I like very much the fact that April has been declared Financial Literacy Month. As a result there has been a flurry of events and activities devoted to discussing, promoting, and improving financial literacy. I cannot stress enough how important it is to have financial literacy at the center of attention, including the extensive coverage it’s been receiving in the media.
It is also at this time that one realizes the need for information. How many institutions are doing financial education programs and how do they do them? I do not know the answer to this question nor would I know where to find this information. I also fear that anybody who is entering this field could end up reinventing the wheel: devising yet another set of curricula, materials, and programs rather than making use of what already exists or backing their program with proven best practices.
Via the creation of the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) under the coordination of the Office of Financial Education at the U.S. Treasury, the federal government had admirably coordinated the efforts of its agencies and bureaus that are doing financial education programs. But what about the not-for-profits and other organizations that have become engaged in financial literacy?
In my view, there are many advantages to sharing information and in some degree of coordination among agencies, organizations, and businesses. First, it is very important to know what others are doing so as to minimize wasteful overlap. These days everybody seems eager to set up yet another Web page adding to the ten-thousand existing Web pages! While I appreciate the differences that may distinguish these offerings, I am afraid that their proliferation may simply add to the search costs of individuals who have to navigate an ocean of information on the Web. For those developing financial literacy programs, coordination with others who are doing the same thing can save valuable time and resources. For multiple organizations to spend weeks and months in designing programs that others have already thought about and perhaps even implemented and tested is certainly a waste of time and brain power.
Understanding what is effective in improving and promoting financial literacy is another critical piece of information. It would be very valuable to have this information reported somewhere. We need to devote resources to that which is effective and which has an impact. Funders should be able to determine which programs are effective and worthy of support and institutions interested in promoting financial literacy should be able to look for success cases and use them as models for their own programs.
Because I direct a center that is devoted to promoting financial literacy, I have to subject myself and the center’s research teams to these criteria: evaluate what we do, share information, coordinate activities, and not waste a cent of our valuable resources.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Tax day
Today is April 15: the deadline for filing income taxes. Money is on everyone’s minds these days. Even before the recession, Americans were confronted with an increasingly complex financial landscape that requires difficult financial decisions. Yet, studies show that most are not well-prepared to handle their personal finances. I discussed this topic on Vermont Public Radio last Tuesday, and how we can improve our financial literacy. If you would like to listen to the interview, the link is below:
http://www.vpr.net/episode/48366/
http://www.vpr.net/episode/48366/
Thursday, April 1, 2010
April 2010: Financial Literacy Month!
April is Financial Literacy Month. You know financial literacy is in troubles when they dedicate a month to it! Because today is April 1, I thought we could start off with a list of the reasons to be financially literate, following the example of other famous top ten lists.
Top ten reasons to be financially literate:
1. Because being financially literate is smart and sexy!
2. Because it is useful to know that ARM has to do with mortgages and is not a rock band;
3. Because 401(k) is the worse name that could be given to pensions and you still cannot figure out how anyone came up with it;
4. Because you are tired of having to get endless stock market tips from your brother-in-law;
5. Because you would love to criticize banks but do not know what to say;
6. Because you need topics to share with your barber/hair-dresser, taxi drivers, and bar tenders that make you look rich and cool;
7. Because everybody talks about the financial crisis and you have no clues what is going on and whom to blame other than banks;
8. Because you have time to spare now that unemployment is really high and nobody seems to be able to find a job;
9. Because you want to protect granny from scams;
10. Because you want to mathematically prove that the Lexus your neighbor drives with such pride was a bad financial decision.
Top ten reasons to be financially literate:
1. Because being financially literate is smart and sexy!
2. Because it is useful to know that ARM has to do with mortgages and is not a rock band;
3. Because 401(k) is the worse name that could be given to pensions and you still cannot figure out how anyone came up with it;
4. Because you are tired of having to get endless stock market tips from your brother-in-law;
5. Because you would love to criticize banks but do not know what to say;
6. Because you need topics to share with your barber/hair-dresser, taxi drivers, and bar tenders that make you look rich and cool;
7. Because everybody talks about the financial crisis and you have no clues what is going on and whom to blame other than banks;
8. Because you have time to spare now that unemployment is really high and nobody seems to be able to find a job;
9. Because you want to protect granny from scams;
10. Because you want to mathematically prove that the Lexus your neighbor drives with such pride was a bad financial decision.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Regional Feds and Financial Literacy
I recently visited the Federal Bank of Richmond to give a presentation at their Community Development Advisory Council’s spring meeting. Under the leadership of President Jeffrey Lacker, the Community Affairs Office of the Bank is making the promotion of financial literacy one of their strategic goals.
