FinEdChat

Taken

2012-02-18T06:31:00.000-08:00

When I watched Taken with my wife, I walked away believing those kinds of things did not happen very often. I thought it was just a movie. What I learned, and what my business students learned, is that human trafficking is the world's largest business for organized crime and only 1% of the girls who fall victim are saved.

In my last post, I explained that my BEMA syllabus was a clean sheet of paper for my students to craft a course full of their interests and ideas, with one exception. This project was the exception, and of course the students were excited to participate. Vicki Davis, a tremendous educator in Georgia, recommended human trafficking or human slavery as the focus for a collaborative project. I agreed, and was excited about the experience my students would have collaborating with students in Georgia to complete the project.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a meeting in Columbus about human trafficking. Sue Helmreich was kind enough to introduce me to various leaders, one being Sister Nancy. I shared a few ideas my students had come up with to raise money for the cause, and she directed me to Destiny Rescue. They are a perfect fit for what we are trying to accomplish. My students are currently writing the business plan for our social enterprise, which is to serve as a promotional arm for Destiny Rescue.

I set up a Skype with Peter Everett so he could explain to my students what Destiny Rescue does. My students and I were amazed. What their Rescue Program does is just like Taken. Some of the girls they have rescued from human trafficking were as young as six years old. So far they have rescued over a hundred girls, an amazing accomplishment if you can imagine the challenges of taking on the mafia and corrupt police in Southeast Asia. After they are rescued, they provide the girls with the counseling, care, and education they need to eventually care for themselves.

Within a few weeks we will announce how we are going to move forward with our Social Enterprise. What the students have in mind is brilliant, and is big.

My Students Run My Class

2012-02-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

"Entrepreneur - one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise" - Merriam-Webster's Dictionary

In pulling together my newest class, I saw an opportunity to create an environment designed to change the approach and responsibility students have in the classroom to more closely mirror the responsibilities of an entrepreneur. My students have been empowered to innovate and create. So far, I am proud of what they have accomplished. Here is a picture of the syllabus I passed out to begin the course.

Yes, it is blank. I called the course Business Entrepreneurship Marketing Applications (B.E.M.A). Other than one collaborative project we are doing with Vicki Davis, I left it to the students to decide how we would move forward. I provided the parameters and had veto power. I left it to the students to decide what businesses we would create, what we would learn about, and how we would be assessed. What they came up with is pictured below.

I'm Still Waiting for Superman

2012-02-05T11:13:00.000-08:00

I spent the weekend hung up with the flu, which gave me a chance to watch Waiting for Superman. Watching this probably made me even more sick, but that is for another post. I think most would agree that Waiting for Superman is heartbreaking. Where there is clear disagreement is how the movie spins the problem, and the diagnosis. Yet if you look hard enough, the diagnosis can be found in the movie. I recognize three key points.

Support
Each of the families in the movie have something in common. The parents in the movie have worked hard to ensure their children's basic needs have been met. More specifically - Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

What about the kids who are not having their hierarchy of needs met? How can schools also serve as community centers for the poor? I am not suggesting teachers should work 18 hour days. I am suggesting taking a look at facilities we already own, programs we already have, and existing funding to create programs designed to prevent poverty for future generations, instead of just treating it.

Role of Government
I always thought government was supposed to help provide for those who could not provide for themselves - like children? I am a capitalist. It is painful to experience the legislative ripple effects of crony capitalism, and even more painful to hear people claim these policies are representative of capitalism. Shouldn't a capitalistic society strive to provide children with all of the tools they need to be responsible for themselves as adults? The charter schools in Waiting for Superman have the funding they need, and it's a crime that not all public schools do.

It is counterintuitive for schools to compete with each other. I do not want to 'beat' my colleagues in other districts - because I do not want any child to lose! I spend a lot of time collaborating with colleagues, and seeking ways to make every child's educational experience better. Why doesn't government find ways to reward collaboration and best practices instead of shaping policies that punish them?

Supporting Educators
On the aggregate, educators feel attacked. But for what? We do not write education laws, we are left to manage the aftermath of bad laws. We do not create poverty, we just work to prevent our students from living in poverty when they are adults. We did not bring the economy to its knees in 2008, but some politicians are bringing us to our knees to pay for it.

Public schools cannot avoid our greatest challenges like charter schools and private schools who can pick and choose who they educate. We must address these issues head on.

Moving Forward
I admire some of our politicians. Many want what is best for America, they just lack the experience in the classroom to draft or understand education policies that are consistent with their passion for our country. It is time for politicians and educators to partner with one another as employees of our country, and work in an ongoing effort to improve our education system through student-centered legislation.

Right now, I do not see any of this changing. Educators do not write policies that change education, politicians do. Typically, classroom teachers have very little influence on education laws, if any at all. So in the mean time, I will be waiting for a politician who understands how to address the issues, and has the courage to solve them. A politician who does this is my Superman - and this is the Superman that kids and teachers are really waiting for.

