Promoting Financial Literacy in Schools

The first week of February is National Consumer Protection Week. The current sub-prime mortgage crisis is due in part to the lack of financial literacy of most of our citizens.

The new emphasis in education is 21st Century Literacy and Skills that include financial literacy as a major goal. Unfortunately, most curriculums don't include financial literacy topics, and if they do, it's an elective, or a short-term experience.

When is the best time to start financial literacy education? Today, with students having more and more access to early financial experiences with credit cards, investments, bank accounts, and both in-store and online shopping, the answer is "as early as possible."

Activity

Many teachers at the elementary school level don't have resources to be able to teach financial literacy concepts even when there is an opportunity. ProQuest has created a BookCart that provides many financial literacy and economics resources from both eLibrary Elementary and from Internet websites. Teachers can use these resources to create their own activities for their students.

Pathfinder #1:

1. Access eLibrary Elementary, then enter your eLibrary Elementary Teacher Edition by clicking here.
   
   
2. Select the BookCart Admin link at the top-right corner of the page.
   
   
3. Click the ProQuest Carts tab.
   
   
4. Open the Elementary BookCarts folder.
   
   
5. Locate: "Economics Games, Simulations, and Info"
   
   
6. Select the Copy icon (eye) to the right of this Cart. (There is another BookCart in the collection for students to use that you may want to copy entitled "History of Money.")
   
   
7. Select the Return to My Local Carts link.
   
   
8. Each BookCart you copied should be edited for best use. In turn, click each new BookCart title you just copied to open the BookCart Editor.
   
   
9. Delete "Copy of" from the BookCart title. Make any other changes you wish.
   
   
10. Add your name in the Author boxes, then add any other content you wish to the Cart.
    
    
11. Click Save button at bottom.

Pathfinder #2

For additional consumer education information, open the Topic tab, click Social Studies > Economics > Special Topics > Consumer Economics.

If your students can use PowerPoint or similar programs to demonstrate what they have learned, our ProQuest models may be helpful: Model 1, Model 2.