Moniteau high schoolers get financial lessons early
Although they may have several years to go before taking on economics and finances of their own, many high school students not only have jobs where they make money, but have plans on how they want to use that money in the future.
That’s where personal finance courses come in, which in 2025 focus on practical knowledge of personal money management. Some of these courses expand on lessons like how how to balance a checkbook.
Sean Morrow, department head of social studies at Moniteau High School, is teaching a personal finance class for the first time this year. He said that despite this being a new area of education for him, he is basing his lessons on what he and other teachers at the school wish they had known at their students’ ages.
For example, Morrow is teaching his students how to budget for paying off a student loan or a mortgage — lessons that can be applied by pretty much anyone over 18 years old.
“A low-interest college loan is about 8%. How much does your college education cost you, how long does it really take to make that back?” Morrow said. “When you buy a house for $100,000 and you end up paying back a million dollars, how does that work?”
Morrow used to teach economics to high school students, but that was 20 years ago. In jumping back into the subject now, he said he uses personal experience, as well as the experiences some of his students have had so far, to craft his lesson plans. Some of the older students have jobs, which he uses as real world examples of money management.
Morrow added that he is hoping to have a good number of students who have jobs in the spring semester, so he can teach them how to file their taxes using their real documents.
The scenarios Morrow has used in his class have so far garnered good participation from students, he said, who have a lot of interest in knowing how to deal with financial changes.
“My hope is a lot of them have jobs next semester. We're going to do our taxes in class, and for anyone who doesn't have a job I'll give you a fake 1099,” Morrow said. “This one has the best participation out of any of them. These kids have questions — what happens if I don't have health insurance and go to the hospital, what happens when I don't get the job I want?”
Morrow said he structures his class this way because it helps the students realize that his isn’t just a class, it’s closer to being practice for their post-high school lives. He started the semester by asking the students what jobs they want to have when they graduate, which gave them a basis for knowing how much money they might earn and what it affords them.
On Sept. 15, Morrow was getting ready to teach the students about stocks, the stock market and other investment options, which is another piece of financial literacy he said he wished he knew years ago. Another one was how a mortgage works, which he walked students through using real numbers.
“We did a budgeting thing the other day where I didn't tell them what they make,” Morrow said. “They had to find a house; something livable but reasonable as a starter home. They had to do the mortgage calculator, the loan calculator so they knew how much they would have to pay.”
