Thomas A. Lucey, Ed. D.
Assistant Professor
Illinois State University
Normal, IL

Kathleen S. Cooter, Ph. D.
Professor
Bellarmine University
Louisville, KY

Very few people are unaware of the global financial crisis that the precipitous stock and credit markets' decline convey. Despite governmental capital injections, criminal investigations, and selective financial institution rescues, the systemic cause of this situation remains unchecked. This situation requires the teacher education community's examination of its role in economic education, in particular, personal finance. Its policies and practices concerning curricular conceptualization (the what), instructional methodology (the how), and teacher preparation (the who), represent important matters for consideration.

The fact is thatMain Street America is financially illiterate. This current economic crisis represents a manifestation of poor credit decisions by a public ignorant of the terminology, skills, and strategies to be financial well. Studies, such as national surveys by the Jump$tart Coalition from 1997 through 2008 (Mandell, 2008; 2009), the National Council on Economic Education (Markow & Bagnaschi, 2005), and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (2008) repeatedly document the very weak understandings of economic and personal finance topics among teens and adults. High school graduates go to college or the workforce ill-prepared to understand the financial contracts that they sign and to realize consequences of their obligations. Adults do not fare much better.

Education has a critical responsibility to better this situation. K-12 settings offer inconsistent curricula concerning personal finance. According to the National Council on Economic Education's (NCEE) Survey of the States (2007) four-fifths of states include personal finance in their curriculum standards. Nevertheless, less than three-fifths of states require implementation of these standards and slightly more than one in ten require a personal finance course for high school graduation. High school graduates enter society ill-equipped to make sound decisions related to their money. Findings of the 2008 Jump$tart Coalition survey reported that, "Thirty six percent (of high school seniors) think a house financed with a fixed-rate mortgage is a good hedge against a sudden increase in inflation, compared with 45 percent in 2006." Findings of the recent National Foundation for Credit Counseling (2008) survey disclose, "...only 59 percent or roughly 23 million of the young adults in Generation Y, those ages 18-29, pay their bills on time every month." In effect, young adults lack the theoretical knowledge and practical skills to ensure their long-term financial wellness.

The situation in higher education is not much better. The Jump$tart Coalition's 2008 survey measured the financial literacy of college students for the first time. Respondents performed notably better than did fellow high school seniors but still produced marginal scores, averaging a low "D" on a traditional 100, 90, 80 grading scale. Many colleges and universities sell students names to credit card companies for solicitation purposes (Glater, 2008) preying upon students' gratification needs to fortify their coffers. These efforts are not wasted pursuits. Lyons's (2008) robust sample of college students in the Midwest found that nearly three-fourths owned at least one credit card and more than two-fifths of those owning credit cards practiced dangerous credit behaviors. Institutions of higher learning, established to stimulate societal welfare through the intellectual and professional development of its students, detract from this process by contributing to conditions that sidetrack them, their academic pursuits and shackle them to financial obligations, in addition to their student loans, that impair their potential prosperity.

One may find the largest hindrance of financial development within the proliferation of credit cards and their use by teens. More then two in five teens admit to owing money and having concerns about repayment (Charles Schwab, 2007), and nearly one-half teens report accessing money from their own or their parents' debit or credit cards (Charles Schwab). In a consumerist climate, learning should include understandings of debt and its negative consequences. Children lack awareness of the relationship between short-term sacrifice and long-term benefit. In particular, credit illiteracies leave consumers unaware of long-term consequences that occur when consumers focus on limited and enticing information to make a large financial commitment.

The roots of this credit dependency root themselves early in childhood. Children are susceptible to corporate influences in early childhood (Holst, 1999). Because they develop in households that affect consumer behaviors in various ways (Moschis, 1985), they learn through parent modeling. In essence, because public schools do not formalize financial learning, society perpetuates patterns of economic disparity that exist within societal structures. An environment that encourages consumers to "act now" and "don't wait" pushes consumers to hurry their purchase decisions without their fully considering the consequences of their actions. There is a price, often a steep one, for making decisions on impulsivity and convenience.

Americans, who do not understand the basic tenets of credit and its use, depend on those who sell debt to guide their credit decisions for them. On the face of this matter, how bizarre does this situation seem? In theory, banks are businesses that buy and sell money, making their profits on the difference between what they pay in interest on deposits and what they receive in interest on loans. In other words, loans are sold to the customer with interest charged for the use of that money. The main pursuit lies in earning the most interest possible, not in guiding the financial/social welfare of those in need. As a result, the few who possess this knowledge use it as a sales mechanism to entice the ignorant into a financial dependency that only the most self-disciplined can shed.

