Posted by Maneesh Sethi :: April 23, 2008 @ 6:27 am

Think back to your high school days. Did you ever learn anything about how to deal with money? Sure, you learned all about how geometry and algebra can be used in the real world, and how to interpret literature, but many schools never teach this most basic skill.

Good news is on the horizon, though. The Tennessee State Board of Education has enacted a new high school policy that will make Tennessee the eighth state to require a personal finance class to graduate. The other seven, as noted by the National Council on Economic Education, are Illinois, Idaho, Utah, South Dakota, Missouri, Louisiana, and Georgia. This is great, especially since Tennessee has one of the highest numbers of bankruptcy in America.

The difficulty is making a personal finance course engaging and interesting to high schoolers. I don't know how I would do it -- thinking back to my own high school days, most kids wouldn't even come to classes on economics, much less learn from them. I think the most difficult part is making the classes fun and personally relevant to each student.

Hopefully, more states will formally educate their students on how to deal with money. With consumerism at an all time high in our culture, a good understanding of financial concepts is bound to help people succeed in life.