Dollars and Sense Should Be Required by John

Dollars and Sense Should Be Required by John - June 2018 Scholarship Essay

What subject in high school would you deem the most important? History? Biology? Calculus? Obviously, the answer is quite different to each high school graduate. Individual passions and pursuits would dictate their choice. A historian would accredit her interests to a world history class while a zoologist might deem his biology class quintessential to his development in his field. Despite this obvious conflict in choosing a singular class as "most important," what does the historian, the physicist, and the zoologist all have in common? Money. Money is the cornerstone of modern economies and acquiring it as well as handling it are essential skills to survive in our currency-based society. This is why Dollars and Sense should become a required class. It teaches the skills every person should know leaving high school: how to write a check, how to balance a checking account, the dangers of credit cards, and a basic understanding of investment vehicles. Instead, it is only an elective, not taken seriously, leaving students on their own to learn essential financial knowledge they will need the rest of their lives.
In a high school classroom, you will often hear students say, “Why do I need to learn this?” or “I won’t use this later in life.” While these students don’t understand the advantage of a liberal arts style education, there is a ring of truth in their statements. Many will grow up and have no use for the calculus they learned and it will simply fade from their memory. Those that do rely on calculus in their career will have little use for their knowledge of chemistry. However, you will not hear students question what they are learning in Dollars and Sense. It is very easy to see how each subject you learn in this class can be directly applied to your life soon after you graduate. No one will complain about learning to write a check because they know it is an important skill. Understanding the dangers of credit cards will draw no moans because each student will want to avoid the pitfall of debt. Instead, students that do not choose to take Dollars and Sense and are not taught by a parent figure are left to fend for themselves in our money-centric nation. These students will be more likely to fall in to debt and not have a plan for retirement, increasing the stress on themselves and their future families. The only way to fix the problems that will soon arise because of this lack of knowledge is to make Dollars and Sense a required class.
Requiring a class on finance is easily justifiable because we require classes such as history and science. How much more will the average student use finance in their life than either of these subjects? Setting a base level of knowledge on money is just as much common sense as it is morally correct. Think about how many students were failed in high school by not teaching them the dangers of debt. How many maxed out their credit cards as soon as they received one and is now struggling to stay afloat? Consumer debt is at an all time high because of this inadequacy in our public school system, and it needs to be fixed. Finance is just as important as american history, and requiring Dollars and Sense will help prevent future economic crashes as well as help future students become financially successful.