Financial Literacy

I read a post on financial literacy, or the lack thereof, on the Freakonomics blog today and posted the comment below. I used to think people who got in financial trouble (absent job loss, medical emergency, etc.) were just idiots, but I can see now that I took for granted that other people knew what my parents had been trying to teach me for years. I've reduced my estimate of willful idiocy proportionally, though there's still plenty of that.
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I was lucky to have a father who had himself learned the hard way as a young man. He often regaled me with tales of how he had wasted his paper route money and implored me not to do the same. For a time, my father oversaw the Sunday School programs in our congregation. When a teacher failed to show up, my dad would always teach lessons on the Rule of 72 or, ironic title aside, The Richest Man in Babylon. That book is still a classic and is written on a level that most high school kids can comprehend. It was the first financial book I ever read.

I have no revolving debt and save 15% towards retirement, so it must have had some positive effect. I can also still recite the beginning of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in Middle English, but that bit of knowledge has, to date, proven to be quite a bit less helpful. I think basic financial education should be required at the K-12 and college levels.
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Thanks Mom and Dad!