4 Reasons Why Schools Don’t Teach Financial Literacy
"Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune." — Jim Rohn
If you’ve ever wondered why you learned how to calculate the volume of a cone or memorize historical dates, but never learned about taxes, investing, or credit scores — you’re not alone.
Despite being crucial for survival in the modern world, financial literacy is shockingly absent in most school curricula.
Here’s why.
1️⃣ Schools Were Designed for the Industrial Age, Not the Information Age
The modern school system was created during the Industrial Revolution to produce obedient workers who could follow orders and perform repetitive tasks.
Back then, the goal wasn’t to empower individuals to think independently or build wealth — it was to create reliable employees.
📄 Data: Sir Ken Robinson, an education expert, famously criticized how schools "kill creativity" and operate like factories — a model designed for a different era.
💡 Result: Practical life skills like investing, budgeting, and entrepreneurship aren’t priorities because they don’t serve this old model.
2️⃣ Financial Illiteracy Keeps the Economy Running
It might sound conspiratorial, but there’s some truth here: people who don’t understand money are more likely to become lifelong consumers and perpetual debtors.
Credit cards, payday loans, and high-interest financing thrive on this ignorance.
📄 Data: A 2022 FINRA study found that 64% of Americans are financially illiterate, meaning they can’t answer basic questions about inflation, interest rates, and risk diversification.
💡 Result: By keeping people uninformed, financial institutions can profit from fees, interest, and poor money decisions.
3️⃣ Teachers Aren’t Trained to Teach It
Most teachers themselves never received formal financial education. Expecting them to teach personal finance without the proper tools or training is unrealistic.
📄 Data: According to the Council for Economic Education’s 2023 report, only 23 states in the U.S. require high school students to take a course in personal finance.
💡 Result: Even if schools wanted to introduce it, there’s a shortage of qualified educators who feel confident delivering this subject.
4️⃣ It Challenges the Status Quo
If students learn how to build wealth independently, they might question traditional paths:
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"Why work a 9–5 until retirement if I can build passive income?"
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"Why take on massive student debt if there are better alternatives?"
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"Why consume endlessly when I can invest and grow my money?"
This kind of critical thinking threatens systems that rely on compliant, predictable participants.
💡 Result: Encouraging financial independence would disrupt societal and economic norms that depend on workers, borrowers, and spenders.
The Bottom Line
Schools aren’t going to teach you how to escape the rat race — that’s your job.
Understanding money, building assets, and making it work for you are lessons you’ll have to seek out yourself.
"If you don't learn to manage money, you'll always be managed by someone who does."
References
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Council for Economic Education. (2023). Survey of the States: Economic and Personal Finance Education in Our Nation’s Schools.
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FINRA Investor Education Foundation. (2022). National Financial Capability Study.
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Robinson, K. (2006). Do schools kill creativity? [TED Talk].