Beyond Right and Wrong:
Rethinking How We Explore Financial Knowledge with Young People
At Make Sense of Pence, much of our work focuses on teaching children and young people about money. But recently, I was reminded that how we teach — and how young people are conditioned to respond — is just as important as what we’re teaching.
As part of some market research for the next phase of our Money Wise Workshops, I sat down with a young man to explore his understanding of money. Before we even began, he nervously warned me that he probably wouldn’t be able to give “good answers.”
The thing is — there were no “good” or “bad” answers. There weren’t even “right” or “wrong” ones.
I explained that I wasn’t testing him. I wasn’t assessing him. I was simply trying to uncover what he already knew — and where there might be gaps. Because understanding those gaps helps shape better education, not pass judgment.
Once reassured, we had a brilliant conversation. He shared insights, raised questions, and revealed real areas of strength — alongside the natural uncertainties you’d expect at his age. It was exactly the kind of discussion I’d hoped for.
But then something happened that truly stuck with me.
When I finished speaking with him, his parents asked, “How did he do?”
It struck me as such an odd question.
He did exactly what he needed to: he engaged, he thought, he answered honestly. Yet the underlying assumption was that there had been a pass/fail moment — that somehow this was a test, and success would be defined by how many correct answers he had given.
It made me think more deeply about the culture of education and testing that so many young people grow up in. From an early age, school systems often place emphasis on grades, marks, correctness. And while that’s important for many academic subjects, when it comes to broader life skills — especially around money — that rigid framework doesn’t always serve us.
Financial Learning Isn't Always About Right and Wrong
Sure, there are some factual elements of financial literacy that are non-negotiable:
✅ A credit card is different from a debit card.
✅ An interest rate impacts how much you repay on a loan.
✅ Saving consistently builds financial resilience.
These are facts — and understanding them matters.
But how we apply this knowledge in real life — how we make spending choices, how we balance risk and reward, how we react emotionally to money — is deeply personal, and often shaped by experience, values, and circumstance.
There isn’t a single “correct” way to manage money for every situation. There are trade-offs, preferences, and evolving life stages that all impact financial decisions.
When we only frame money education as a series of right or wrong answers, we risk missing the bigger, more important lessons: self-awareness, critical thinking, decision-making.
Moving from Testing to Understanding
This experience reinforced an important lesson for me — and for how we continue to evolve Make Sense of Pence:
- Our mission isn’t to catch young people out.
- It’s not to grade them on what they know today.
- It’s to empower them to ask better questions about money tomorrow.
In many ways, true financial education should mirror how real life works: identifying gaps in knowledge, recognising our mistakes, and learning from experience — without shame.
Because knowing your gaps is not a failure.
It’s the beginning of real growth.
And maybe, just maybe, if we can start removing the fear of “getting it wrong” from financial learning, we’ll create a generation far better equipped to navigate the complex world of money than we ever were.