Make economics accessible for students
Junior Achievement, which relies on a small army of volunteer instructors to teach kids about economics and entrepreneurship, is trying a new way to bring those concepts to life.
The 100-year-old organization started rolling out curriculum this fall that uses technology and textbooks to make basic economic concepts more relatable to high school and middle school students.
How? With classroom conversations and exercises that focus more on practical, everyday money management and personal finance experiences, such as spending responsibly, and the impact of rising interest rates on car or student loans.
“Teens have an inherent understanding of economics and its importance, but basic concepts, (many) just don’t understand,” said Ed Grocholski, senior vice president for brands at the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based organization.
Junior Achievement recently released a recent study of more than 1,000 teenagers who were asked a series of questions about how the economy works. The results illustrated the disconnect.
While 93% of the 13- to 18-year-olds said economics education was important, many struggled with basic concepts such as supply and demand, the role of the Federal Reserve and the definition of tariffs. Especially troubling is that many had taken economics in school.
For example, nearly half the students could not identify the correct definition of supply and demand, including 37% who had taken an economics course.
Likewise, 41% of the respondents could not correctly define tariffs, including 36% who had an economics class. As for the role of the Federal Reserve, 81% had the wrong answer on the role of the central bank, including 76% who had studied the topic in school.
There was another interesting fact from the survey, which was conducted by Wakefield Research for both JA and the nonprofit Charles Koch Foundation. While many students said they learn about money management from their parents, they were also asked where they think they should be exposed to those concepts. The No. 1 answer: school.
Junior Achievement is hoping its new JA Economics program will blend the macro with the micro. The program should ramp up in the winter and spring, which are popular times for JA volunteers to enter the classroom.
JA Economics is designed to be used with print products, smart boards and other tech platforms to help students better understand, for example, how rising interest rates impact the cost of buying a car or taking out loans for college, or how Federal Reserve inflation-fighting policies trickle down to how far you can stretch your dollars while shopping at the mall.
I was a JA volunteer for nearly 10 years, working twice a month with high school students enrolled in an economics class. I called it “chat and chew economics,” because the kids munched on cookies and other treats that I brought while discussing what was happening in the economy. Sure, we talked about supply and demand, but in the context of the cost of gasoline or the price of concert tickets.
Parents can play a role in sharpening the conversation. For starters, if your school offers anything that has to do with economics, encourage your teen to take it. And with high schoolers so focused on college or a trade school, there are any number of immediately applicable dinner table talking points, Grocholski said.
Simply saying, “This is what I went through,” is a great conversation starter.