School’s Outdated Curriculum – Students Call for Change

As Strive Masiyiwa once said, “One is not born with a capacity to make sound financial decisions, it comes through education, reading the right material, and also training.” Masiyiwa points out the obvious that many disregard. Decisions are not brought upon birth, experienced adults must teach these skills to students. Right now, courses implemented in school are ineffective. School boards must create finance and morality classes. With these changes, students will be able to flourish once their high school career ends.

To excel outside of school, authority figures must incorporate business and ethics classes in their curriculum. For the 32.8% of high-schoolers who don’t go to college, they must adapt to a harsher condition than university life. This includes having to pay for their housing, food, and utilities. Without these, college applicants will be incapable of sustaining their health and investments. Accounting for all these factors, 1 in 30 adolescents end up homeless. Banking isn’t the only crucial class to incorporate. Morality and being a good citizen is also a necessity to success in life. If we teach humanities classes that focus on their application to kids in school, the kids will grow to interact with people in a respectable way. Many may think that humanities courses already offered do highlight this. But many teenagers believe these classes are unrelatable. For this reason, their effect on the students isn’t shown on a grand scale.

Focusing on the need for finance studies, children deserve a strong education With enough money saved, children can have the opportunity to expand their education further. Investment classes should be available for all children. Many may think that parents are responsible for educating their child on finance.  Unfortunately, only a fraction of parents give their children the opportunity for a headstart on their future economics. A study conducted by  the Networks Financial Institute reported that only 26 percent of parents feel prepared to educate their children on finance” (Everfi.com). Parents are less inclined to give them the information they need. Because of this, students are not absorbing as much information as they can to help them succeed. Thus, once they graduate they are missing out on the opportunity to excel in the economic world.

Furthermore, taxes continue to be a struggle for young adults. Only 12% of 12-k teachers incorporate finance courses in their classes (pwc.com). According to a survey, more than a quarter of students know the school system hinders them from managing their accounting. Imagine going into debt right after college, needing a quick job, fast and not being able to pursue your dream profession because of your financial situation. To fix this, classes focusing on finance would aid high-school students with managing the amount of money they spend compared to the amount they save. Moreover, 83 percent of students say officials must make personal finance classes mandatory(https://everfi.com/). So, to appeal to students who want to benefit from school later in life, commerce classes are the way to go.

As citizens, our virtues compel us to respect our country and others around us. Yet, there have been 11,993 deaths from mass shootings so far in 2023 as of April 14th. The school system needs to express ethics, and students need to be aware of their safety. They need to be aware of the safety of others around them. Schools must offer mental health classes to prevent the despairing mass shooting number. They must also teach children about how to be a responsible citizen. After all, kids in school at this moment are the face of the next generation. If they don’t know how to handle themselves, everyday life will become lopsided. Furthermore, school curriculum will be uninformative to officials of how to make the sound decisions that Maisaywa speaks of.

As you can see, school boards and state governments must begin to add economic and morality classes into their schools. If we do, we’ll grow from the generation that will lead our world in the time coming. To make this possible, write to your government or district officials. Offer a way to strengthen our community. Children must have experienced teachers to guide them through their life. They must be taught the basics of ethics and economics for their future. Maisaywa is right. “One is not born with a capacity to make sound financial decisions, it comes through education.”