April is National Financial Literacy Month: Do high school classes make
a difference?
In 2011 President Obama proclaimed April as National Financial Literacy Month. In his proclamation he stated, “Our Nation's prosperity will ultimately depend on our willingness as individuals to empower ourselves and our families with financial knowledge. “
Fast forward to 2015,
one thing that we can all seem to agree on as parents and educators is that an
understanding of financial literacy is important to our children. What we can’t seem to work out, according to Hank
Coleman of Daily Finance, is who will teach the courses; how will school
districts fund the new courses; and how will these courses fit into already overly
crowded curriculums?
In
addition to these logistics problems, Professor
Julie Heath, director of the Economics Center at the University of
Cincinnati, reports that teachers feel unqualified to teach financial literacy.
“Eighty-two percent say they are not
prepared to teach these concepts," she says.
One of the reasons
for this uneasiness may be that some school districts rely on math, science,
home economics and technology teachers (among others) to incorporate financial
literacy lessons into their curriculum instead of offering a separate personal
finance course.
The good news is
that financial literacy classes in high school do make a difference. According to an article in USA Today (by
Hadley Malcolm), a study of 65,000 college students showed that – “first-year college
students required to take a financial literacy course in high school are
significantly more likely than their peers who didn't take a class to be
financially responsible.”
The study revealed
that, “students who took a class did better on the survey’s financial knowledge
questions, were found to be more averse to debt, more likely to pay credit card
bills on time, and less likely to go over their credit limit.”
If you have been
asked to incorporate financial literacy into your curriculum, and are at a loss
of where to start, try these FREE introductory lessons with your students.
PERSONAL FINANCE LESSONS DESIGNED ESPECIALLY FOR TEENS!
Link to my store: Personal Finance for Teens Unleashed