Regional Feds are ideal vehicles for the promotion of financial literacy. They have an intimate knowledge of the local economy and of the problems and most pressing needs in the community. They are in contact not only with local banks but with business owners and employers, community development agencies and not-for-profits. Much of the conversation that took place during my short visit to Richmond—including during coffee breaks and on a shared cab ride to the airport—was about using business principles to help development in the local community. This is ideal grounding for financial literacy; we need to develop and implement effective programs and avoid feel-good initiatives that may go nowhere.
So, I welcomed the hard questions that I was asked during the presentation, the insistent focus on what works and what the evidence shows about the effects of financial literacy. I prepared a lot for this audience because I knew I would be facing researchers who understand the nuances of research work and also economists and businesspeople who are interested in the relevance of the subject to their work.
Regional Feds have active research departments and some of the best research originates from these banks. Not only do these researchers not have teaching commitments (which—believe it or not—take a lot of time!) but they often have access to great data. They are confronted all the time by tough and important questions and this directs them toward research that is of economic and policy relevance. Economists from the Richmond Fed’s research department have written about entrepreneurship and financial education, among other topics. They had produced a review of the effectiveness of financial education that I have used in my research and that I discussed with them at the meeting.
During the lunch discussion in an elegant room in the high floor of the building, we talked about financial literacy in schools. Two main ideas emerged that I want to credit to the economists from the research department.
First, the advancement of learning normally builds over the years: one first learns beginning Spanish, then masters intermediate Spanish, and then can take advanced Spanish courses in the later years of high school. Similarly, one starts by reading short chapter books, then simple essays, short stories, then novels . . . it takes a while to build up to War and Peace. But financial education is often a stand-alone course offered in the final year of high school without much, if any, preparation in previous years. It is hard to imagine, even from a simple pedagogical perspective, that this method could be effective either in teaching financial literacy or in making financial knowledge stick. (In my case, I remember little from my one Spanish course but I could challenge Schwarzenegger to a Hasta la vista, baby! contest.)
The second idea is that one of the objectives of financial literacy education should simply be to make people interested in learning more; laying the groundwork so that people will seek out information and education over the course of their life. In the same way that good English literature instruction makes us appreciate a good book and fosters a taste for reading, so good financial literacy instruction may give people a taste, early in life, for future learning: reading the business section of the newspaper and making an effort to incorporate good financial practices into everyday life.
President Lacker took me around the building that houses the Richmond Fed, with its stunning views of the James River. He pointed out the bridges from the Civil War era that are still standing across the river. He spoke of the history of Richmond, and how much he enjoys living there. And he spoke with pride about the work that the Bank is doing. I returned home content and very much convinced that, in the Richmond district, financial literacy is in good hands.
Regional Feds are ideal vehicles for the promotion of financial literacy. They have an intimate knowledge of the local economy and of the problems and most pressing needs in the community. They are in contact not only with local banks but with business owners and employers, community development agencies and not-for-profits. Much of the conversation that took place during my short visit to Richmond—including during coffee breaks and on a shared cab ride to the airport—was about using business principles to help development in the local community. This is ideal grounding for financial literacy; we need to develop and implement effective programs and avoid feel-good initiatives that may go nowhere.
So, I welcomed the hard questions that I was asked during the presentation, the insistent focus on what works and what the evidence shows about the effects of financial literacy. I prepared a lot for this audience because I knew I would be facing researchers who understand the nuances of research work and also economists and businesspeople who are interested in the relevance of the subject to their work.
Regional Feds have active research departments and some of the best research originates from these banks. Not only do these researchers not have teaching commitments (which—believe it or not—take a lot of time!) but they often have access to great data. They are confronted all the time by tough and important questions and this directs them toward research that is of economic and policy relevance. Economists from the Richmond Fed’s research department have written about entrepreneurship and financial education, among other topics. They had produced a review of the effectiveness of financial education that I have used in my research and that I discussed with them at the meeting.
During the lunch discussion in an elegant room in the high floor of the building, we talked about financial literacy in schools. Two main ideas emerged that I want to credit to the economists from the research department.
