Teaching Profession

Teaching Resource Watch: Financial Lessons for Kids

By Francesca Duffy — February 22, 2013 1 min read
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In the next couple months, the U.S. Treasury Department is planning to unveil a website offering teachers “ready-made personal finance lessons that fit neatly into existing math and English courses” and that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards, according to Time magazine.

The site, moneyasyoulearn.org, which is not yet live, will provide personal finance resources gathered from news reports, research, and websites, and will be presented in an “age-appropriate manner” so that teachers can infuse the financial lessons into their instruction. The effort comes shortly after the United Kingdom elected to mandate financial literacy lessons throughout its school system starting in 2014.

Amy Rosen, CEO of the nonprofit Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship and a vice chair of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability, told Time that the Council recently presented its final report on financial literacy to President Obama, and that a central part of the plan focuses on embedding money-related lessons into existing courses. “I am excited about the President’s personal commitment to financial education,” said Rosen. “We have an historic opportunity to fast-track personal finance knowledge in this country.”

Brian Page, an Ohio teacher who is part of the committee gathering content for the website, said he believes the project will help to bring “practical financial knowledge aligned with common core” into classrooms, and resources that are “relevant and matter to many students now.”

Time also reports that the website will complement another online tool designed by the Advisory Council on Financial Capability last year called Moneyasyougrow.org, which offers age-appropriate financial lessons, but has not garnered very many site visitors.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.