Why isn't, "Credit" taught in school?

[Anonymous]

I step back and wonder at my own stumbling journey, as well as the hundreds of people who post on this board, daily. I took Home Economics in middle school, but as far as I can remember, Credit, broadly speaking wasn't covered. Maybe because, you're not really eligible for credit until you turn 18?

[jamie123]

Can you imagine just how many businesses would be affected if young consumers actually knew something about credit? Sheesh! They wouldn't be able to prey upon a large percentage of their clientele!

Banks, auto dealers, credit card companies and collection agencies make huge dollars on uneducated consumers all the time.

[hernaemm90]

1000% with you. I didn't know jack about credit or how it worked, I only bothered to look up how credit works because I got my first credit card July last year and by accident I stumbled into this forum, glad I did too.

[HighAchiever]

I wish I knew the things I know now and am still learning!!! My life would have been sooooo different, that's for sure!  

[Anonymous]

The education systems main priority is money and if they educated kids about the gravity of credit they wouldn’t go into debt for the rest of their lives for a degree they don’t need.

[Andypanda]

Just make  myFICO forums mandatory reading.

[Anonymous]

Yep I took economics and we didn’t touch on credit at all.

Man if I had learned all this stuff, my entire life would have been different honestly.

[Anonymous]

My husband and I were just talking about this the other day- Seeing as how I am a teacher

I teach middle school social studies, so it may not be quite as helpful as if my students were in high school, but I AM going to try to introduce the subject next year.

I am actually hoping that my school district will look into getting a curriculum that teaches credit itself- not just balancing a checkbook, etc. It would help so much!

[Anonymous]

I actually presented to the graduating class of my daughter’s high school this year. Like all of you, I never had a formal introduction to credit when I was younger either. Figuring that these kids likely hadn’t either, I buzzed the principal and proposed a one-period ABCs intro to the very basics of credit, and he was all for it. He decided to make it mandatory for all of the seniors to attend and it was very well-received. I’ve gotten a number of texts and emails from parents since, expressing their gratitude and asking followup questions, and we are going to expand it next year to a 3-4 part evening session to go more in-depth on the mechanics of scoring, score tier breakpoints, peculiarities of lenders (such as the 5/24 Chase rule), and anything else I can think to add.

I’d highly suggest that any of you with kids in school reach out to those schools’ officials and try something like this. I found that the kids were far more involved and attentive than I expected, they asked good questions, and seemed genuinely appreciative of learning what they did. And trying to help the up and coming young adults in our country avoid being hamstrung by the FIs before they even know what they’re doing is definitely worth the effort.

[DaveInAZ]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I step back and wonder at my own stumbling journey, as well as the hundreds of people who post on this board, daily. I took Home Economics in middle school, but as far as I can remember, Credit, broadly speaking wasn't covered. Maybe because, you're not really eligible for credit until you turn 18?

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I'm in my late 60s and went to middle & high school in the 60s. Hopefully they've updated things somewhat, because when I was in school "home economics" was something only girls took as it wasn't much on economics as it "home" - cooking, keeping a house clean & neat, sewing. I took shop class which only boys took, I leaned about woodworking and machine tooling on metals. And I was pretty much the only boy in typing class, it was all girls learning how to be secretaries. I just took it for extra credit in summer school, thinking "how hard can it be?", but i'm sure glad because when computers came around I was already good on a keyboard, I know males my age who can't do much more than peck at a keyboard one key at a time.

I think they should teach personal finance, which includes credit but also the basics such as budgeting and not spend more than you make. I learned that from my dad but nothing about credit as my dad thought pretty much that borrowing money was a bad thing.