Come next year, one more class will be added to the gauntlet of upper school: Personal Finance.
As mandated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Education, all schools will be required to teach a class covering topics ranging from income to investing and credit during the 2026-2027 academic year.
Although not widely known, Haverford currently offers an elective that covers these topics.
Upper school math teacher Mr. Stuart Alden, who teaches classes ranging from computer science to finance, currently teaches the course and will help build its new curriculum.
“We currently call it Financial Literacy,” Mr. Alden said, “and starting next year, we’re going to give it the name Personal Finance, because that seems to make a little more sense.”
In recent years, the class has seen moderate levels of interest. It garners more students than many small elective classes, but not nearly as many as core subjects.
“The classes are typically about three-quarters seniors, one-quarter juniors,” Mr. Alden said.
The upper school administration has not yet determined how the Personal Finance course will be integrated into the curriculum.
“Guys will find it to be a very enjoyable and informative class. It’s about as practical a class as you can possibly get.” – Mr. Stuart Alden
The proposition of another class added to an already busy curriculum may seem daunting for many students. However, the upper school administration has initiated a schedule review this year.
Still, Mr. Alden notes a lack of causality between the two.
“Talking about changing the schedule has been something that’s been knocked around for several years now,” Mr. Alden said. “The two are completely unrelated.”
It is hard to separate the two, though. The addition of a new class changes any schedule, regardless of its novelty, and since the Commonwealth requires the addition of a personal finance course, the schedule must change.
“Starting next year, in order to graduate, you need the equivalent of this one-semester course in financial literacy,” Mr. Alden said, “so it’s something we have to do. We don’t really have a choice, so we’ll find a way to fit it in along with all the other requirements that you guys have.”
Many students will likely be eager to learn personal finance. After all, the name is truly what the program is all about.
“Guys will find it to be a very enjoyable and informative class,” Mr. Alden said. “It’s about as practical a class as you can possibly get.”
*Correction: The print version of this article misstated that the upper school administration had decided that the course would be required of Fifth Formers. As of presstime, the administration had not decided how or when students would participate in the class. The online version has been updated to reflect this information.
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