JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon wants to see some new topics added to the curriculums of America’s schools to better prepare students for the working world.
The Wall Street titan previously said the school system makes his job harder because young talent is not adequately trained for today’s economy, and the burden of individual development is falling onto private companies.
Dimon has also said schools should be measured by the number of their graduates who get jobs after graduating rather than the number who go to college. He has reinforced the real-world skills he believes should be taught in the classroom.
Last week, the 68-year-old banking veteran highlighted other key areas where he believes the education system should better prepare students.
Speaking at The Atlantic Festival, Dimon said students are graduating high school and stocking shelves—a job he added was no bad thing—but could have been earning “$60,000 a year as a coder or planner or finance person or program management.”
He explained: “We don’t educate them about livelihood. We worry about whether they can do math in eighth grade—which I think is good—but I think we should change the purpose of education. You leave learning about life, and you have a livelihood.
“That should be true at high schools, that should be true for community colleges. [In] those high schools we should teach nutrition and wellness—which we don’t—and we should teach financial education, like saving money.”
The self-proclaimed “full-throated, red-blooded, patriotic, unwoke, capitalist CEO” is admiring of Uncle Sam but also said his nation’s flaws needed to be highlighted.
“My view about America is that it’s the greatest country in the world,” he continued. “But I do talk about the problems that we should fix. Let’s go: ‘What do we do going forward that makes it better?'”
Lessons from the past
Despite studies showing that younger generations are turning to TikTok and Instagram to learn everything from new recipes to career advice, Dimon advocates researching the old-fashioned way.
Last week, Dimon told a crowd of students at the Financial Markets Quality (FMQ) Conference: “If you’re a Democrat, read the Republican opinion … if you’re a Republican, read the Democrat one. Read history books. You can’t make it up.”
He listed off materials the students should be interested in: “Nelson Mandela, Abe Lincoln, Sam Walton [the founder of Walmart].”
A grounded understanding of America’s past and leadership is vital for students, Dimon—who was paid a record $36 million for his work in 2023—continued.
Asked how civics should be taught in school, Dimon said: “They don’t teach it.
“If you’re a parent here, go look at the curriculum they teach in the school. Go look at it—most of the parents who do that tell me ‘American history’s not on it.’ I think it should be on it; it can talk about the bad parts of American history, but it should also talk about freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the founding fathers, and the extraordinary privileges that Americans have.”
