I began with some sobering facts:
Here's what students are begging to understand:
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So what can educators do? For one, I'd suggest following in the footsteps of two exemplary schools. Grappling with a 23% student loan default rate in 2001, South Mountain Community College decided to implement a personal money management course, a prerequisite for loan eligibility. In ten years the default rate has fallen to 10%. Likewise, Ohio State University began offering students a financial wellness workshop focused on credit and budgeting basics, as well as managing a financial future—a good model for schools wishing to offer students a well-rounded understanding of these topics.
If you can't wait for a formal credit-based class to arrive on your campus, here are my suggestions for introducing financial literacy concepts in your classroom:
Start talking
Dedicate a portion of classroom discussion to money. Encourage your students to share their struggles and successes. They like hearing from one another. They trust each other. If a classmate can learn how to save from a fellow classmate, this will resonate tremendously. Because people generally aren't as comfortable talking about money as we are other topics, it's important to foster these important discussions. Pushing students to get outside of their comfort zone will make the experience more memorable and more effective in their drive toward financial independence.
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Bring problem-solving to the classroom
Feeding students financial facts does little to increase financial intelligence. The trick is engagement. Researchers from the JumpStart Coalition found that financial literacy is really a measure of problem-solving ability rather than a mere awareness of financial facts. As a classroom instructor, you want to walk students through experiences and possible financial scenarios they will come across in college, get them to visualize how they would make decisions, and then ponder the implications. Let students try to come up with solutions together. Have them break up into groups and try to navigate through hypothetical sticky situations. Here are some questions you might pose:
Stedman Graham, the keynote speaker at the event, discussed the importance of establishing and nurturing identity and how teachers can help their students with this process. It's critical to success. "When you lose your identity, you stall growth. You face closing doors. You lose freedom," he said. The same is true for financial identity. Millions of college students are finishing school behind the financial "8 ball." They don’t know how to effectively budget, manage their debt loads, or save. If they're lucky enough to find jobs, they face starting salaries that have remained stagnant for more than a decade. Yet, if they can learn the basics of money management and problem-solve their way out of sticky financial situations, to be their own financial advocates, and learn where to get help (since they can’t always do everything on their own), they'll be more likely to find success.
Image: Ralph Daily, via Flickr.com