Ontario

"... but it's also just understanding how money works so we can advocate for policies that make sense," she said.

Great. Except there's disagreement over how money works even among academics. And what understanding you subscribe to has real political implications. For example different understanding of money is used to drive pro austerity vs anti austerity policies.

In addition, the way money works in practical, personal terms, is not how it works in government terms and this understanding is often used to promote austerity policies that are harmful for most individuals.

It seems kind of ok, everyone agrees that they should be teaching some finance basics. I guess I would.jave preferred to see what outcomes this has had in other places (rather than just trying random experiments on our students). It'd be nice to see if Doug could pass this test himself.

Between Math, English, and an Accounting elective I took, I think I learned at least as much as most students will be learning with this.

English teaches you to read the contracts...with a deep reading. It teaches you to infer the intentions of the writer based on the word they use. It generally teaches you to look at multiple sources, or at the same source from multiple perspectives, too. Don't sign anything you haven't made an effort to read.

Even Grade 9 math makes you over qualified to calculate the vast majority of what you'd need in most of your life. After Grade 9, you're just getting more experience turning situations into math and practicing how to solve different problems with different tools. A Statistics module would help frame a lot of the more "complex" problems we see in our daily lives...but we already have the math skills to solve most of them by Grade 9.

They've been putting the tools we need into our toolboxes for at least decades by now. I don't blame the education system for people who miss basic mathematical/reading principles (unless they're really old or something).

• Credit card debt and the cardholder agreements
• Getting screwed by banks (except where banks do weird things like messing with transaction orders)
• Interest rates and financing things, especially choosing a low monthly rate and thinking you're saving money rather than paying upfront
• Gambling

It'd be nice if this class would help students get out of those kinds of problems. Unless it's a damn good curriculum though, I think it'll end up like English and Math...kids don't pay attention because they don't know how to use the skills they're being taught. (Which is a problem itself, but I don't think a new class is necessarily the answer)