Most students at Central Kitsap High School (CK) have probably heard something about the new economics class taught by Daniel Sullivan in the 2022-2023 school year. In a recent interview, Sullivan gave an overview of the goals and main focus of the class for those wanting to know more.

Sullivan said he decided to create an economics class at CK because of his own struggles with feeling under prepared to make financial decisions as a young adult.

“So I’m 29, and I just kind of recently went through the stage of my life, like post high school graduation, where you for the first time have to make these major life decisions involving money,” said Sullivan, “And it seemed like every single one of those decisions, I was kind of making things up as I went, and I made some really dumb mistakes with money.”

Sullivan said he hopes to help students entering adulthood avoid making the same mistakes he made.

“I think that I have recently learned a fair amount, I wouldn’t say I’m an expert on personal finance . . . but I do think that I recognize the importance of knowing these things that I did not know, and so I guess my goal is to make sure that nobody has to face those same life challenges with as little information as I had,” said Sullivan.

According to Sullivan, all of the information taught in his economics class should be directly applicable to the lives of students. In other words, it’s everything many students wish they’d been taught in school.

“I want every single thing that we do in the class to be directly applicable to the lives of every student that takes the class,” said Sullivan, “so as much as possible, it’s economics that impact the day to day life and the decisions regarding money . . . and just having a healthy mindset about money.”

Sullivan said he hopes the takeaway from the class would be a feeling of preparedness for important life decisions, such as paying for college or buying a house, and other necessary skills, such as doing taxes.

“I think that students will be prepared to make major life purchases,” said Sullivan, “so paying for college, getting a credit card, buying a car, buying or renting a house, having kids, retiring someday, picking a career. Just really major life decisions that every student is going to have to make sometime within the next five to ten years.”

Sullivan said he believes that all students can benefit from taking this class, regardless of their future plans.

“If you do take [economics], I do think that you will benefit from it. No matter what your life path will be,” said Sullivan, “I think that if I do my job correctly, which I’m going to try to do, that it will not matter what your future profession is, whether you go to college or not, whether you want to have kids or not, whether you have a family or like any life path, every single person will have to deal with money every day for the rest of their lives, and I think this class will help them in that regard.”