WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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WFHB Correspondent Alex Dederer talks to Edgewood Junior High School Principal Jonathan Siegelin about a program intended to teach students about financial responsibility.
BLOOMINGTON – Edgewood Junior High hosts Reality Store Simulation as an initiative to teach students how to budget and navigate the costs of life after school.
Hosted by Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce’s The Success School, formerly known as the Franklin Initiative, the Reality Store Simulation provides career awareness and workforce development services for seventh and eighth graders in Monroe County.
The participating students are assigned an average salary based on their GPA. The lower the GPA, the fewer career options the student has. The salary is an average of a 28-year-old working with that degree.
According to The Herald Times, retired accountant and decade-long Reality Store Simulation volunteer Carle Crawford said, “It’s a great learning experience for either seventh or eighth graders to see what real life is like and how expensive everything is. It really shows a student how important it is to get a good grade point average, because then you’re going to make more money eventually.”
There are 16 tables set up staffed by volunteers. Each table has a label of a different station to spend their money: housing, transportation, groceries, insurance, child care, electronics, and more.
According to The Herald Times, president of the Success School and organizer of the Reality Store Simulation Christopher Emge said he hopes this gives students a sense of the costs of life, especially child care, and allows them a chance to think about the costs their parents paid.
According to a Pre and Post Survey by Ardeo Education Solutions, 88 percent of students reported that they enjoyed participating in the Reality Store Simulation.
