Tamekia Davis: Would you rather drive to work if it cost you $150 per month to park? Or would you rather catch the metro, and it’s only going to cost you $25?

Tamekia Davis: While students may not need to know an algebraic expression to get through life’s events, they will have to know how to budget their money, what good credit is. Every day of their life, every student will have to face making a financial decision.

Susan Bistransin: Money is traditionally something that’s not talked about. It’s taboo. And so what we do with a lot of the assignments in financial literacy is try to start some conversations with families.

Susan Bistransin: Good morning. You guys are working in pairs today. So find…

Tamekia Davis: If you look at today’s economy, more than half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. One in three households don’t even have a written budget.

Iraima: When we first started learning about financial literacy, I was definitely scared because I was like, whoa, I’m growing up. But it’s pretty beneficial, especially if you’re trying to get a debit card, first job, eventually building credit.

Osbaldo: I started working at the age of 14. So I pay some bills for my parents whenever they need help. The class has helped me learn, like, what I should look at when I get my check.

Tamekia Davis: I cover a myriad of topics. Investing, depository institutions, debt management.

Tamekia Davis: So today we’re going to be talking about managing your money. This is called the 20-bean game. The beans will represent your salary, and you’re going to have to decide where I am going to spend this money. So you’re going to be adulting for a minute.

Tamekia Davis: Students were given two sheets where they had to allocate beans to certain categories, six of which were mandatory, such as housing, clothing, food.

Susan Bistransin: Each category has a couple of options. If you want to eat at home, it’s one bean. If you want to go out all the time, it’s three beans.

M1: Do we want our own house? Do we want to share with the family?

M2: Share with your family.

M1: So we’re going cheapo on there.

M2: Yeah.

Kenneth: You’re not going to be using beans, obviously, like you’re going to be using money. But it’s showing you how to like budget your money.

Tamekia Davis: OK. Time’s up. We’re now getting ready to start round two. I have a spin wheel here.

Kenneth: So basically the wheel was spinning; then, like, something would happen.

Tamekia Davis: Tell me when to stop.

Student 1: Stop.

Student 2: Stop.

Tamekia Davis: Your microwave broke and you need to replace it. Take off one bean.

M3: What? Hold on.

Tamekia Davis: From anywhere. You have to decide where to take a bean. Make sure that your star categories are still covered.

W1: Take that out.

W2: Bye bean.

Tamekia Davis: OK. My wheel is going around again.

M3: Stop.

W2: Stop.

Tamekia Davis: Your car needs new tires. If you do not have a car, you do nothing.

W3: I guess I’m just going to have to go with no.

W4: No, but, like, we need a phone. We move to limited data.

W3: Limited data.

Tamekia Davis: OK.

W2: Stop.

M4: Stop.

Tamekia Davis: Broken leg. If you do not have health insurance, take off three beans. You all didn’t have health insurance. Why?

M1: We didn’t think we would break our leg.

Tamekia Davis: You didn’t—that’s why you have insurance. All right. Let’s go to one more scenario.

W3: Stop.

M2: Stop.

Tamekia Davis: You picked up a part-time job in the gig economy. You may be doing Lyft, DoorDash, add two beans anywhere on your board. I like what you said, Logan. Logan said, do we learn? Do we get health insurance now?

Tamekia Davis: The students were able to see these are decisions that their parents, their guardians, have to make on a daily basis.

Tamekia Davis: How many of you thought that you wanted to live on your own? After playing this game, how many of you still believe you want to live on your own?

Kenneth: I changed my mind about owning a car because you had to have auto insurance, pay for gas.

Thomia: Out of all my classes, financial literacy might be the one class that I think I need the most when I become an adult.

Susan Bistransin: And I had a student tell me, “I understand taxes now. And I can go home and talk to my parents about it and explain to them what they need to do.” It is my most fervent hope these students go out into the world with a greater understanding of how money truly affects every aspect of their life and make wise decisions about using that money.

Parkdale High School

.css-1sk4066:hover{background:#d1ecfa;}Teaching Students How to Be Smart With Their Money

Teaching Students How to Be Smart With Their Money