of interest to teenagers. Like the real cost of financing college and how credit card interest works. There really is a litany of small things that can be catalogued as "personal finance" that young people could find interesting. After all, every kid wants to "be rich" one day.

Detailing how compound interest works and how easy it is to begin investing in the free market with a small bit early that can turn into much more 25 years down the road, for example. FWIW I had a similar class in high school and loved it. Learning about markets as well as basic things like managing a checking account were fun and felt empowering. It was a very practical course and I'd agree with you that avoiding the abstract is probably important.

Kids, and many adults, really do not understand the relationship between money and time and what time is better to teach people about that than when they have a lot of time left?

I think it's important to champion capitalism and free, public, markets, as it is our proven way of life, and teach young people how they can choose to participate in it without much to start with. Much better than trends in teaching kids it is hopeless and we need to socialize everything.

its still the exposure that's relevant. simple exposure can alter search queries later, or give people a referential source to look back to, even if rote memorization or even critical thinking was completely neglected.

a student going through this class will make fun of it with their peers, but then be completely shocked at how useless and poor the decision making is from people outside their school.

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