Joe Bittner has long been interested in teaching high school students the importance of financial literacy. So when the Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants (CSCPA) asked him to prepare a curriculum under their name, he jumped at the opportunity.
The result was Me, Myself, My Money, a curriculum for teachers intended to improve the financial literacy of high school students and, to a lesser extent, college freshmen. The workbook has been embraced by Eastern and Western Connecticut state universities, and is under consideration for use by First Year Experience instructors at UConn starting in September.
“Most high school students have no clue about financial matters,” says Terri Lynn, who teaches courses in finance and accounting at Old Saybrook High School and is a disciple of Bittner’s work. “For example, they are amazed at what happens when you accumulate debt on a credit card with the compound interest, and how long it will take to pay the balance off. They do not understand what it means to come out of college with a $100,000 loan to pay back. They don’t have a concept of why it is important to save and invest early. Why have a budget?
“The one area students seem to have some knowledge about is banking,” she says, “because most of them have a debit card and savings account.”
The book, now in its second edition, features six modules, each containing learning objectives and two to four lessons, each with multiple student activities and instructor’s solutions. Topics include credit cards and credit scores; managing debt; financial planning; insurance; investments; and money and banking. And, although the lessons are relatively simple for most baby boomers and other mature adults, they are far from simple to the uninformed.
“It’s really a lack of education,” Bittner, an accounting professor-in-residence at UConn’s Stamford Campus, says of today’s teens. “And there are varying opinions where that education should come from – parents, teachers, media. But it has to come from somewhere. Kids today don’t think money grows on trees, but they do think it comes out of machines.”
Bittner says budgeting has to be emphasized. “When I teach, I ask the students to prepare a budget. Under expenses they’ll say car payments, the mortgage, and utility bills. They should be saying how much they’ll save. That’s the first thing that should be on the list, and whatever is left determines what expenses you can afford.”
Previous generations, Bittner says, paid cash for virtually everything. Once credit cards came onto the scene, if they used one they would pay it off when the bill arrived. That often is not the case with the younger generation. And that could be a costly mistake – one that is clearly referenced in his text.
“We want to create awareness about interest, how much they’ll pay. Teach them to look for the interest rates, penalties and fees, grace periods,” Bittner says. “This isn’t only to teach them how to be financially literate, but information literate – where should they go to get more information.”
The lack of financial literacy among teenagers prompted the Obama administration to introduce an effort to improve students’ understanding of saving and investing, and to put them on “sounder financial footing,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced at a press conference in December 2009. That effort also includes providing schools with materials to show educators how to integrate financial topics into their classes.
In Connecticut, says Jill Brightman of the CSCPA, more than 100 teachers have requested copies of the new edition, which was released late last year. It also has been picked up by teachers in at least six other states.
Teachers say they enjoy it.
“The second edition is thorough and user-friendly,” says Timothy Landry, a business education instructor at RHAM in Hebron. “I was able to thread all of these practical personal finance lessons into my accounting curriculum throughout the school year. The individual lessons explore relevant personal finance topics that many young adults have not yet explored. I will continue to use them as supplements to my accounting curriculum in 2010-2011.”
Lynn, the teacher at Old Saybrook High School, says the lessons and activities are well written and ‘student friendly.’ “I used some of the lessons from Me, Myself, My Money as a supplemental and enrichment tool to my curriculum,” she says. “The three I used this year were Financial Planning, Investments, and Banking. I thought they were great and the students enjoy them, too. I found the class to be engaged in the activities and the discussion that followed. The information they learned was relevant and beneficial to their financial futures.”
Bittner, who is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and an MBA in accounting, both from UConn, previously taught high school in East Haven and Bristol. During that time the Bristol system created a financial literacy day that provided all students in the district two hours of financial literacy education to start the day’s events. He also served as manager of education programs for the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), where he created products and developed programs to enhance accounting education at the high school and college level.
During his tenure at AICPA, Bittner created the AICPA’s Takin’ Care of Business education handbook, a key component of the organization’s CPA Information Package, which won an award of excellence from NACE. He also served as manager of education programs for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
As for the future, Bittner is planning a textbook on financial literacy and a high school accounting textbook. Bittner also is working with Dan Deines, a CPA from Kansas State University, to bring an Advanced Placement (AP) accounting course and exam to the nation’s high schools. Bittner and Deines developed the course and have been training teachers nationwide to implement the course. By September, more than 500 teachers from 30 states will be trained.
