No money management for my kids, thanks

Do parents of teenagers want financial education in schools? Nope.

That's not my opinion. I'm passing on what just arrived in a press release. Most parents, according to a survey, do not think that schools should teach more money management. An overwhelming majority of 1,000 randomly selected parents of 16- to 19-year-olds told researchers that they didn't think the school curriculum should have a stronger focus on life skills such as budgeting and managing money.

Funnily enough, that wasn't the spin given to the story by comparison website Gocompare.com, which issued the press release. It was keener on the angle that one in four parents surveyed think that schools should teach more money management. But since I am gifted with an incisive and arithmetical cast of mind, I pondered hard until my brain hurt. By then I'd figured that if a quarter of people want something, then three-quarters don't.

That's a lot. I wish I could say this matters. But it doesn't. Its only value is as a lesson to engage your brain when looking at survey results. Or avoid them altogether. The case for financial education isn't dependent on the opinions of teenagers' parents. Nor should it be. Why does Gocompare care anyway? Does it think financial education involves looking at its website? I'm rather afraid it does… and is prepared to reverse the logic of arithmetic to encourage us.

PJ White is editor of Youth Money