In the wake of the financial crisis, we’ve seen a renewed interest in teaching financial capability in our public schools. The impulse is a natural one: Give our young people the knowledge they need to make sound financial decisions, and we should see a decrease in the likelihood that they take on usurious student loans, fall into credit card debt, or get swept up in a real estate bubble.

But in practice, we are teaching only half the story of financial capability. We teach the concepts as if each student were an island: Understand the difference between what you want and what you need. Set up a savings account. Protect yourself against fraud. These are valuable lessons. However, by taking this approach, we turn financial capability into a long list of rules and warnings, to be followed (or not) in isolation.

No wonder there’s broad consensus that financial capability has a branding problem. Students walk away from courses about financial planning with the impression that they are all Davids in a sea of financial Goliaths; step into your armor and pray for the best. Is this really the financial culture that we want to engender?

It doesn’t have to be this way. Yes, financial capability means knowing how to protect yourself, plan for the future, stick to a budget. But it also means understanding how individuals can create opportunity and how communities can create wealth.

Too often, particularly in low-income neighborhoods, young people do not see themselves as having a role to play on our economic stage. To truly teach financial capability, we need to bring these students into the fold. They need to understand the power of identifying a market opportunity and transforming that insight into wealth for themselves through ownership and ultimately, value for their community. In short, they need to understand the skills and mindset of entrepreneurship. Suddenly lessons about budgeting, saving, and risk accounting take on a new dimension.

Let’s stop talking about making Americans more financially capable as a protective, defensive strategy. If our goal is to both protect against future crises and generate jobs, we need to go on the offense. My hope is that we seize the moment and incorporate into financial education the knowledge necessary to think like entrepreneurs, enabling Americans, especially young people, to make financially responsible decisions. This way we can put America back on the right track before we lose the hearts and minds of yet another generation.

If we can add this missing piece to financial education, it may no longer be “broccoli in need of chocolate,” to paraphrase comments at the last meeting of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability. We shouldn’t be rebranding; we should be reinventing.

Amy Rosen is vice chair, President’s Advisory Commission on Financial Capability, and president and CEO, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, which aims to inspire young people to pursue educational opportunities, start their own businesses, and succeed in life. T he South Florida branch was launched in 2006 and has become the nation’s fastest-growing office with over 13,000 students served to date.