Thinking back, what lessons can you remember from high school? Maybe you can string together a sentence from your language course or tell someone that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. But can you recall any lessons that taught you about taxes and how they apply to you, what insurance is and how it works, or even how to write a check?
Having worked in the financial industry for close to a decade, I’ve witnessed firsthand many people under the age of 30 who aren’t familiar with these concepts, but it is through no fault of their own. As a society, we benchmark success in schools on test scores and not much else – don’t get me wrong, some of the information learned is important and necessary to know, but too often kids memorize the information for a test to then push it from their minds to memorize the next data set.
Danielle Randall also saw the dilemma in these important life lessons missing from the curriculum. Having started in the Erie School District as a substitute teacher, she soon realized that these things should be taught to young adults getting ready for the real world…