The Stock Market Should be Taught in School
Campbell Ramage-Grose
I used to think that the stock market was a waste of time, but now I believe that investing is an important part of making money and not a waste of time. Every day after school, my family and I check how my stocks did that day and I’ve done that for a while now. I’ve been doing that for so long that it’s become part of my routine. I believe that the stock market should be taught in school.
A personal experience that connects to my belief, is when my dad told me that my stocks were doing really well and outperforming the NASDAQ. My family was having dinner near the end of 2024 and then my dad told me that the stocks that I owned were out performing the NASDAQ. The NASDAQ is a collection of over 3,000 stocks that are traded on the stock market. When I heard this I was surprised and super excited at the same time because it is really hard to outperform the NASDAQ. However, I did recognise that my dad was excited to tell this news; his face looked like he was ready to tell me something good. This news was amazing and shows that if children are taught investing at a young age they can make a lot of money if they decide to invest.
The deeper meaning of my belief is to teach young people about financial responsibility. This idea matters, because a lot of times, adults don’t understand what to do with money once they have it. I think it would be good to teach kids about financial responsibility so they know what to do when they get money as an adult. My belief is also about growth. Investing is usually something only adults do, so if kids are taught about the stock market they are transitioning into becoming an adult and being able to have more control over their finances.
An example of people not having financial responsibility is when people get their first paycheck and decide to blow all of it on expensive things. This happens a lot because they didn’t learn about financial responsibility as a kid. If we teach kids about the stock market and financial responsibility, this would happen less because more people would invest some of the money received in a paycheck. They would also realize that investing in stocks sometimes makes more money than what you invested. They would also know that long-term investing in stocks is much better buying things that may only be used in the short-term.
So yes, I believe that children should be taught about the stock market in school. They should be taught about it because it would not only teach them about a way to make money, it would also teach them about financial responsibility. Life is better when children know how to invest and when they know about financial responsibility.
Writer's Statement
The main belief that I wrote about in my essay was that children should be taught about the stock market in school. I chose to write about this belief because ever since I started investing, I thought that investing in the stock market was a useful skill and should be taught in school. The personal story that I wrote about was when my dad told me my stocks were outperforming the NASDAQ. I chose that story because it showed that the stock market could make you money and since it can make you money it should be taught in school. I started my belief essay with a bold statement. I chose to start my essay like this because I felt that it was a good hook. Another reason I chose this statement is because it was what I actually thought before I started investing. Some of the details that I used in this essay were that when my dad told me I was outperforming the NASDAQ we were having dinner at the end of 2024. Another detail that I wrote was explaining what the NASDAQ is when I brought it up in my paragraph. One of my other details I wrote about, is how I recognized that my dad was going to tell me good news before he told me I was outperforming the NASDAQ.
I took inspiration from Dr. Paul Farmer’s This I Believe essay because he gave a lot of examples of what could happen when the thing he believed in was not used. I took inspiration from his essay in my third body paragraph. I changed a lot of repetitive phrases in my essay, but importantly I changed what this connects to from growth to financial responsibility, which I think fit better with my belief statement. After reading this, I hope readers will understand that the stock market is important and should be taught in school. I also hope that people will walk away thinking the stock market doesn’t only make you money, but also teaches you about financial responsibility.