American Indian youth financial education
Booshke Giin (It’s up to you, it’s your decision!) is a creative approach to involve American Indian youth in active learning experiences that make financial education concepts relevant to their everyday decision making. The Booshke Giin lessons attempt to push aside mainstream ways in favor of storytelling to teach core financial concepts. Mainstream education has failed American Indian youth for decades. The incorporation of the legend stories grabs the attention of youth immediately. The approach and the lessons are adaptable for other youth audiences and combines personal finance concepts and American Indian legend stories. The lessons are based on Ojibwe and other tribal legend stories, to reinforce financial concepts and incorporate Ojibwe vocabulary and cultural information. The legends are shared orally or read individually, followed by questions asked about the story. Youth are able to reflect on the story to make a meaningful personal connection between the financial concept and their own culture.
Family Resiliency Extension educators Jennifer Garbow and Becky Hagen Jokela will be presenting Financial Security: Using American Indian Legends to Teach Financial Education webinar on Wednesday, July 15, 2020, from 2:00-3:00 pm. This national webinar is hosted by eXtension’s Financial Security for All Community of Practice.