Money school: Students learning a new set of numbers

If Jack leaves the train station on a train heading west at 60 km/h, and Iris leaves the same station on a different train heading in the same direction at 80 km/h, will Jack have enough money saved by the time he wants to retire to do so comfortably, and should Iris choose a GIC or a TFSA as a savings plan?

This may seem ridiculous, but in high school, students are taught algebra and how to find the inverse of a relation, but they aren't taught anything about interest rates or savings plans.

Prakash Amarasooriya wanted to change that. So he did.

"When I was younger, money was something I actually didn't think about," said Amarasooriya. "It was something that if I needed something, I could ask my parents."

It wasn't until the financial crisis of 2008, when, on top of losing their jobs, his parents lost $3000 each in investments.

"It was the moment when I realized my ignorance when it came to money," said Amarasooriya. "We got a bank letter saying we lost $6000. I didn't know at that time if it was investments, I didn't know what investments were ... I just felt like money just left my house, somehow. And that was when I made the decision to start getting part-time jobs in order to become self-sufficient."

Amarasooriya worked five part-time jobs when he was in high school to save money for university. He also took it upon himself to become as financially literate as he could.

After graduating, Amarasooriya was applying for jobs when he got the inspiration to champion financial literacy in school from an unlikely source.

"I think I applied for like 70 jobs, and I hadn't gotten a positive response once," he recalled.

"So while I was watching [HBOs] The Wire — season four, it's a great season — they were talking about education, and it was during this time that I was like 'yeah, I've noticed that a lot with education, that I don't think we're using it to its fullest.'"

Motivated by the show, Amarasooriya searched "how do youth get involved in Toronto," and found the Toronto Youth Cabinet. He met with the director, and was made head of the working group that works with Toronto's school boards to develop initiatives that benefit students.   

From there, things moved quickly. He created a petition and a press release advocating that financial literacy be included in the Grade 10 Ontario curriculum. The petition was picked up and championed by the public, and two weeks after its release, he met with Education Minister Mitzie Hunter.

Two days after that meeting, she announced financial literacy would be part of the curriculum in September, 2018.

Amarasooriya was so focused and things happened so quickly that he scheduled the meeting with Hitzer on his birthday without even realizing it, but he doesn't see it as a sacrifice. 

"When I look back on my 24th birthday now I get to say like 'oh, what did you do that day? I got financial literacy into the Grade 10 course."