Making a Difference: EconomicsAmerica of California : Economics? It’s Elementary

Children often make the decision by the fifth grade to eventually drop out of school, according to education researchers. EconomicsAmerica of California hopes to cut those odds by helping teachers use economic reasoning as early as the third grade to show youths the cost of that decision to themselves and society.

The organization’s “Choices and Changes” courses are providing more than 1,300 Los Angeles Unified teachers with the instruction and materials needed to make economics relevant to their third-, fifth-, seventh- and ninth- graders.

“We start with the youngest students talking to people in their neighborhoods to see how the grocer or baker works,” said Jerrie Martin, a teacher at 74th Street School in Los Angeles who helped pioneer the program. “We try to get them to see the work they do in schools is as valuable as any other work in the economy, which builds self- esteem.”

Older students build on this foundation by becoming inventors, forming their own companies to make and sell products and learning about specific skills they need to pursue their dream jobs, says Jim Charkins, executive director of the Long Beach- based nonprofit group.

The largest contributor to the group’s $650,000 annual budget is the nonprofit Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Los Angeles. CCCS and EconomicsAmerica have also developed a consumer awareness workshop for high school seniors that includes instruction in balancing a checkbook, budgeting for a car or college and understanding credit cards.

By June, more than 1,000 high school teachers will have taken the three- year- old workshop, which is being duplicated in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

“The earlier kids understand real- life finances, which are often a taboo subject until there’s a crisis, the better decisions they’ll make and the less likely we are to see them as clients,” says Dara Duguay, director of education for CCCS, which also offers parents free workshops on “Raising a Money- Smart Child.”

BUILDING A BUSINESS

Here’s how teacher Jerrie Martin has used Choices and Changes with her fifth-grade class at 74th Street School in Los Angeles to promote innovation and entrepreneurial skills.

1. Inventors: Students devise a product using available “resources” such as recycled milk cartons and paper towel tubes. After several experiments, they decide the most useful invention is a paper and pencil holder.

2. Market researchers: Students survey family and friends to see how much they’d be willing to spend on such a product. Results are charted in class to determine price: $2.50 for the basic model; up to $3.50 for personalized versions.

3. Assembly workers: Students fill out applications for “jobs” as cutters, gluers and assemblers, with Martin making the final selection. Each child contributes a nickel to purchase pencils to go in the holder; other materials are donated. Some work on lunch hours and after school to meet a deadline for the first batch. Part of the money collected goes to purchase additional materials to fill all orders.

4. Shareholders: The group votes on how to spend the $100 they’ve made. Students consider a pizza party, but instead opt for educational computer software they can use the rest of the year and share with others at school.

To Get Involved: Call (310) 985-9195.

Researched by PATRICIA A. KONLEY/For The Times