Closing Letter to My Students...

2012-01-07T09:24:00.001-08:00

I can remember vividly being a high school student, anticipating the feeling of relief as I prepared for my final examination. I wanted to move on, thinking very little about any future events beyond playing sports and hanging out with my friends. I did not consider the ripple effects of learning or not learning.

Imagine throwing a pebble deep into the center of a crystal clear pond. The result is ripples that wave one after another throughout the pond, deep from the center, slowly to the periphery.

Whether you want to hear it or not, your choice to both prepare for your final examination and apply what you have learned in this class to your everyday lives is much like the pebble hitting the pond. Your future financial choices will send a wave deep into every aspect of your life and the lives of others.

Your first wave will begin just after high school with your post-education choices and subsequent college debt. While at the same time, you will be testing your discipline with a credit card and future car debt.

Before you know it, you will be a young professional deciding whether to fill your bartenders’ pockets with your discretionary income or fill your own future pockets by adequately investing for retirement.

Sooner than you may imagine, it will shape your family’s quality of life and your subsequent peace of mind.

Eventually, it will guide your opportunity to reach financial freedom at a young enough age to enjoy retirement as others struggle to live on a fixed income, working well into their seventies.

In the periphery, lies the legacy for your future children, and your ability to prepare them for a world full of financial trickery and hidden wealth.

Just as the ripples in the pond get bigger and bigger, so will your financial responsibilities. Being financially responsible is not the result of a high school or college course, nor is it the result of being disciplined and conscience of your choices. It has to be both, and your financial education has to be ongoing.

Now as you have envisioned what you can expect as you move forward, I want you to imagine the waves of choices you will be faced with in a different lens. For a moment, envision shouldering a responsibility much greater than your own financial future. For this moment - - internalize your responsibility as a next generation American.

Our country desperately needs waves of economic change that will transform where we are and the direction we are heading. Our country needs a generation full of financially astute and responsible leadership that will guide us out of consumer and government debt massive enough to change the United States as we know it.

My challenge for you is to understand how to responsibly manage the waves of financial challenges that you will face throughout your life, while making waves for your country that will better the lives of the generations to come.

Let what you have learned in this course be the pebble that creates the first wave of change that we all need.

Teaching Philanthropy & Taxes via Project Based Learning

2011-12-20T18:58:00.000-08:00

I concluded my latest unit on philanthropy and taxes with a project. I chose to center the project around an organization that I share a similar interest with, led by a person I admire. Please take the time to navigate through KIVA's website. If you need any motivation, watch this TED Talk by KIVA's founder Jessica Jackley.

Back to Project Based Learning. Students are engaged, excited and empowered in their learning experiences with PBL's. They dig more deeply into a topic and expand their interests. In this case, they were able to experience the global reality of inequality and poverty, and do something about it.

The images below include the project instructions and rubrics. Feel free to use it to create your own PBL.

Finance For Future Generations

2011-10-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, so much as downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation." - John Adams

On the first day of Personal Finance class, I explain to the students that the course is designed to empower them with the financial tools they need to manage their money consistent with what they value. The students are challenged to have a vision of how they want to live their lives, establish goals that will put them on a path to get there, and provide them with the money management tools they need to reach their goals. The curriculum and assessments are rigorous enough to assess how well they can apply what they have learned in future challenges with real money at stake, and the environment is engaging and innovative enough to draw interest in the material from everyone in the class so they can rise up to meet high expectations.

If this sounds like an appealing course for your child, you are not alone. In a recent Visa Inc. survey, 85% of parents said they want a course in personal finance to be a high school graduation requirement. However, only four states have that requirement in place. Although most states require financial literacy be woven into existing curriculum, it is being taught by some teachers who have no educational background in personal finance.

I find it baffling that our legislators have not invested in financial education for future generations, while at the same time they are visibly clashing on how to manage the wreckage of what is left over from a generation of Americans who lack one. The mantra of sacrifice is clear, and sacrifice should not be limited to spending cuts.

Sacrifice can also come in the form of revenues being raised to fund programs necessary to keep our mainly free market economy - - free. Sure, there are committees, reports, speeches, and talking points addressing the issue, but the funding is not there.

There seems to be a growing public sentiment that is divisive, that pits the 'have's against the 'have-nots', a position that is being accelerated by the current political climate. Concurrently, there is an emphasis on the need for education reform, with little to no mention of financial education reform. Not enough educators are being trained to teach a course that provides the foundation for the financial well-being of future Americans, which could explain why, broadly speaking, students who have taken a personal finance course do not test any better than students who have not.

Now is the time to step back, consider the bigger picture, and recognize that if we want our economy to remain mainly free, we need to teach future generations how to spend responsibly within one. This will come at a cost, although I can assure you that the cost of instituting and delivering a quality financial education across the country is a lot less expensive than the consequences of a country full of consumers without one.