UK is going to make kids financially literate

[Our UK Correspondent]

Do other countries provide kids with this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21371856

[jpo]

No, but I remember in an 8th grade math class my instructor told us to start saving as soon as we got a real/career job instead of blowing money on a fast car like he did when he was teaching us about compound interest.

[Spork]

I cannot speak for now, but there was a time (late 70s/early 80s) where Texas required a "fundamentals of free enterprise" class that was intended to be much like what the article describes.

In reality it was a ridiculous, stupid class that really offered nothing.  In retrospect, I fully understand the intentions of the requirement.  It was just poorly implemented.

[Donovan]

I remember taking a class in high school the theoretically taught us the basics of finance and money management.  We even had a project to come up with a small business idea and write out the basic paperwork (business plan, etc) for it.

However, I'll be honest and say that I remember absolutely nothing about what I learned in that class. Oh, I'm sure that I have all of the knowledge, but I'm confident that it was promptly forgotten right after that class and only really relearned as I got my first job and living it rather than studying it theoretically.

[kt]

yes! really pleased this is finally in the curriculum. I remember an hour spent on accounts types and the like aged around 15 and then another hour on budgeting before uni at 17/18. I'm sure it won't all hit home but I'm pleased they will have been told about these things for future reference and hopefully it does make some difference. has to be better than nothing surely!

[Self-employed-swami]

We have a similar class in my province, called Career and Life Management.  It teaches basic finance, as well as many other topics, including sexual health, and resume/job skills.  It is taught for only one semester though, in grade 11.

[strider3700]

We had something similar,  it lasted maybe 2 weeks then it was on to sewing/cooking/woodworking/... for 2 weeks.   

All I remember was we had to learn to balance a cheque book which is totally pointless as very very few cheques are written these days.   The other thing was we got to play with spreadsheets and do pretend investing in the stock market.   All that taught me was that putting 100% on harley davidson because they're cool didn't amount to any real change over the period of maybe 5 days. 

It was frankly a total waste of time.

[KMMK]

We have a similar class in my province, called Career and Life Management.  It teaches basic finance, as well as many other topics, including sexual health, and resume/job skills.  It is taught for only one semester though, in grade 11.

Oh, the memories. All I remember from CALM is doing an embarrassing presentation on cocaine (geeky shy girl), faking a project where we found out how much rent actually cost (terrified to phone people), and missing the day they talked about birth control cause I was getting an award or something.

Luckily I figured out life without that silly class.

[Self-employed-swami]

Oh, the memories. All I remember from CALM is doing an embarrassing presentation on cocaine (geeky shy girl), faking a project where we found out how much rent actually cost (terrified to phone people), and missing the day they talked about birth control cause I was getting an award or something.

Luckily I figured out life without that silly class.

Yep.  It is a decent place to start, but it really could go so much further.  My husband is a teacher, and this year, he is teaching 3 sections of CALM 20. 

[Sparky]

We have a similar class in my province, called Career and Life Management.  It teaches basic finance, as well as many other topics, including sexual health, and resume/job skills.  It is taught for only one semester though, in grade 11.

Oh, the memories. All I remember from CALM is doing an embarrassing presentation on cocaine (geeky shy girl), faking a project where we found out how much rent actually cost (terrified to phone people), and missing the day they talked about birth control cause I was getting an award or something.

Luckily I figured out life without that silly class.

Albertans here? Sounds like the exact same class I took 10 years ago. In fact, that stupid class caused me to graduate a year late ....

[KMMK]

We have a similar class in my province, called Career and Life Management.  It teaches basic finance, as well as many other topics, including sexual health, and resume/job skills.  It is taught for only one semester though, in grade 11.

Oh, the memories. All I remember from CALM is doing an embarrassing presentation on cocaine (geeky shy girl), faking a project where we found out how much rent actually cost (terrified to phone people), and missing the day they talked about birth control cause I was getting an award or something.

Luckily I figured out life without that silly class.

Albertans here? Sounds like the exact same class I took 10 years ago. In fact, that stupid class caused me to graduate a year late ....

That's funny. Very useful class for you then. Yes, was raised in AB though in MB now. CALM was 19 years ago for me - I'm getting old.

[5inatrailer]

Hello Albertans!
I just read an interesting book on money savvy kids (took it out of the library)
It was a decent read and I got some good ideas for my oldest (5)
Will revisit next year to get some more ideas.
ps CALM was a total waste of time- I wish I could go in and teach that class as a guest lecturer.
The whole do as I say not as I do would get old quick tho...

[Matte]

In BC its CAPP, Career and Personal Planning, I think that was my only 100% I ever got in school lol, it was a joke.  I remember being taught about checkbooks, sad thing is this was in 2006.  Nothing about credit cards, interest, debit cards, really nothing of use.  They also played some videos about sex ed and drug use.