Middle-schoolers will learn about finances

By Karl Henkel

khenkel@vindy.com

POLAND

From Wall Street bailouts to the housing-market collapse, the nation has gained a new perspective when it comes to finances. Now, the education is shifting to America’s future — middle-schoolers.

It’s a program called “Real Money, Real World,” and seventh-graders at Poland Middle School will begin the Ohio State University-developed project this fall to increase financial awareness, something OSU associate professor Nancy Recker said needs to improve.

“What we’re seeing now is the mind-set, ‘If I can’t afford it, I’ll just use my credit card,’” she said. “It’s an instant-gratification thing.”

The weeklong program has students assume the role of a 25-year-old family provider and comes complete with a faux career and bills to pay.

“It teaches many aspects,” said Korisa Shields, family and consumer- sciences instructor, who will direct the program. “If they pick a career and don’t feel like they’re making enough money, then it tells them they might want to pick something else.”

A two-day financial- literacy fair caps off the week, where the middle-school students will meet up with high-schoolers acting as real-world businesspeople, such as insurance salesmen or utility-company representatives.

“They become experts, and they have to be able to explain and help students choose,” said Shields, who said she has done similar events with high-schoolers for three years.

House Bill 1, which passed in 2009, requires all school districts to address college and career readiness and financial literacy in grades seven or eight.

The program has been tested on many age groups, and Recker said junior high is the time to implement it, because those students tend to take it more seriously than high-school students.

The program appears to work, at least initially. In a recent OSU study of sixth- through 12th-graders, one in three students reported changes in their spending habits after “Real Money, Real World,” a stark difference from a 2008 Merrill Lynch-created exam that tried to judge the financial literacy of 12th-graders; the average score was below 50 percent.

Recker said financial literacy shouldn’t be limited to the classroom, and recommended a family activity where a parent cashes a paycheck and sets out cash next to unpaid bills in order to show children exactly where all the money goes.

“It makes sense for them to start thinking,” she said, “because they’re getting to the age where they might have a part-time job.”