Thursday, April 13, 2006

A FAILURE TO EDUCATE IN U.S. SCHOOLS

There's no question that high school students have a penchant for spending money - and often the faster the better. But unfortunately many have little - if any - knowledge of how to navigate the financial marketplace. In fact, a national survey released last week by the Federal Reserve found that only 52.4 percent of U.S. high school seniors could correctly answer a series of questions about personal finance and economics. These are the very same students who are just weeks away from entering the work force or moving onto college and living on their own.

That's scary to a lot of financial experts who say that financial education is the responsibility not only of schools, but also of parents and personal-finance professionals. In short, it takes a village to eliminate financial illiteracy among young people. In looking for answers, I asked three financial experts for their suggestions on how to increase financial literacy among our nation's teens. Here's what they had to say:

Sacramento financial planner Bob Dreizler, a former teacher, believes there's plenty to learn in school beyond math and English. "It's always been a pet peeve of mine that so many kids come out of school not knowing much about personal finance," he says. "I've always felt that the world would be a lot better off if people learned to manage their money." In a perfect world, the certified financial planner says, schools would beef up their course offerings to include personal finance. "But when you see (schools) having to cut back on music, art and even driver's ed, I just don't think that's going to happen."

Dreizler says the challenge is to teach money management and keep it interesting. "Until you have something that appeals to (students), you're not going to hit the mark," he says. "They won't realize how much they need to know until they get out into the real world and run up $10,000 in credit card debt and wonder what to do next," he notes. The Sacramento financial adviser says that schools can't be expected to handle the full load of financial education. "They have to work in tandem with parents, who have to be involved," Dreizler says.

When his own children were in high school, he took the unusual step of having them get a credit card that was tied to their bank account. "I thought it was better that they learned how to use their credit card while they were at home and had someone to help them learn about saving and spending," he says. Dreizler advises parents to sit down with their teens before they go off to college and run the risk of getting into financial trouble. "Parents have to find some way of connecting with their kids on learning about money," he adds.......

Crosta's concern is that students graduating from high school or college enter the work force with no knowledge about 401(k) programs or using a credit union, for example. She also says schools can enlist help from professional financial experts who could assist classroom teachers in running programs.

More here





U.K.: TEACHERS WHO CAN'T TEACH ENVY THOSE WHO DISRUPT THEIR COSY MONOPOLY

They ignore that it is their own mass failure to educate in their government schools that has led to the British government encouraging alternative schools

Teachers called yesterday for a ban on government funding of any further faith schools, amid fears of a rise in fundamentalism in the state system. Delegates of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers yesterday voted to cut off taxpayers’ money to the schools by 2020 and promote integration, as scientists also gave warning of the dangers of teaching creationism in biology lessons. The call reflects a growing concern among teachers about the influence of some religious fundamentalists and in particular their ability to sponsor city academies and trust schools under the Government’s latest reform proposals.

In spite of rejecting calls for laws to ban the teaching of creationism, the conference, led by Hank Roberts, a teacher at Copland Community School in Brent, northwest London, made clear its disapproval of plans to give religious groups a bigger say in education. With a third of all academy schools sponsored by Christian backers, Mr Roberts cited Sir Peter Vardy, the founder of the Emmanuel Schools Foundation in the North East, who has come under fire for allowing the teaching of creationism alongside evolution theories. “No government action has been taken to prevent Sir Peter Vardy, who runs two academies and a CTC [city technology college], from teaching creationism in his schools [actually ours — we pay for them]. Instead of government action to stop this . . . what’s happening? Vardy is putting up a further £2 million to gain control of yet another school,” Mr Roberts said. “The academies programme, now without the 200 limit, means yet more ‘independent’ state-funded schools. The proposed trust schools further open the bag for religious organisations and individuals to take control of state-funded education.”

The Rev Chris Wilson, a minister with the Unitarian and Free Christian Church, agreed. Admitting that his youngest son was “happily settled” in a Church of England primary school, the further education lecturer from Cambridgeshire said that while existing faith schools should remain, serious concerns were being raised about the growth of “single-faith schools”, which were in danger of undermining society as they promoted “one dominant tradition over another”. Mr Wilson, 42, said that established faith schools understood the need to “develop partnerships which celebrate equality and diversity of beliefs”, but that increasingly some faith communities had “agendas which are at odds with the Enlightenment, and with reason and progress and the interests of science”.

Thirty-six of the existing 100 academies are sponsored by Christian groups. The United Learning Trust, an Anglican charity chaired by Lord Carey of Clifton, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, is among the biggest academy sponsors, with 12 open or planned academies. There are 7,000 faith schools in England, of which 600 are secondary.

Source

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"


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