First, the advancement of learning normally builds over the years: one first learns beginning Spanish, then masters intermediate Spanish, and then can take advanced Spanish courses in the later years of high school. Similarly, one starts by reading short chapter books, then simple essays, short stories, then novels . . . it takes a while to build up to War and Peace. But financial education is often a stand-alone course offered in the final year of high school without much, if any, preparation in previous years. It is hard to imagine, even from a simple pedagogical perspective, that this method could be effective either in teaching financial literacy or in making financial knowledge stick. (In my case, I remember little from my one Spanish course but I could challenge Schwarzenegger to a Hasta la vista, baby! contest.)
The second idea is that one of the objectives of financial literacy education should simply be to make people interested in learning more; laying the groundwork so that people will seek out information and education over the course of their life. In the same way that good English literature instruction makes us appreciate a good book and fosters a taste for reading, so good financial literacy instruction may give people a taste, early in life, for future learning: reading the business section of the newspaper and making an effort to incorporate good financial practices into everyday life.
President Lacker took me around the building that houses the Richmond Fed, with its stunning views of the James River. He pointed out the bridges from the Civil War era that are still standing across the river. He spoke of the history of Richmond, and how much he enjoys living there. And he spoke with pride about the work that the Bank is doing. I returned home content and very much convinced that, in the Richmond district, financial literacy is in good hands.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Take the National Financial Capability Challenge
In previous posts, I have described the importance of teaching financial literacy in school, the difficulties in teaching financial literacy, and the need for teachers’ training. In this post I would like to inform readers about the National Financial Capability Challenge and encourage students and teachers to participate in the challenge.
The National Financial Capability Challenge is an awards program designed to increase the financial knowledge and capability of high school students across the United States. It challenges high school teachers and other educators to teach the basics of personal finance to their students, and rewards students, educators, schools, and states for their participation and their success.
All high school teachers and other educators working with U.S. high-school aged students (ages 13-19) are encouraged to register for the Challenge, download the Educator Toolkit, prepare their students, and administer the online exam. Educators who have been teaching students about personal finance for years as well as those who never have before are urged to join this national initiative.
Please note that this is a free program and it works as follows:
Registration: Educators are encouraged to go to http://challenge.treas.gov, view the video message from Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and sign up as soon as possible. Registration is open through March 14, 2010.
Educator Toolkit: Once registered, educators will have access to a free Educator Toolkit that includes ready-to-use lesson plans that cover all the core concepts students need to learn to take the Challenge. Educators are encouraged to use whichever modules they like, use other existing resources, or create their own innovative approaches to teaching these concepts in an effort to help students increase their financial capability.
Challenge Exam: The Challenge online exam, which is designed to illustrate the relevance of financial topics to students, as well as to assess their learning, will be offered from March 15 - April 9, 2010. It will take the average student less than 40 minutes to complete, and each student should take the exam only once. Educators can decide which day to administer the exam and are expected to treat it just like an official exam.
Awards Program: The top two scorers at each school, plus all students scoring in the top 20%, will receive National Financial Capability Challenge Award Certificates. All participating educators will receive an official certificate, and educators from schools and states with the highest proportion of participating students will be recognized as well.
Please spread the word about this important program.
The National Financial Capability Challenge is an awards program designed to increase the financial knowledge and capability of high school students across the United States. It challenges high school teachers and other educators to teach the basics of personal finance to their students, and rewards students, educators, schools, and states for their participation and their success.
All high school teachers and other educators working with U.S. high-school aged students (ages 13-19) are encouraged to register for the Challenge, download the Educator Toolkit, prepare their students, and administer the online exam. Educators who have been teaching students about personal finance for years as well as those who never have before are urged to join this national initiative.
Please note that this is a free program and it works as follows:
Registration: Educators are encouraged to go to http://challenge.treas.gov, view the video message from Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and sign up as soon as possible. Registration is open through March 14, 2010.
Educator Toolkit: Once registered, educators will have access to a free Educator Toolkit that includes ready-to-use lesson plans that cover all the core concepts students need to learn to take the Challenge. Educators are encouraged to use whichever modules they like, use other existing resources, or create their own innovative approaches to teaching these concepts in an effort to help students increase their financial capability.
Challenge Exam: The Challenge online exam, which is designed to illustrate the relevance of financial topics to students, as well as to assess their learning, will be offered from March 15 - April 9, 2010. It will take the average student less than 40 minutes to complete, and each student should take the exam only once. Educators can decide which day to administer the exam and are expected to treat it just like an official exam.
