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Students get lessons on finances

With November earmarked as Financial Literacy Month, Junior Achievement of Southern Alberta (JASA) is getting into the spirit of things — bringing their money and business focused programming into Cochrane area schools.

With November earmarked as Financial Literacy Month, Junior Achievement of Southern Alberta (JASA) is getting into the spirit of things — bringing their money and business focused programming into Cochrane area schools.

“Someone once told me that we’re a society that buys things we don’t need with money we don’t have,” said Kim Williams-Lowe, regional coordinator of the Bow-West JASA.

“The programs we offer attempt to bring awareness and meaning to money.”

The JASA programs range in topic and difficulty, and are geared towards students from Grade 5 onward. By helping youth build financial knowledge at a young age, the hope is the students will make smart choices throughout their lives, said Williams-Lowe.

Just this month, JASA will be taking their financial smarts into Springbank Middle School, Glenbow Elementary School, Bearspaw School, Manachaban Middle School, among others.

Not only do these programs present young minds with sound information regarding finances, they also fit within Alberta Education’s list of competencies for 21st Century Learning.

“These programs are really about planting seeds,” said Williams-Lowe. “Youth should be starting to think about how and why to spend money. We teach them about creating long-term and short-term goals for saving.”

Williams-Lowe said she encourages the students in each of the JASA-taught programs to go home and talk about money with their parents. She mentioned an Angus Reid Strategies poll that found parents felt better prepared to discuss sex, drugs and alcohol with their children than to discuss finances. Williams-Lowe said this has to stop.

“Kids should know what their parents are spending on groceries, or what the family’s monthly budget is,” she remarked.

Learn more at southern-alberta.jacan.org.

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