Personal finance isn’t a strong suit for some people, but Michael Meredith is hoping to ensure that none of his students struggle with money in the future.The first year teacher at St. James Catholic School has started a personal finance course for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.”In my opinion, the earlier I can teach these concepts to the kids and they can start to think about it, the better off they will be set up for success down the road,” said Meredith. The course is taught through the Dave Ramsey curriculum. It covers topics like taxes, building a budget, how to create an emergency fund, how to save for college, and even how to minimize your chances of going into debt.”They really find it interesting when we talk about investing in stocks and especially when they’re learning it for the first time; that’s super fun. But, I had to pull them along when we were learning about taxes, but I was like, ‘Hey, you’re going to have to pay them every year,'” said Meredith.Although the concepts may seem foreign to 12 and 13 year old’s, the 8th grade students in Meredith’s class said he’s made the concepts easy to understand.”I think at our age we can understand it pretty thoroughly. It’s not very difficult if you have a really good teacher, which we have,” said 8th grader Ryder Wall. “I really like the budgeting, because it’s made me think about my job when I grow up and my whole life path.””This class has been pretty interesting. I really like watching all the videos and sometimes doing real-world scenarios,” said 8th grader Lilly Rassi. “I’ve learned how to budget, and I’ve learned how to do taxes. We had to write a opinion paper on taxes, and I’m just really happy to know that.”Meredith said he’s just happy to be providing a useful course for students.”The reality is when we join the workforce here in America, we have to understand how the financial system operates. So I think that it’s been severely undertaught up to this point, and I think we owe it to the kids to put this in the forefront of their brains,” said Meredith.
Personal finance isn’t a strong suit for some people, but Michael Meredith is hoping to ensure that none of his students struggle with money in the future.
The first year teacher at St. James Catholic School has started a personal finance course for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.
“In my opinion, the earlier I can teach these concepts to the kids and they can start to think about it, the better off they will be set up for success down the road,” said Meredith.
The course is taught through the Dave Ramsey curriculum. It covers topics like taxes, building a budget, how to create an emergency fund, how to save for college, and even how to minimize your chances of going into debt.
“They really find it interesting when we talk about investing in stocks and especially when they’re learning it for the first time; that’s super fun. But, I had to pull them along when we were learning about taxes, but I was like, ‘Hey, you’re going to have to pay them every year,'” said Meredith.
Although the concepts may seem foreign to 12 and 13 year old’s, the 8th grade students in Meredith’s class said he’s made the concepts easy to understand.
“I think at our age we can understand it pretty thoroughly. It’s not very difficult if you have a really good teacher, which we have,” said 8th grader Ryder Wall. “I really like the budgeting, because it’s made me think about my job when I grow up and my whole life path.”
“This class has been pretty interesting. I really like watching all the videos and sometimes doing real-world scenarios,” said 8th grader Lilly Rassi. “I’ve learned how to budget, and I’ve learned how to do taxes. We had to write a opinion paper on taxes, and I’m just really happy to know that.”
Meredith said he’s just happy to be providing a useful course for students.
“The reality is when we join the workforce here in America, we have to understand how the financial system operates. So I think that it’s been severely undertaught up to this point, and I think we owe it to the kids to put this in the forefront of their brains,” said Meredith.
