The holiday season can be financially challenging as we purchase gifts and other creature comforts that may have come to be expected in traditional celebrations.  Students, who may struggle with financial matters over the holidays as well as in their daily lives, can benefit from education on the subject of fiscal responsibility.

Among PBS LearningMedia resources on this subject, the documentary, “The Ascent of Money” and its support materials, examine early Renaissance Italy when credit came of age, exploring how money lending became the foundation of a new kind of power.  Against the backdrop of the powerful Medici family, historian Niall Ferguson describes how credit became a legitimate international business and led to the birth of modern banking.  Students in grades 9-12 can travel to Italy and discover banking’s origins and the evolution of modern banking.