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A report on HES Extension programs
serving Missouri's families & communities
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A report on HES Extension programs
serving Missouri's families & communities
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A group of nine junior high age students is discussing car
loans: how to get one, who pays. The conversation veers into the
hypothetical. "What if someone hits me? Why should I have to
pay for the damage?" one girl asks, twisting the ends of her
hair.
"What if I find another car I like better? What happens to
my old loan?" another asks. A practical voice pipes up:
"Bottom line. The loan is your responsibility."
"That's right," says Wilma Shuh, consumer and family
economics specialist. "You sign. You pay."
This group of adolescents is enrolled in the High School
Financial Assistance Program, a practical course designed to
teach teens about money before they learn their lessons the hard
way.
The curriculum, which focuses on real-life problems, was
developed by the National Endowment for Financial Education, the
organization that trains and certifies financial planners. The
group provides materials free of charge. Extension markets and
distributes the program to teachers who incorporate it into
existing math or economics classes. Occasionally - as is the case
with Wilma Shuh - extension specialists will teach the course.
In Missouri last year the program was taught in 26 different
schools to 740 students.
This type of economics class is rooted in the practical; no
theory lessons here. The need for the class is indisputable.
Every year some $89 billion flows from the pockets of American
teens and into cash registers.
"This class prepares students for the real world," says
Carole Prather, state extension specialist in consumer and family
economics. Prather markets the class throughout the state.
"We're now making a concerted effort to try to reach
teachers and acquaint them with the program."
While the course is primarily taught in junior highs and high
schools, Shuh found the program also works well at a different
kind of school, the Mike Pringer Family Center. The center,
located in Jefferson City, is a statewide emergency placement
facility for teens. Abuse or neglect send most teens to the
center. Others are runaways or have been suspended from the
public school system.
The center tends to both the emotional and intellectual needs of
its dozen or so residents. Besides counseling sessions, there are
daily classes in the usual subjects. The High School Financial
Assistance Program is being taught at the center for the second
time this semester.
The practical lessons this course teaches will serve the center's
students well. Most of them will be on their own in a few years,
without the guidance of an adult.
As the teacher, Shuh finds the students interested in most of the
practical lessons she delivers: filling out loan applications,
figuring interest, assessing insurance needs, learning about
credit cards.
On some topics, they are worldly beyond their years. A discussion
on collateral hopped to topics like repossesion and garnishing.
Shuh turns their conversational cues into lessons.
"Teaching these particular students can be
challenging," says Shuh. It can be difficult to remain
casual when one of your students is in leg chains, she added.
"But these are just the kinds of lessons they are going to
need in a few years," she says. "And I always feel like
they're getting something from the class."
