Students Call For Financial Literacy

To better understand how much Stuyvesant students really know about financial literacy, The Spectator polled and interviewed students about their level of knowledge in personal finance and interest in personal finance courses. Most of the interviewed students responded that they had little confidence in being able to manage their finances and currently rely on their parents and family members for help. The school isn’t considered a viable resource for learning about financial literacy, as there is only one class that focuses on it, Personal Finance, and it is only available to seniors. In addition, the class, which is taught by mathematics teacher David Peng, isn’t very well known to many students; some students felt that the class isn’t promoted or incentivized enough to invoke any sort of interest. While most freshmen do not yet see the value of a financial literacy course, by sophomore year, students start to think about their financial futures and want the chance to take a financial literacy course. An overwhelming 93.2 percent of students polled believe that Stuyvesant is not doing enough to promote financial literacy, and 90.4 percent would like a class to be offered as a five or 10-tech requirement. The rest of the survey results are shown below.