High School Financial Literacy and Society

Course Description

This course equips students with essential financial decision-making skills while exploring the broader economic and ethical dimensions of money management. The first half focuses on practical personal finance skills including budgeting, debt management, saving strategies, investing basics, insurance, and consumer protection. The second half examines how individual financial choices impact society, business ethics, economic systems, and environmental stewardship. Students engage with Catholic social teaching and ethical frameworks to understand how financial decisions can reflect moral values and contribute to the common good. Students will practice real-world financial skills through simulations, case studies, and hands-on projects that prepare them for adult financial responsibilities while developing a conscience-informed approach to economic participation.

Books and Resources

Mater Amabilis participates in affiliate programs with Amazon and Living Book Press.

Personal Finance:

• How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World Through Generosity: A Catholic Guide to Managing Your Money, Teixeira and Teixeira [Amaz]
• The Instant Economist: Everything You Need to Know About How the Economy Works, Taylor [Amaz]

Society:

• Force for Good: The Catholic Guide to Business Integrity, Engelland [Amaz]
• Small is Still Beautiful: Economics as if Families Mattered, Pearce [Amaz]
• What Matters?: Economics for a Renewed Commonwealth, Berry [Amaz]
• Centesimus Annus, Pope St. John Paul II [Vatican]

Implementation:

Students should be offered the opportunity to practice financial skills. Some recommendations include:

• Opening a savings account
• Opening a debit/checking account
• Writing a check (or using an app/online website to pay a bill)
• Setting long-term and short-term savings goals
• Comparison shopping for a larger purchase
• Signing up for a subscription service (reading carefully for the terms of service, how to cancel, etc.)
• Purchasing a savings bond
• Getting a job (and completing the tax return)
• The Stock Market Game
• Researching for the purchase of a vehicle
• Researching auto insurance plans
• Planning, budgeting, and purchasing ingredients for a meal (and making it!)
• Planning, budgeting, and purchasing materials for a party (or other event, etc)
• Checking a credit score and reading a credit report
• Using a net-price calculator on a college website and comparing estimated college costs

Lesson plans for year 1

All readings are narrated, orally or in writing.

TERM 1

Week 1
Day 1: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Introduction and Chapter 1 – What to Expect from this Book

Week 2
Day 2: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 2 – What Is Money, Anyway?

Week 3
Day 3: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 3 – Recipe for Success: Introducing the WalletWin Method

Week 4
Day 4: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 4 – Money Mindset

Week 5
Day 5: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 5 – Live with a Budget

Week 6
Day 6: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 6 – Insure Yourself

Week 7
Day 7: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 7 – Starter Rainy Day Fund

Week 8
Day 8: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 8 – Get a Month Ahead

Week 9
Day 9: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 9 – Debt Payoff

Week 10
Day 10: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 10 – Full Rainy Day Fund

Week 11
Day 11: Make-up

WEEK 12: DAYS 56-60 MAKEUP/EXAM WEEK

Examination questions for exam week
To be answered as short in-class essays, taking roughly 30-45 minutes each.
The student will choose one of the questions to answer.

1. What is the WalletWin method?
2. How would you apply some of the finance skills you have learned about this term?

TERM 2

Week 13
Day 13: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 11 – Save a Down Payment

Week 14
Day 14: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 12 – Contribute to Your Retirement

Week 15
Day 15: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 13 – Save for Your Kids’ College

Week 16
Day 16: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 14 – Pay off the House

Week 17
Day 17: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 15 – Live Generously

Week 18
Day 18: How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World through Generosity, Chapter 16 – Be Wealthy (Without Losing Your Soul) and Conclusion

Week 19
Day 19: The Instant Economist, Chapter 1 – How Economists Think

Week 20
Day 20: The Instant Economist, Chapter 2 – Division of Labor

Week 21
Day 21: The Instant Economist, Chapter 3 – Supply and Demand

Week 22
Day 22: The Instant Economist, Chapter 4 – Price Floors and Ceilings

Week 23
Day 23: Make-up

WEEK 24: MAKEUP/EXAM WEEK

Examination questions for exam week
To be answered as short in-class essays, taking roughly 30-45 minutes each.
The student will choose one of the questions to answer.

1. What have you learned about saving?
2. What have you learned about the economy?

TERM 3

Week 25
Day 25: The Instant Economist, Chapter 6 – The Labor Market and Wages

Week 26
Day 26: The Instant Economist, Chapter 7 – Financial Markets and Rates of Return

Week 27
Day 27: The Instant Economist, Chapter 8 – Personal Investing

Week 28
Day 28: Life Hack: Why You Should Start Investing As Early As Possible [Infographic]

Week 29
Day 29: The Instant Economist, Chapter 14 – Public Goods AND CFPB: What are some classic warning signs of possible fraud and scams?

