Students Make Cents of Money

During the spring 2021 semester, math teacher Lisa Collis has been teaching an elective on personal finance literacy to a group of 12 Chatham Hall students, mostly seniors who spent the fall semester in a senior-level math class. Collis says that when they surveyed students about what they wanted to learn, the majority of them were interested in personal finance but there wasn’t a course devoted to this topic.

Unfortunately, many American students who will soon need to borrow money for college, rent an apartment, or learn to live on a budget have a knowledge gap when it comes to money. According to the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), a study of 15-year-old students’ performance in reading, mathematics, and science literacy conducted every three years, U.S. teens scored below teens in Canada and several European countries. Nearly a quarter of the U.S. teens tested did not reach the baseline level of proficiency in financial literacy.

“We recognize that that was an area that was lacking in the curriculum,” says Mathematics Department Chair Nathan Witkowski, who helped Collis create the course. “We saw that need and we wanted to fill it.”
The Personal Finance Literacy course covers topics including financial independence and establishing financial boundaries, goal setting and financial values, budgeting, credit scores, saving for retirement, planning for emergencies, and more.

One of the earliest topics covered was paying for college, a timely subject, particularly for seniors. “We looked at financial aid, scholarships, and just affording college,” said Julia Brown ’21. “We’ve already learned a lot of really good lessons that will be helpful. That’s absolutely something I’ll have gotten out of this course.”
Brown added, “I’m the first person in my family to take a personal finance course in high school. Everyone else had to figure it out on their own. I think that learning in a structured environment is very, very helpful.”
Hannah Faison ’21 agreed. “As a senior, I’m already thinking about college and what comes after college, and before taking the class I didn’t really feel comfortable with personal finance. The class has made me a lot more comfortable with things like budgeting and my financial goals.”

The course also covers credit scores and borrowing money. “I’m excited that we’ll be talking about borrowing money and paying back loans,” Brown said. “That’s not something I’ve ever been taught before and it’s really useful.”

Collis believes those lessons are already resonating with her students. “I just had lunch with a colleague and she was saying that the students came into her classroom talking about credit cards. That’s good news. I’m glad they’re talking.”

Students each kept journals throughout the semester so Collis was able to see their thoughts and ideas about money evolve. The class also did group simulations on real-world situations like buying a car, choosing a cellphone plan, and planning for college. “They had to apply the concepts of smart spending to all of these things,” Collis said.

Looking at bills offers another real-world money lesson. “Ms. Collis would show us an example of a bill and explain everything on the bill,” Faison explained. “We’d talk about when to pay it, what happens if you are late paying it, just a lot of good things to keep in mind for the future.” She thinks everyone should take the course because of its practical nature.  

To make budgeting tangible to students, each created an identity and researched jobs and apartments for that identity. “They had to have a job, they had to find a place to live that they could afford on whatever job it is that they wanted,” Collis said. “They figured out the starting salary for that job. That was an eye opener. When they started looking for apartments in certain cities, some of them moved quite a few times before settling down.”

Faison liked that planning activity. “I think it’s really helpful that we’re basically visualizing life after college and getting the chance to organize it in our minds,” she said. “It’s really making us think about not just what we’ll have to pay for, but how we’ll pay for them.”

That’s exactly what Collis and Witkowski had in mind. “I want them to realize that this isn’t a math class, they’re not learning these things so that they can take a test and then forget,” Collis explained. “I want it to be real.”

Later in the semester, students learned about planning for emergencies, such as when a car breaks down, and discussed how to decide if they wanted to rent or own a house as they got older. They also learned how to write a check, read a bank statement, and learn to save early. “We want to make sure that the students have the skills to be able to take their finances and have confidence that they can manage different situations,” Witkowski said. “It’s a really crucial skill.”

Students like Brown are already gaining confidence in their ability to make sound money decisions as they approach adulthood. “I think that everything I’m learning is really going to help me further down the line,” she said.

While the Personal Finance Literacy course is currently offered as an elective with mostly seniors, in the future Witkowski anticipates offering it during the new January Term, primarily for sophomores and juniors to ensure that the majority of students have access to the material. “I’m excited about the evolution of the course as we continue to work together,” he said.

Originally published in the Spring 2021 Chat.