What is a responsible educator's response? We view three areas as critical to addressing this situation: curricular understanding, instructional pedagogy, and teacher preparation. Regarding to curricular conceptualizations, we argue for a board conceptualization of financial education that espouses principles of social justice. This process begins by facilitating instructional processes at all levels that encourage critical inquiry into the nature of conventional economic and financial philosophies and their social outcomes (Agnello & Lucey, 2008a, 2008b; Lucey, 2007). Such approaches represent critical steps towards cessation of processes that blame people for their own financial circumstances. Classism perpetuates class division by assigning responsibility to societal victims brought into households of economic hardship through fate. Encouraged through curricular programs such as Ruby Payne's (1995) framework, these processes continue popular stereotypes based on perceptions of economic status. As noted by Gorski (2006), "Payne contends that people in poverty share a "mindset" or "culture" different from that of upper- and middle-class people. In actuality, a single mindset of poverty no more exists than a single mindset of blackness, differently-abled-ness, or woman-ness."

The responsibility for educating about personal finance, its benefits and challenges includes stimulation of dialogues among students of various economic contexts to engender a mutual awareness of social challenges, dissolve stereotypes, and clarify the social values associated with patterns of financial practice and need. Thus, we support reevaluation of the nature of financial knowledge to broaden conceptualizations as more than monetary acquisition and growth; it includes the human consequences of financial choices (Lucey, 2007; Lucey & Cooter, 2008)

While many depend upon specialized financial experts (such as bankers, insurers and investors) for information to make various financial decisions and lessons, students should realize the whole view of financial decisions and their connections to life goals. Understanding the big picture of one's net worth offers more dimension than an exploration of debits and credits; it involves a community focus that dispels the myths of meritocracy (Oakes & Lipton, 2007) and introduces the authenticity of egalitarian principles. Thus, an understanding of one's or one family's financial net worth provides a limited understanding of one's financial situation. The complete understanding of worth considers the social contexts that one occupies and the amount of social value that he or she places upon others.

Instructional Practices

Using instructional tools such as the arts (Laney, 2008) and technology (Lucey & Grant, 2005) as bases for student inquiry and dialogue, empowers students to explore the dimensions to social realities that information banking processes may obscure. Through these conversations, educators may realize how the social contexts of consumer decisions challenge abilities of students to see the big picture of the situation. Self-discipline provides the will to live within financial means and deny some of the luxury temptations temping wallets and purses. Like alcohol use, credit use has addictive elements.

When students use credit impulsively to acquire materials to improve self-image, they need to reconsider their priorities and values. Do they need the cell phone with the added features? Can they bring a lunch to school and save the cost of the cafeterias? Are the prints on those shirts worth the premium price? Along with spending impulsivity comes forgetfulness and neglect. According to the recent National Foundation for Credit Counseling survey (2008), "only a minority of Americans say they keep close track of what their typical monthly expenses are. And although a majority of the public has at least a somewhat good idea of where their money goes each month, nearly two in 10 or roughly 40 million adults keep little or no track at all." Thus, direct methods that teach children, youth, and young adults the concepts and skills necessary to be accountable to themselves and family for their financial decisions represent a necessary component of financial teaching and learning.

Teacher Preparation

The history of teacher education is rife with examples of academics from other disciplines discrediting education research (Lagemann, 2000), with much of these dispositions stemming from patterns of social bias. Leaving the preponderance of economic and financial education research to academics in colleges of business and family consumer science invites and permits undue bias in methodology and interpretation. Such conditions potentially impose curricular and instructional conditions that reinforce perceptions of teachers and educators as second-class professionals and academics who are obligated to implement, the recommendations of superior professionals. Multidisciplinary collaborations are necessary to present balanced perspectives of content.

Bringing about these dialogues necessitates educators who are financially literate in both narrow and broad conceptualizations. This requires a critical examination of economic (Agnello & Lucey, 2008) and financial (Lucey & Cooter, 2008) understandings and the extent to which instructional processes support them. With regard to narrow understandings, research indicates that elementary teachers are financially illiterate (McKenzie, 1971), yet their financial knowledge and confidence teaching improve with training (Schug, Wynn, & Posnanski, 2002; Lucey, 2008). Possessing knowledge is only part of the process. Teachers should possess the knowledge and autonomy to evaluate commercially produced materials to ensure that they provide sound educational content (Stanger, 1997) and authentic instructional strategies.

Regarding the broad conceptualizations, teacher preparations should explore the social conditions that relate to financial calamities and facilitate learning that empowers candidates' understandings of them. While the United States has withstood a series of financial crises throughout since its inception (Zinn, 1980), the public remains naïve to the underlying causes of these problems: a popular minority controls the supply of societal goods and services, which includes the currency.

