This website, along with the two books, TeenVestor: The Practical Investment Guide for Teens and Their Parents (Penguin/Putnam/Perigee) and Mad Cash: A First Timer's Guide to Investing $30 to $3,000 (Penguin/Putnam/Perigee) will help you teach your students about investing. Some schools, such as Marceline High School in Missouri and the Frick International Academy in Pennsylvania, are already using the book and the website for their investment classes. We'd like you to join us in encouraging our children to become financially literate.

Why Teach Investment Skills
It is our philosophy that learning how to invest is a skill like any other skills such as reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic. To us, investing is a life skill that all students should learn during the early stages of their lives.

The young need survival skills different from those required just 30 years ago. They face the prospect of diminished social safety nets (such as reduced Social Security benefits and welfare), the prospect of managing more of their retirement funds on their own, and the likelihood that they will have to shoulder more of their own educational and medical expenses as the government and companies find new ways to implement budget cuts. These realities make it imperative that children learn ways to make their money grow, no matter how small the initial amount. As a teacher, you can play an important role in exposing the young to stocks, mutual funds, and even entrepreneurship, at an early age.

We know that educational institutions have not traditionally viewed investment education as part of their responsibility. In truth, teachers typically don't have the resources or the educational material they would need in order to develop basic investment courses. We also know that they are already burdened with teaching the 3r's under increasingly more difficult conditions. This is one of the reasons we took it upon ourselves to write TeenVestor and to develop a complete investment website.

We Always Had Teachers In Mind
We kept teachers in mind when we wrote our books. For example, we have assignments in the book that help Teenvestors understand the basic investment principles we teach in the book. In addition, we explain basic business concepts that all investors should know, in a manner young people can easily understand. Finally, we show the important calculations necessary to gauge the viability of a business.

A teacher should be able to use our books and this website to teach a course on investing in stocks and mutual funds.

Our Plans For This Sections Of The Site
In this section of the website for teachers, we will be posting information on educators or programs (that we know of) that are using our material to teach the young about investing.

For example, we will post any teaching techniques used by teachers in other parts of the country. We will also allow students to post information about their investments and any insights they have about the investment process.

Please give us your suggestions regarding forming a hub for a community of high school and junior high investment programs.