Of all the lessons taught by the financial crisis, the most personal has been that Americans aren’t so good at money-management. We take out home loans we can't afford.We run up sky-high credit-card debt. We don't save nearly enough forretirement.In response, supporters of financial-literacy education are moving with renewed enthusiasm. School districts in states such as New Jersey and Illinois are adding money-management courses to their curriculums . The Treasury and Education departments are sending lesson plans to high schools and encouraging students to compete in the National Financial Capability Challenge that begins in March.
Students with top scores on that exam will receive certificates -but chances for long-term benefits are slim. As it turns out, there is little evidence that traditional effortsto boost financial know-how help students make better decisions outside the classroom.Even as the financial-literacy movement has gained steam over the past decade, scores have been falling on tests that measure how well students learn about things such asbudgeting, credit cards, insurance and investments. A recent survey of college studentsconducted for the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy found thatstudents who'd had a personal-finance or money-management course in high schoolscored no better than those who hadn't.
"We need to figure out how to do this the right way,"says Lewis Mandell, a professor at the University of Washington who after 15 years of studyingfinancial-literacy programs has come to the conclusion that current methods don't work.A growing number of researchers and educators agree that a more radical approach isneeded. They advocate starting financial education a lot earlier than high school, puttingreal money and spending decisions into kids' hands and talking openly about theemotions and social influences tied to how we spend .
Other initiatives are tacking such real-world issues as the commercial andsocial pressures that affect purchasing decisions.Why exactly do you want those expensive brand-name shoes so badly? "It takes confidence to take a stand and to thinkdifferently," saysJerooBillimoria ,founder of Aflatoun,a nonprofit whose curriculum, used in more than 30 countries ,aims to help kids get a leg up in their financial lives .”
“This goes beyond money and savings"
The financial-literacy education is intended to________.
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