« TIPS to Bernanke: Drop Dead | Main | L'Affaire Spitzer »

At the Ariel Community Academy in Chicago, each incoming first-grade class gets $20,000. The children are eventually put in charge of managing it and picking the stocks.

The concept is simple: Ariel's experts manage a $20,000 portfolio for each class until sixth grade, briefing them regularly along the way, and then begin turning over the decisions to the children. Upon graduation from eighth grade, each class returns the initial investment amount to the school for another first-grade class and donates, invests or pockets the profits.

After giving half the gains to community charity programs or school initiatives, each student can then take the rest in cash or invest it in a Section 529 college savings plan, in which case they are given an additional $1,000. Last year, 80 percent of graduates invested their $150 shares in a 529.

Given the success of stocks like Crocs, Apple and Hansen Natural, I think it might be worth listening to what kids have to say.

Here's how Wrigley's (WWY) has performed over the long haul:

Posted by edelfenbein at March 10, 2008 2:46 PM