Awards Program: The top two scorers at each school, plus all students scoring in the top 20%, will receive National Financial Capability Challenge Award Certificates. All participating educators will receive an official certificate, and educators from schools and states with the highest proportion of participating students will be recognized as well.
Please spread the word about this important program.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Financial Education: A Look at Teachers
In previous posts, I have highlighted the importance of teaching financial literacy in high schools. I have discussed student financial literacy and the difficulties associated with teaching. In this post, I want to turn the attention to teachers themselves. Teachers are pivotal to the success of financial education. What do teachers think of financial literacy and how prepared are they to teach financial literacy courses?
A study by Wendy Way and Karen Holden titled “Teachers’ Background and Capacity to Teach Personal Finance: Results of a National Study” published in the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning in 2009 sheds light on this important issue. More than 1,200 K–12 teachers, prospective teachers, and teacher education faculty representing four census regions responded to questions about their personal and educational backgrounds in financial education. There are several important findings from this study that I would like to highlight:
First, almost all teachers recognize the importance of and need for financial education. As many as 89 percent of teachers agree that students—in order to graduate from high school—should either be required to take a financial education course or pass a financial literacy test.
Second, teachers do not feel prepared to teach personal finance. Fewer than 20 percent of teachers and prospective teachers reported feeling very competent to teach any of the six personal finance concepts normally included in educational standards, such as those identified by the Jump$tart Coalition and in the NEFE High School Financial Planning Program®. Teachers and prospective teachers felt least competent in the more technical
topics, such as risk management and insurance, saving and investing, and financial responsibility and decision making.
Third, state education mandates appear to have no effect on whether a teacher has taken a course in personal finance, has taught a course, or feels competent to teach a course. Several of the states in the study had mandated financial literacy in high school, so while we might expect teachers in those states to be different, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Currently 80 percent of states have adopted personal financial education standards or guidelines, yet the majority of teachers (about 65 percent) in those states admit not feeling qualified to teach to their state’s financial education standards.
These are worrisome findings; while teachers recognize the importance of financial education, they admit limitations in their preparedness and ability to teach personal finance topics. If you feel discouraged, let me turn now to some encouraging findings reported in this study.
A majority of teachers are open to further education in financial literacy. Interestingly, those who report an interest in additional training are those who have had a college course in personal finance or who have backgrounds in vocational education or social studies. While the majority of teachers engage in a number of financial behaviors that typically help ensure financial security, they express the same financial concerns of the general population. In other words, not only do teachers seem interested in engaging in training to teach financial literacy but that same training may offer personal benefits to the teachers themselves.
This is an important study and has several implications for the discussion surrounding financial education in high school. Clearly, it is not enough to simply mandate financial education. Mandates alone do not make people any smarter. Instead, resources should be devoted to training teachers so that they can implement the standards that are required in financial education. Teachers would welcome this education, may themselves benefit from it, and believe in the importance of financial education. Thus, there are good reasons to expect training to be effective.
And parents, community leaders, and all of you “ambassadors” of financial literacy (identified in my previous blog), please be active, too. If our schools are to adequately prepare students, then consistent, comprehensive, and sound instruction in financial literacy needs to be an important component in every school’s curriculum. But, to adequately prepare our students, we first must prepare our teachers.
A link to the paper mentioned in this article is provided below:
http://6aa7f5c4a9901a3e1a1682793cd11f5a6b732d29.gripelements.com/pdf/vol20_2way_holden.pdf
A study by Wendy Way and Karen Holden titled “Teachers’ Background and Capacity to Teach Personal Finance: Results of a National Study” published in the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning in 2009 sheds light on this important issue. More than 1,200 K–12 teachers, prospective teachers, and teacher education faculty representing four census regions responded to questions about their personal and educational backgrounds in financial education. There are several important findings from this study that I would like to highlight:
First, almost all teachers recognize the importance of and need for financial education. As many as 89 percent of teachers agree that students—in order to graduate from high school—should either be required to take a financial education course or pass a financial literacy test.
Second, teachers do not feel prepared to teach personal finance. Fewer than 20 percent of teachers and prospective teachers reported feeling very competent to teach any of the six personal finance concepts normally included in educational standards, such as those identified by the Jump$tart Coalition and in the NEFE High School Financial Planning Program®. Teachers and prospective teachers felt least competent in the more technical
topics, such as risk management and insurance, saving and investing, and financial responsibility and decision making.
