Then how do you save money? In a deflationary fiat currency stored at a bank "accruing interest"? Let me know how that works out for you.
Seriously, the biggest idiot in the world can dollar cost average buy an index fund.
It took me about five years to graduate from a savings account to GICs to bank mutual funds then finally to ETFs, and along the way I had to learn a whole new vocabulary: dollar cost averaging, risk management, management expense ratio, tax-efficiency, diversification, rebalancing. I had to do my own research every step of the way, and if I wasn't interested in it I would still be paying my marginal tax rate on interest that doesn't cover inflation to begin with.
I totally agree with you that financial literacy should be taught in schools.
As it is, most people I know "learn" about investing from the banks' salesmen.
