JA session 3

Today was the third session and it went well. The first session was basically about the students thinking about themselves as borrowers and savers. The second session was about them as investors. The third session was about the students thinking about how they live as consumers and how they can use credit now and in the future. The session went well although the topic and activities were relatively easy and simple. Studetns tend to get bored in the practicality of what we are talking about so I find myself explaining its importance more than once. What I found shocking though was the fear students had with credit. It used to be that high school students were not afraid of using credit, were anxious to get credit cards on their own and were thinking about getting new cars through credit. It seemed that after discussing many of the scenarios from the activity they were more inclined to decline credit card applications and go for other alternatives like saving their money or taking alternative modes of transportation all for fear of staying out of credit card debt. After the class, the teacher and I discussed this trepidation and she thinks a big part of it has to do with the fact that these AVID students come from low income household already and many of the households have had or are in troublesome credit debt. Students may not be aware of things in session two which was about low and high risk investments and thinkin about their long-term goals, but I think students are smart enough to understand well the things that are goin on in their households. Even in the "Choose Your Own Life"game, in which the studetns each week are given different scenarios that deal with the weeks topic and the get an option "A"or "B"to choose from, the students choose options that are conservative and not go to far from living beyond their means or taking risks. Im interested to see how they do next week when we talk about identity theft and fraud, I'll try not to scare them too much.