Junior Achievement

On Saturday morning, two members of Junior Achievement of San Diego County made an excellent presentation to a packed house of Santee Kiwanis.  For over an hour, they explained the JA programs and fielded questions from the members.  JA teaches close to 50,000 students a year, from kindergarten through 12th grade, in San Diego and Imperial Counties.  The programs foster work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills. JA programs for elementary schools, K – 5, teach basic economic concepts and the relationship between school and future success.  At the JA BizTown, the students get a “hands on” experience of operating a bank, managing businesses, writing checks, and earning a profit.  For middle schools, programs reinforce the value of workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and personal financial literacy.  The programs help pre-teens make decisions concerning their educational and professional future.  JA’s high school programs help students make informed, intelligent decisions about their future.  The guest speakers stressed that the success of the JA programs are driven by volunteers and this is where the Kiwanis Club of Santee can help.  My thought is that schools should be required to teach basic financial literacy and work force readiness, in addition to reading, writing, and arithmetic.