Most of us are completely clueless in high school and the lessons will be completely forgotten. (Though I'm happy my province, Ontario, started doing this a few years ago.)
I agree that most of us get out of high school clueless, both because of age/maturity but also because schools are not teaching people HOW to think, they're teaching WHAT to think.
Two areas of knowledge would revolutionize the system, and obviously would never happen:
* critical reasoning -- this is I bought my kids a book on cognitive biases and how to think through problems and fallacies in thinking
* curiosity -- this is where AI would help in schools, but unfortunately teachers are pushing kids away from using AI in general, let alone using it as a tool to be curious and explore knowledge and reasoning about a subject
I can only conclude that these things are not inherently in the public school system on purpose to keep the population dumb and docile. I hate thinking that, but it's the only conclusion I can come to. Someone(s) wants our children to be dumb, dependent and easily manipulated in their thinking.
*
In the U.S., we had this for about 50 years, but was mostly gone by the mid-1980's. It was part of a class called Home Economics.
In some schools it was mandatory for everyone. In other schools, it was for girls only because at the time it started, it was usual for women to do the household finances.
The course often also included things like cooking, cleaning, and sewing. What people today learn from online "life hacks."
I'm glad I learned all of those skills in high school. I only rarely need to darn my socks, but the knots I learned translate to fishing and other needs.
It was also where I learned typing.
* proper nutritional eating
* balancing a budget (saving, spending)
* simple skills like how to stitch and sew their clothes when there is a hole or button needs to be fixed
I looked at their text books and my jaw hit the floor. All up to date, amazing pictures and instructions, little anime characters teaching life skills in a fun way. I was blown away, it was both practical and fun.
My daughter got a class like this in her charter school, they learned how to change a tire for a car and such. She absolutely loved it. They ran scenarios like, "if you made $<x> amount of money per year, and you want to live around $<y> how could you do it?", and she learned how she would get a roommate, how to split rent effectively and make a monthly budget.
Because what would you teach in these classes? I guess you'd start with, avoid debt, spend according to your means etc.
Next minute some politician will be concerned voters take it too seriously and start judging them by their ability to stick to budgets. Nononono. Let's make that curriculum less revolutionary.
Then I suppose there's corporate interest too. Surely spending withing your means is un-American? Let's include in the lessons stuff about spreading the cost of your purchase over 3 years on a credit card. And did you know Visa, our educational partner, offers you a student credit card with just 280% annual interest and 0.001% cashback, just to get you to dip your toes in the world of crippling debt? I mean, sustainable personal finance. And if that all gets too much, here's some opioid painkillers. There, much better.
The key lesson kids need to learn is to avoid debt and live within their means. Now-a-days every business has decided there is more revenue in pushing their individual debt platforms rather than their products. Go into the Gap, and the staff is heavily incentivized on pushing "Gap Cards", but not on actual product sales.
I won't get into a religious debate on if all debt is bad, but it is a fact that without financial awareness this is the #1 problem facing households today, spending above their means and having "bad" debt dragging down their wealth building.
At an early age I pointed out to my kids, as we went through a store cashier, the signs about "get a <x> card for savings" and brainwashed them that those are traps. They are now in college, everything is cash flowed, and they will not have a credit card in their name (in fact their credit is locked).
"But how will they be able to afford a house and get a loan if they don't have a credit score?!" -- by saving and investing their money instead of spending it with pieces of plastic. Loans can be given with manual underwriting. Cars can be bought with cash following simple rules.
Aside from all that though, just teaching AWARENESS and intentionality from a personal finance class will carry on beyond the class. Having awareness of spending (i.e. "Can I afford this?"), followed by intentionality ("I'll save $500 for the next three months and then buy it, instead of paying payments. I can wait!"), followed by planning (i.e. budgeting), and you have someone who is going to be successful and build wealth.
I suspect ignorance is desired. Financially illiterate people are more profitable.
Spot on, my friend. This is the only conclusion I've come to after watching my kids go through the school system.
Nothing would help the next generation more, even above giving them seed investment money, than helping them avoid the pitfalls which are just waiting for them around every corner.
My daughter took an elective for this in HS, and every day would come home and say how much she was learning and how empowered she felt about money afterwards.