WOONSOCKET – The Woonsocket school district and the Light Foundation last week debuted the partnership’s most ambitious initiative yet, a first-of-its-kind course in the district created to develop financially streetwise city students before they even hit high school.
The week-long course, taught by Light Foundation Executive Director John Keuffer and colleague Richard Carey, took a bold and unconventional approach in teaching Woonsocket Middle School students how to, in a word, be smart and get rich, even if they never score a high-paying job.
“Some of these kids are feeling the effects of the down economy pretty badly,” said Keuffer. “We want to show them to look at money differently, that even someone who makes a lesser income can be financially free.”
Examples are many, he told students, of people making less money who end up saving millions of dollars over a lifetime.
“If you’re smart with your money, you can lead a frugal, yet enjoyable, life,” he said.
Keuffer and representatives from the foundation established by New England Patriots All-Pro Tackle Matt Light plan to be back next April for another round of high-energy classes, but then it might be up to someone in Woonsocket to keep the initiative alive.
“I’d love to see it part of the math curriculum here,” said Keuffer, midway through the week, on one of his dreams for the course.
Jessie Butash, a WMS teacher and liaison between the school and the Light Foundation, agreed with Keuffer that keeping in-depth financial training as part of the curriculum is a great goal.
“Teachers were all on board with the program and would love to see more kids be able to take advantage of the opportunity,” she said.
In round one of the course, about 20 WMS students agreed to take part in financial literacy training, receiving both school credit and some basic skills they need to be successful.
Speaking of his most memorable lesson from the week, 7th-grader Dario Rodriguez said it was his instructors’ examples of how quickly even a cash amount of $1 million can disappear.
“They taught us how fast it can go down the drain, with a house, cars, the things people like to buy,” said Rodriguez. “We need to be careful about money and keep the flow of it going.”
“It’s about having options, that’s what it comes down to,” Keuffer told students over lunch in the WMS cafeteria.
The Light Foundation’s relationship with Woonsocket Middle School students began earlier this year when four local youths were selected to be part of a long-term pilot project designed to keep them on the straight and narrow path with mentoring from Light and others.
The teens traveled to camp in the Midwest where they were part of a documentary film called “Stands Alone Warrior” with four Cheyenne Indian youth, a coming-of-age story about eight teens who overcame fears of the unknown.
Last week’s course on financial literacy covered parts of four books, “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” by Robert Kiyosaki, “The Richest Man in Babylon,” by George Clason, “The Magic Story,” by Frederick Van Renssalaer, and “Dare to Fail: Strive to Succeed,” by Keuffer.
“In my house my dad never talked about money,” said Keuffer, who grew up in a low-income household. “In rich people’s homes they do talk about money.”
The financial literacy course is a program designed to instill smart thinking on such age-old foundational ideas as saving and not spending more than you earn, and more “adult” issues like building assets and businesses, taking on smart loans, and dealing with a mortgage. In their teaching, Keuffer and Carey use such common examples as the teenager who starts cutting grass as a business.
“We show them how they could turn that business into a contract for 10 homes, then maybe you get a buddy to cut the grass and you’re free to go get 10 more yards,” said Keuffer. Keuffer and Carey have been teaching their financial literacy course in schools throughout the Northeast and Midwest where the Light Foundation is based since the year 2000. Both said they were pleasantly surprised at how receptive Woonsocket students were to their message, as many times it takes a day or two to penetrate walls of resistance.
Originally posted here:
Innovative WMS program shapes financially savvy students
