Don’t Gut Math Standards, Teach Personal Finance
‘We graduate students with no training in investing, bank accounts, the stock market, the bond market, mortgages, credit and debit cards, insurance, rental agreements or life insurance.’ By Readers Aug. 30, 2023 3:02 pm ET Photo: Elise Amendola/Associated Press Regarding Faith Bottum’s “California’s Weapons of Math Destruction” (Cross Country, Aug. 19): California should launch a mandatory high school course in the math and principles needed for personal finance. We graduate students with no training in investing, bank accounts, the stock market, the bond market, mortgages, credit and debit cards, insurance, rental agreements or life insurance. These matters are somewhat math related, and students will have to deal with them as they progress into adulthood and the working world. Such training with an emphasis on building a pe
Photo: Elise Amendola/Associated Press
Regarding Faith Bottum’s “California’s Weapons of Math Destruction” (Cross Country, Aug. 19): California should launch a mandatory high school course in the math and principles needed for personal finance.
We graduate students with no training in investing, bank accounts, the stock market, the bond market, mortgages, credit and debit cards, insurance, rental agreements or life insurance. These matters are somewhat math related, and students will have to deal with them as they progress into adulthood and the working world.
Such training with an emphasis on building a personal retirement plan early in life and the power of compounding could gradually wean them off the concept that Social Security will be their retirement salvation.
John F. Quilter
Eugene, Ore.
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