Between these extremes lies the awareness that social judgments are associated with the financial penalties and rewards. Realizing the inseparability of rational and emotional bases for decision-making represents a step in untangling these patterns of injustice. For example, the poverty of single mothers stems from a number of sources (e.g., teen pregnancy and divorce). Yet, the system only interprets the face of the situation, rarely its causes. Just as unintended pregnancy results from a combination of ignorance, impulsivity, and need, so too does personal financial instability represent a combination of these influences. The emotional needs attached with obsessive financial and material acquisition relates to a yearning for extrinsic gratification to replace shortages of intrinsic resources. Obsessions with material pursuits may foster dehumanization of others and selves by basing valuations through the cosmetic artificialities (e.g., toys, clothes, and furniture) rather than patterns of thought and action and their biological, psychological, and sociological origins.

To what extent is one is better than another because he or she possesses the latest CD, an iPod, a flat screen TV, or a SUV? Donald Trump is worth no more than Joe the Plumber is. Joe the Plumber is worth no more important than Donald Trump is. This human basis for equality illustrates the importance of sacrifice. To what extent can one forgo a $4,000 Smart board and dialogue with children about their values? How many teens may avoid poverty because someone listened to, valued these youths' ideas, and encouraged their perseverance against the emotional problems that they encounter?

To what extent can Donald Trump sacrifice his hotel empire to feed and clothe the homeless of Ethiopia, San Paulo, and/or Queens and dialogue with the impoverished about their values? What merit would inhabitants see in his apprenticeship as he tries to play to their cultural patterns?

What should educators expect of leadership? They should expect prioritization of efforts to make financial education a focus within public schools from grades K-12. This is particularly critical in primary grades, where behavior habits form. Teaching children the skills of self-discipline and deliberate decision-making have long-term benefits when it comes to consumer habits, including credit decisions. Such efforts should include stronger emphases social studies in elementary grades that employ authentic instruction strategies. Such efforts would empower children's realization of social consequences for their decision-making and the personal and social difficulties that result from debt dependencies.

According to the recent National Foundation for Credit Counseling survey (2008), "Almost half of those who closely monitor their finances are more likely to say that they learned about personal finance from their parents or at home, underscoring the potential positive influence parents can have on their children financially." An early 21^st century North American Puritan-derived culture considers financial education as a family responsibility; but many children may lack stable family structures to help guide development of this basic life skill. A stable public education system can prompt this.

Furthermore, state leaders should require that teacher preparation institutions offer curricula that include methods of teaching financial literacy as a stand-alone course or as substantively integrated into other coursework. The evidence presented above indicates that elementary teachers generally have low understandings of personal finance and are not able to scrutinize content of commercially produced lesson materials. How can we expect children's critical analysis of financial transactions when teachers do not understand it themselves?

While much of the media coverage focuses on devalued financial assets and scarcity of credit, we argue for educator attention to the other side of Wall Street: devalued humanity and diminished dignity. The financial crisis is responsibility abandonment; an obsession with material wealth that distracts from the core, human, element of society. While education represents a conduit for preserving cultural values, the history of American education portrays an ongoing debate about whose social values schools represent (Oakes & Lipton, 2007; Tyack, 2003; Zimmerman, 2002). In an era of standardization, what defines the standard for financial education carries serious consequences in a setting of finite resources.

The President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy offered 15 suggestions for increasing financial understandings (Robert Duval, list-serve communication, January 16, 2009); however, the recommendations represent temporary plugs that fail to address the systemic issues prompting the financial crisis, and increase profits of financial businesses at the expense of the unsuspecting citizen. Its definition of financial literacy as "the ability to use knowledge and skills to manage financial resources effectively for a lifetime of financial well-being" (Recommendation 11) presents a narrow focus that ignores the economically derived social injustices that occur through financial fixation. Similarly, its definition of financial education as "the process by which people improve their understanding of financial products, services and concepts, so they are empowered to make informed choices, avoid pitfalls, know where to go for help and take other actions to improve their present and long-term financial well-being" (Recommendation 11) ignores the prejudices of classism and their causes.

The core problem that needs attention relates to an education process that stresses values over accumulations. The problem is not just a lack of debit card accounts; the problem is just a lack of critical thinking associated with their use. The problem is not just a lack of resources from financial professionals; the problem is lack of education about the social consequences of financial decision-making. The problem is not just formal college financial education efforts; the problem involves colleges' financial solicitations.

Educators should recognize their responsibilities to foster financial education, in the broad sense of the term. Providing everyone with debit cards benefits the financial industry, but exacerbates the systemic problem of financial dependency currently experienced. We cannot point fingers, but should rather look at our practices and ourselves. The financial crisis was not done to us: we allowed it to be done through ignorance. The proper direction out of this long-term problem is education.

We should consider the benefits of reining in our material tendencies and exercising the self-discipline to live with the resources that we have. It may not be a stylish life-style approach, yet a society needs to sacrifice much to preserve its long-term welfare during a national crisis. The crisis that we face is one of values. Educators face a certain challenge in this national economic crisis. The values that we choose for our response have much bearing on our social future. We should choose them carefully.

References

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Published January 28, 2009