Week 30
Day 30: The Instant Economist, Chapter 15 – Poverty and Welfare Programs

Week 31
Day 31: The Instant Economist, Chapter 17 – Imperfect Information and Insurance

Week 32
Day 32: The Instant Economist, Chapter 29 – Money and Banking

Week 33
Day 33: The College Investor: The Definitive Guide To Student Loan Debt Chapters 1-4

Week 34
Day 34: Optional – The College Investor: The Definitive Guide To Student Loan Debt Chapters 5-10 – These chapters may have useful information, but it’s also possible that much of this information has changed in the intervening years.

Week 35
Day 35: Make-up

WEEK 36: MAKEUP/EXAM WEEK

Examination questions for exam week
To be answered as short in-class essays, taking roughly 30-45 minutes each.
The student will choose one of the questions to answer.

1. What have you learned about investing?
2. What have you learned about insurance?

Lesson plans for year 2

All readings are narrated, orally or in writing.

TERM 1

Week 1
Day 37: Force For Good, Introduction

Week 2
Day 38: Force For Good, Chapter 1: Doing Business the Right Way

Week 3
Day 39: Force For Good, Chapter 2: A Firm Foundation for Right and Wrong

Week 4
Day 40: Force For Good, Chapter 3: Finding Clarity in the Big Picture

Week 5
Day 41: Force For Good, Chapter 4: Character Counts

Week 6
Day 42: Force For Good, Chapter 5: Integrity-Infused Employee Relationships

Week 7
Day 43: Force For Good, Chapter 6: Integrity-Infused Customer Relationships

Week 8
Day 44: Force For Good, Chapter 7: Integrity, Regulation, and Society

Week 9
Day 45: Force For Good, Chapter 8: Conditions that Lead to Good Decisions

Week 10
Day 46: Force For Good, Chapter 9: Creating an Integrity-Infused Organization

Week 11
Day 47: Make-up

WEEK 12: DAYS 56-60 MAKEUP/EXAM WEEK

Examination questions for exam week
To be answered as short in-class essays, taking roughly 30-45 minutes each.
The student will choose one of the questions to answer.

1. How should the principles of Catholic Social Doctrine (or Teaching) inform business practices? Consider such principles as human dignity, solidarity, subsidiarity, and common good.
2. What must individuals do to keep from living a “divided life,” in which they leave their personal character and values at home?
3. Can free markets really make moral determinations? What are the potential limitations to markets and how can we address them?

TERM 2

Week 13
Day 49: Small Is Still Beautiful, Chapter I: Beginnings and Ends

Week 14
Day 50: Small Is Still Beautiful, Chapter II: Malignant Growth

Week 15
Day 51: Small Is Still Beautiful, Chapter V: Mechanistic and Materialistic

Week 16
Day 52: Small Is Still Beautiful, Chapter VII: The Cult of Bigness

Week 17
Day 53: Small Is Still Beautiful, Chapter XVIII: Ends and Beginnings

Week 18
Day 54: What Matters?, Money Versus Goods pp 3-17 (stop at the break before “To a ground-level observer…”)

Week 19
Day 55: What Matters?, Money Versus Goods pp 17-30

Week 20
Day 56: What Matters?, An Argument for Diversity pp 75-88

Week 21
Day 57: What Matters?, Waste pp 157-160

Week 22
Day 58: What Matters?, Conserving Forest Communities pp 161-176

Week 23
Day 59: What Matters?, The Total Economy pp 176-193

WEEK 24: MAKEUP/EXAM WEEK

Examination questions for exam week
To be answered as short in-class essays, taking roughly 30-45 minutes each.
The student will choose one of the questions to answer.

1. Tell what you learned about our current economic system from the Small Is Still Beautiful essays.
2. Describe how Wendell Berry (What Matters?) envisions an economy based on conservation (renewable resources) as opposed to consumption.

TERM 3

Week 25
Day 61: Centesimus Annus, Introduction

Week 26
Day 62: Centesimus Annus, I. Characteristics of “Rerum Novarum”

Week 27
Day 63: Centesimus Annus, II. Towards the “New Things” of Today

Week 28
Day 64: Centesimus Annus, III. The Year 1989

Week 29
Day 65: Centesimus Annus, IV. Private Property and the Universal Destination of Natural Goods

Week 30
Day 66: Centesimus Annus, V. State and Culture

Week 31
Day 67: Centesimus Annus, VI. Man Is the Way of the Church

Week 32
Day 68: Choose a recommendation from the implementation list.

Week 33
Day 69: Choose a recommendation from the implementation list.

Week 34
Day 70: Choose a recommendation from the implementation list.

Week 35
Day 71: Make-up

WEEK 36: MAKEUP/EXAM WEEK

Examination questions for exam week
To be answered as short in-class essays, taking roughly 30-45 minutes each.
The student will choose one of the questions to answer.

1. Tell what you remember from Centesimus Annus.
2. Tell how you have been able to put into practice any of the skills you have learned in this financial literacy course.