Of all the lessons taught by the financial crisis, the most personal has been that Americans aren’t so
good at money-management. We take out home loans we can’t afford. We run up sky-high credit-card debt.
We don’t save nearly enough for retirement.
In response, supporters of financial-literacy education are moving with renewed enthusiasm. School
districts in states such as New Jersey and Illinois are adding money-management courses to their
curriculums. The treasury and Education departments are sending lesson plans to high schools and
encouraging students to compete in the National Financial Capability Challenge that begins in March.
Students with top scores on that exam will receive certificates—but chances for long-term benefits are
slim. As it turns out, there is little evidence that traditional efforts to boost financial know-how help
students make better decisions outside the classroom. Even as the financial-literacy movement has gained
steam over the past decade, scores have been falling on tests that measure how well students learn about
things such as budgeting, credit cards, insurance and investment. A recent survey of college students
conducted for the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy found that students who’d had a
personal-finance or money-management course in high school scored no better than those who hadn’t.
“We need to figure out how to do this the right way,” says Lewis Mandell, a professor at the
University of Washington who after 15 years of studying financial-literacy programs has come to the
conclusion that current methods don’t work. A growing number of researchers and educators agree that a
more radical approach is needed. They advocate starting financial education a lot earlier than high school,
putting real money and spending decisions into kids’ hands and talking openly about the emotions and
social influences tied to how we spend.
Other initiatives are tackling such real-world issues as the commercial and social pressures that affect
purchasing decisions. Why exactly do you want those expensive brand-name shoes so badly? “It takes
confidence to take a stand and to think differently,” says Jeroo Billimoria, founder of Aflatoun,a nonprofit
whose curriculum, used in more than 30 countries, aims to help kids get a leg up in their financial lives.
“This goes beyond money and saving.”
1 The financial-literacy education is intended to _____________.
A. renew Americans’ enthusiasm about money -management
B. increase Americans’ awareness of the financial crisis
C. help Americans to overcome the financial crisis
D. enable Americans to manage money wisely
2. According to the author ,the National Financial Capability Challenge will be ____________
A. ineffective B.rewarding
C. costly D.well-received
3. By saying that “the financial-literacy movement has gained steam”(Para.3),the author means that the
movement ______________.
A. has received much criticism
B. has been regarded as imaginative
C. has been more and more popular
D. has gone through financial difficulties
4. Lewis Mandell suggests that we should figure out how to __________.
A. manage money in a more efficient way
B. carry out financial-literacy education properly
C. improve the social awareness of financial education
D. help students score better in money-management courses
5. Jeroo Billimoria is most likely to agree that commercial and social pressures make one’s purchasing
decisions ________.
A. acceptable B. Difficult
C. feasible C. unwise