The proposed requirement for a freshman Personal Finance class serves to limit an already inflexible course selection.  It discourages individuality at the initial stage of high school by funneling freshmen into the same curriculum. With gym as a required course for freshman and sophomore year, and most students taking a foreign language to fulfill the three year requirement, no elective slot is left open to choice for freshmen. While this may not seem too significant, I believe that eliminating true electives for freshmen stems their creativity and ability to pursue an interest outside of required and core courses.

Freshman year, for many students, is a year of maturation (on some levels) and self discovery through the process of choosing to pursue a certain interest in school. My situation throughout my high school career is a great example. Even before the idea of a personal finance class, my electives were highly constricted. I took Photography 1 my freshmen year but opted to replace it with Journalism the following year. Optimally, I would have taken both. But Photography 1, while a seemingly minor facet of my education, served as a foundation for what is now one of my greatest passions: photography. Had I been forced to omit it for Personal Finance, I would not be the same person with the same developed interests outside of school. It gave me a taste of something I came to love and expand upon years later.

Beyond the disadvantage of losing an elective freshmen year, a personal finance class is not something to hit a group of new students who are just beginning their high school experience. It is something that should be introduced later, to older students who can understand the gravity of the subject and actually absorb its content.