September 10, 2008

Mortgage Crisis Emphasizes the Critical Role of Financial Literacy for Today’s Generation

Posted by Colleen O'Brien, NSBA Staff, at 1:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

According to the National Endowment for Financial Education, as few as ten hours of classroom instruction can be enough to persuade students to improve their spending and saving habits. Looking at our current mortgage crisis it is more evident now that financial literacy is something that needs to become a focus in education. Discussions of another round of stimulus checks are beginning to make rounds through congress and American is noting the similarities between today’s finical constraints and the parameters of previous recessions. This close brush with a possible recession is having educators look at the lack financial literacy in K-12 curriculum.

That’s why organizations aimed at increasing the financial proficiency of students is critical. Jump$tart is an organization that notes the average student who graduates from high school lacks basic skills in the management of personal financial affairs. This results in citizens that become financially crippled throughout their lives. Subsequently, Jump$tart and other similar organizations have taken on the challenge of incorporating basic personal financial management skills into K-12 curriculum. Financial education programs are beginning to pop up throughout the country in response the lack of financial knowledge of the average graduating senior. And it’s high time it happens!

Want to include financial management education in your school district, school, or classroom? You’re in luck! There are programs throughout the country that pull on local resources and experts that help get financial management curriculum into the hands and pocketbook of students and teachers alike. Junior Achievement is a leader in helping educators engage and excite students about the somewhat hum drum and daunting world of financial management. If you plan on attending T+L this coming October you will have the unique opportunity to register for and attend a site visit to the Washington Junior Achievement center and see students in action as they become the financial master’s of their own town, BizTown. In this hands-on simulation of a fully functioning town with a Mayor, small businesses, restaurants, electrical companies, and banks, students become owners, customers, parents with budgets, and get to literally experience a day in their parent’s shoes. Not only does this program provide them with a better appreciation of the challenges their parents face but it teaches them about the importance of budgets, long term planning, investing, and the difficulties of working in the real world. As you’ll see in the below video, with these financial literacy experiences education meets real life for these young students in programs, like Junior Achievement’s BizTown, and these children leave with a deeper understanding of the true value of a dollar!