Third, state education mandates appear to have no effect on whether a teacher has taken a course in personal finance, has taught a course, or feels competent to teach a course. Several of the states in the study had mandated financial literacy in high school, so while we might expect teachers in those states to be different, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Currently 80 percent of states have adopted personal financial education standards or guidelines, yet the majority of teachers (about 65 percent) in those states admit not feeling qualified to teach to their state’s financial education standards.
These are worrisome findings; while teachers recognize the importance of financial education, they admit limitations in their preparedness and ability to teach personal finance topics. If you feel discouraged, let me turn now to some encouraging findings reported in this study.
A majority of teachers are open to further education in financial literacy. Interestingly, those who report an interest in additional training are those who have had a college course in personal finance or who have backgrounds in vocational education or social studies. While the majority of teachers engage in a number of financial behaviors that typically help ensure financial security, they express the same financial concerns of the general population. In other words, not only do teachers seem interested in engaging in training to teach financial literacy but that same training may offer personal benefits to the teachers themselves.
This is an important study and has several implications for the discussion surrounding financial education in high school. Clearly, it is not enough to simply mandate financial education. Mandates alone do not make people any smarter. Instead, resources should be devoted to training teachers so that they can implement the standards that are required in financial education. Teachers would welcome this education, may themselves benefit from it, and believe in the importance of financial education. Thus, there are good reasons to expect training to be effective.
And parents, community leaders, and all of you “ambassadors” of financial literacy (identified in my previous blog), please be active, too. If our schools are to adequately prepare students, then consistent, comprehensive, and sound instruction in financial literacy needs to be an important component in every school’s curriculum. But, to adequately prepare our students, we first must prepare our teachers.
A link to the paper mentioned in this article is provided below:
http://6aa7f5c4a9901a3e1a1682793cd11f5a6b732d29.gripelements.com/pdf/vol20_2way_holden.pdf
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Strangers in the classroom
I regularly receive e-mails from people who recognize the terrible need for improving financial literacy among young people. Most of the people who write say they want to volunteer their time and teach financial literacy in high school. I am very impressed by how strongly people feel about financial literacy and I have been thinking of ways of harnessing that willingness to help and the generosity of volunteers. Financial literacy is much in need of promoters and organizers. It is a very important issue and we need to work for it.
While I want to encourage everyone to get involved with the schools, I am reluctant to recommend that individual volunteers teach financial literacy in schools, for three main reasons.
1. Contrary to popular belief, it is very hard to teach. I have been at Dartmouth for eighteen years now and I can tell you that every year I have to do a lot of preparation to be able to stand in front of my students and engage them. The first day of class normally ends with a room full of students with baseball caps expertly placed so that I can’t tell whether they are listening or are sound asleep, and a few anxious faces who have been checking their watches for the last 61 minutes of the 65-minute class, and who exit the classroom faster than Speedy Gonzales. And these are the economics students who have elected to be in these classes! It takes a while to filter through the stone faces beyond the first row, and even after years of grueling practice, I barely manage to get through the first half of the term without witnessing a decimated class. It does help to have an Italian mamma instinct, to be armed with limitless patience and unbounded optimism, and to be able to resist the temptation to hang myself from the maple tree outside the window after explaining a concept five different ways and realizing that it is still unclear. If somebody thinks they can just show up in the classroom and teach, I can assure you, it hardly works this way. If you want to teach, you have to be prepared to be trained or the students will “train” you (meaning you will feel like a train has run over you by the end of the class).
2. Individuals seem to have many different ideas about how to approach the instruction of financial literacy. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, financial literacy is a topic grounded in economic and finance theory and it should be taught accordingly. But what I often hear suggested are topics like how to balance a checkbook or how to buy stocks. We need to stay away from these narrow “how to” lessons of financial literacy, as the objective here is to prepare people to understand and navigate a world of complex and changing financial markets. We can’t just tell students how to get from point A to point B; we need to teach them to use a compass. This is no small task and in my view we need a curriculum that teaches the fundamental principals that combine to make one financially literate. Such curriculum development is best done at the national level; inflation does not decrease the value of money differently in Vermont than it does in California or Texas. And while Vermont is much colder than the southern states, it does not freeze how prices work. Once we have developed such a curriculum, there might be a way to engage volunteers in the instruction of it.
