Are You Ready for Some Financial Football?
Woo-Hoo! Football has finally started!
Better yet I got to watch my favorite team, The Washington Redskins, on TV(This is a big deal when you live in the middle of nowhere and you only have three channels). But let ye football gods strike me down because I ended up watching more of the US Open than I did the pigskin.
The way I figured I only had one more day of tennis left on TV, but I have 20 more weeks of football.
Besides every time I turned to the football game, the Giants were kicking butt, so I decided it was best that I didn’t watch. But I made sure to check my fantasy players.
That’s right, I’m a nerd!
The Redskins may have started out poorly, but my two fantasy teams are off to a great start(probably because I don’t have any Redskins…j/k I have Cooley).
And while I’m already a huge fantasy football fan, today I stumbled upon another football game that I think I’ll like.
It’s geared for teachers to use it in their classroom to help teach students financial literacy.
The game (sponsored by VISA) has four quick lesson plans which they recommend you go through before playing. They call it “training camp.”
- The Fundamentals of Net Worth
- Savings and Interest
- Credit & Debit Cards
- The Art of Budgeting
I didn’t have the patience to go through “training camp” so I dived in right away.
Here is an example of the questions they ask:
What is the first step in settling a retail dispute?
If you answered “call the retailer with whom you have the dispute”, you wouldn’t get tackled and gain a first down. The crowd would cheer and you’d get another question.
I opted to only play one quarter due to lack of time, and before I knew it I had The Redskins getting revenge on the Giants for their week one let down. I marched down the field and scored at will.
But getting back to the point…
I thought it was an interesting way to reach out to kids and get them thinking about their finances. You should play it for yourself and let me know what you think.
Do you think it is appropriate material for classroom use? Do you think kids will take to it? Does it leave a bad taste in your mouth knowing it’s sponsored by Visa? Or do you think its crazy that the Redskins can march down the field on anyone?
Until next time,
-DD
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what a brilliant idea to get people into the world of financial matters in a way that they can relate to.
yay! came here from frugal babe and the first post i read concerns my beloved redskins!
Thanks for the comments. Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, but it’s been one of those weeks.
@ Jonathan – Yeah that was my first thought too. In a way it’s a shame that we have to rely on football to get people interested, but if you can’t
beat them, join them.
@ Yvonne! – Days like yesterday make being a Redskin fan kinda tough. My favorite tidbit about the Skins losing to the lowly Lions was hearing this on the radio, “Washington bails out Detroit again.”
It can only get better right?
Well the link you have didn’t work but it did get me to the page. They wouldn’t allow me to play real football but had to settle for futball!!
Oh well life goes one. The game was interesting and the questions were pretty good. If it gets kids to get a better understanding of financial topics, it is a great idea.
The problem is going to be when the teach things that aren’t true or don’t apply to every one. I would love to see something like The Sims that integrated this type of education. Video games will be the next frontier for education. They are a great platform to educate and kids spend HOURS/DAYS playing them if they are good.
Scott – Thanks for the heads up about the links. You wouldn’t think they’d mess with them with Football just starting, but oh well.
I think video games are a great way to reach students. I remember having lots of fun playing “Oregon Trail” in my elementary days. And since that was in the early 80s, I’d hope the games have only gotten better.