by Paul Breitbach, Alumni Grandparent
Junior Achievement is a privately funded program that provides materials to schools to incorporate into their curriculum. The programs goal is to help students understand and appreciate the importance of free enterprise. ACS has included Junior Achievement for grades K-8 since 1998 utilizing parent and other volunteer presenters.
My participation in the program at ACS started more than a decade ago and I currently teach the program in grades 7 and 8. I enjoy the interface with the students and welcome the opportunity to share personal experiences and those of my six children as they have gone on to different careers and family lives of their own. These actual experiences and the mistakes we all make at one time or another make for great teaching/learning opportunities.
There are a number of options available for the these grades with our current course selections being “America Works” for grade 7 and “Economics for Success” for grade 8. Over the years there has been a consolidation of these course offerings so each now consists of six lesson plans. Utilizing supplemental materials and activities from earlier course offerings that I have retained along with options for additional activities our Junior Achievement course studies span fifteen weeks or more.
The “America Works” program in grade 7 focuses on life in America in the 1800’s on topics including immigration, entrepreneurship, transportation, agriculture, communication, and industrialization during that period. Geography of the U.S. as a part of that time in history and some of the decisions families faced are a part of our studies.
The “Economics for Success” program in grade 8 discusses individual values, interests, and skills as they relate to the students making career choices. Budgeting, shopping for goods and services, and discussions on topics like insurance, Medicare, and social security, credit and credit cards, the stock market, and other methods of investing and saving are all a part of what we do.
Items that I have retained and continue to use in the classes are things like check writing and balancing a checkbook, life maps, and some more detailed budgeting exercises if the students demonstrate both an interest and capacity to do the work.
Both classes learn thru participation in class and completion of assignments. At the end of the year we hold an auction with numerous items so the students can see the benefits of their labor.