3. It’s not always clear how well qualified individuals are to teach financial literacy. In several cases, I have found that college freshmen have set up web pages to teach financial literacy and are eager to go to high schools to offer some classes, even though they may have taken only one introductory course in economics. This is the curse of economics. I have found that many people feel very confident about their views of how the economy works even if they have never read an economics textbook. In other cases, I’ve gotten the impression that people are intent on delivering wisdom and strong values acquired over many years of experience. On the one hand, I am very attracted by the passion that this topic engenders, on the other hand, the dissemination of a sound and consistent knowledge base should be our first priority.
I do not want to discourage anyone who is interested in the pursuit of improving financial literacy in schools. Quite the opposite! Please be involved; do not let the school in your own district not pursue financial literacy, not teach these courses! But perhaps the best role is to be an “ambassador of financial literacy”; be an advocate for financial literacy without going directly to the blackboard. We normally do not let strangers into the classroom, in any course, not just financial literacy. In my view, teaching financial literacy requires a deep knowledge of economics, solid training, and a fair dose of humility. My students would also say that a thick Italian accent helps keeps you awake, but in this case, even that might not be enough!
While I want to encourage everyone to get involved with the schools, I am reluctant to recommend that individual volunteers teach financial literacy in schools, for three main reasons.
1. Contrary to popular belief, it is very hard to teach. I have been at Dartmouth for eighteen years now and I can tell you that every year I have to do a lot of preparation to be able to stand in front of my students and engage them. The first day of class normally ends with a room full of students with baseball caps expertly placed so that I can’t tell whether they are listening or are sound asleep, and a few anxious faces who have been checking their watches for the last 61 minutes of the 65-minute class, and who exit the classroom faster than Speedy Gonzales. And these are the economics students who have elected to be in these classes! It takes a while to filter through the stone faces beyond the first row, and even after years of grueling practice, I barely manage to get through the first half of the term without witnessing a decimated class. It does help to have an Italian mamma instinct, to be armed with limitless patience and unbounded optimism, and to be able to resist the temptation to hang myself from the maple tree outside the window after explaining a concept five different ways and realizing that it is still unclear. If somebody thinks they can just show up in the classroom and teach, I can assure you, it hardly works this way. If you want to teach, you have to be prepared to be trained or the students will “train” you (meaning you will feel like a train has run over you by the end of the class).
2. Individuals seem to have many different ideas about how to approach the instruction of financial literacy. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, financial literacy is a topic grounded in economic and finance theory and it should be taught accordingly. But what I often hear suggested are topics like how to balance a checkbook or how to buy stocks. We need to stay away from these narrow “how to” lessons of financial literacy, as the objective here is to prepare people to understand and navigate a world of complex and changing financial markets. We can’t just tell students how to get from point A to point B; we need to teach them to use a compass. This is no small task and in my view we need a curriculum that teaches the fundamental principals that combine to make one financially literate. Such curriculum development is best done at the national level; inflation does not decrease the value of money differently in Vermont than it does in California or Texas. And while Vermont is much colder than the southern states, it does not freeze how prices work. Once we have developed such a curriculum, there might be a way to engage volunteers in the instruction of it.
3. It’s not always clear how well qualified individuals are to teach financial literacy. In several cases, I have found that college freshmen have set up web pages to teach financial literacy and are eager to go to high schools to offer some classes, even though they may have taken only one introductory course in economics. This is the curse of economics. I have found that many people feel very confident about their views of how the economy works even if they have never read an economics textbook. In other cases, I’ve gotten the impression that people are intent on delivering wisdom and strong values acquired over many years of experience. On the one hand, I am very attracted by the passion that this topic engenders, on the other hand, the dissemination of a sound and consistent knowledge base should be our first priority.
I do not want to discourage anyone who is interested in the pursuit of improving financial literacy in schools. Quite the opposite! Please be involved; do not let the school in your own district not pursue financial literacy, not teach these courses! But perhaps the best role is to be an “ambassador of financial literacy”; be an advocate for financial literacy without going directly to the blackboard. We normally do not let strangers into the classroom, in any course, not just financial literacy. In my view, teaching financial literacy requires a deep knowledge of economics, solid training, and a fair dose of humility. My students would also say that a thick Italian accent helps keeps you awake, but in this case, even that might not be enough!
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