Financial Literacy

When learning about the ten new 21st century literacies, I was glad to see that financial literacy was one of them. I believe financial literacy should play an important role in the education of our students today. Not only is it helpful for them to learn from an early age, but the skills they acquire will be incredibly useful for the rest of their lives and apply to many situations and circumstances. Financial literacy education aims to help students understand and apply the knowledge they have learned in areas such as "earning income, buying goods and services, saving, using credit, financial investing, and protecting and insuring" (Blue, Grootenboer, & Brimble, 2014). As the Ontario Ministry of Education states, basic knowledge in these areas can also assist students in understanding "the local and global effects of world economic forces and the social, environmental, and ethical implications of their own choices" (2011).

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I have not received any financial education throughout any of my years of schooling. Currently, as a 23-year-old adult, I still have very little knowledge about finances, banking, and the economy. When I got my first job in high school, I remember getting my first pay check and calculating the amount to make sure it was equivalent to the hours I had logged in my calendar. However, there was a good chunk of income missing and I was concerned and went to ask my dad. The first thing he said was “welcome to the real world” and then proceeded to chuckle away. At the time, I knew that taxes existed, but I had no idea I’d get tax cuts on my pay checks. That was a moment I’ll never forget; not only was I disappointed that I’d make much less than I worked for from then on out, but I truly realized how illiterate I was in the area of finance and the economy. Still today, I struggle to manage my own finances and if I am required to make a visit to the bank, I make sure I take one of my parents with me since I am not familiar with banking language and I do not know what a lot of the terminology means. This causes me to worry and stress about my future financial issues as there is so much knowledge I have yet to learn about taxes, mortgages, investments, and the global economy. 

For this reason, I believe introducing financial literacy as early as possible would be extremely beneficial and useful to all students as it is a topic that is applicable to our daily lives. Teachers can include financial literacy practices into the classroom in various ways. A reward system can be implemented within the classroom where coins are given to students for good behaviour (teachers can relate this to hours put into work and job performance in the real world) in order to receive or “buy” a reward in the classroom (relate this to how money is earned, teach students how to save for bigger, more important purchases, etc.). Furthermore, students can engage in a fundraiser project where they must learn how to raise money, budget finances, and be effective consumers to purchase items for students in a third world country. This can further promote knowledge in other areas such as global, environmental, and multicultural literacies. 

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Realizing how important understanding finances and the economy are to our daily lives and actions, I still wonder why it was not taught to me during my years of schooling, especially because this topic has been relevant in society for ages. Personally, I believe it would have been much more valuable to learn than some of the other topics we have covered in math class (e.g. algebra, logarithms, etc. all of which I still have yet to use in the daily, real world). Although financial literacy is starting to be recognized as an important aspect of education and schooling today, many schools and educators seem to resist the idea, or do not readily accept it as they would digital or environmental literacy, which I have seen implemented in classrooms I volunteered in. Why is this? Are we reinforcing the role of students as consumers and preventing them from becoming producers – much like their role in education, where they have been taking in knowledge from the expert (the teacher) but are not given the opportunity to be active in their own learning?

Perhaps it is the fact that we might be indirectly communicating to students that money is the most important factor in their lives. Although being financially secure and learning how to support oneself are critical to living and thriving in our society, as educators we must know where to draw the line and find a balance in how we communicate this information to our students. Furthermore, because I consider myself to be financially illiterate, this may also be the case with other teachers out there, and they may not feel comfortable teaching something that they have no skill or knowledge in either. To combat this, I believe attending workshops, outside of teachers doing their own research, or even having financial experts assist educators in the classroom should be a necessary component prior to teaching financial literacy in the classroom.

References:

Blue, L., Grootenboer, P., & Brimble, M. (2014). Financial literacy education in the curriculum: Making the grade or missing the mark?. International Review of Economics Education, 16(Part A), 51-62.

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2011). Financial literacy: Scope and sequence of expectations grade 4 to 8. Ontario Ministry of Education.