Prep for Financial Literacy Month with BRI

As you prepare for Financial Literacy Month in April, check out BRI's Building Blocks of Progress curriculum. This resource showcases historic examples of policy and legislation seeking economic and financial prosperity. It is a great supplement for students already familiar with U.S. History.

Use the Background on the Commerce Clause Reading Activity to help students examine how the Founders wanted to form the national economy. They wanted a national economy that would include collecting taxes and regulating foreign trade through the Commerce Clause.

Open the class to a discussion about how the Commerce Clause has been used in Supreme Court cases like Gibbons v. Ogden and Hammer v. Dagenhart.

In the early twentieth century, Congress enacted two significant pieces of legislation, the Jones Act of 1920 and the Smoot-Hawley Act. Both laws sought to protect the national economy and American businesses. Use our Background to the Jones Act of 1920, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, and the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1990 Activity and let students analyze:

Invite students to analyze the documents with the following questions:

How do you think our country should balance national security with economic prosperity?
When might a tariff benefit a country?
Do you think trade agreements like NAFTA are a good idea? Why or why not?

Explore Building Block of Progress

Entrepreneurship in History | MyImpact Challenge

Entrepreneurship has a deep history in our country. You can find historic examples like Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin, Andrew Carnegie and U.S. Steel, and Barry Gordy and Motown Records. Use our Entrepreneurship lesson and activities to explore and simulate t he role of an entrepreneur in a free market economy. You can also share our Entrepreneurship Homework Help video for additional background.

MyImpact Challenge, BRI's civic engagement contest, highlights students who solved a problem in their community. Entrepreneurs play a vital role in creating novelty solutions.

Share MyImpact Challenge with your students for their chance to win up to $10,000 in student prizes. Teachers can also win $500 prizes when their students are awarded.

Join BRI's Remote Trainings

Our upcoming remote trainings are designed to help you develop best practices for teaching your students about the American identity and the differing ideas and groups that shape it.

You're invited to attend one or all of our FREE remote trainings, which include:

March 25, 2025: What does it mean to be an American? Past, Present, and Promise. Our history of immigration
March 29, 2025: What does Being an American mean?

BOE: Bottom of Email

Hi John,

Our MyImpact Challenge Contest embodies the ideal of everyday citizens making change. Explore the Bill of Rights Institute's other student opportunities like Think the Vote and Student Fellowship.

Each student opportunity provides students with resources to educate themselves on the founding principles and civic virtues, and a chance to engage and practice civil discourse with their peers.

The latest Think the Vote question asks students their opinion on tariffs. Share this question with your students: Should Fracking be Banned in the U.S.?

We continue to offer our array of resources and materials to you at no charge. In addition to hundreds of lessons and classroom-ready activities, we also maintain a Current Events page.

Our team searches for recent news articles that explore relevant themes and connect those articles to our resources.

Warmly,

Laura Vlk
Director, Educator Engagement
Bill of Rights Institute

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