When I found out I was teaching a financial planning class, I was excited. Yet as I came to understand more and more the possibilities for this class, I got even more hopeful. I am very thankful to all the people that have helped me and offered resources including many but especially Benjamin Cox. He has offered some truly great ideas including the idea to blog about this experience. Thank you, Benjamin! Hopefully my students will benefit from your and others' passion for financial planning.
We have just gotten started with 2 class periods focusing on the expenses of different kinds of pizza. For example, is it more worthwhile financially, nutritionally, and taste-wise to cook pizza from scratch, buy a crust and ingredients from a store to assemble, buy a frozen pizza, or buy pizza from a fast food restaurant? We will find out tomorrow! The students have divided up into groups of about 4 and are calculating the cost per serving of pizza, the nutrition facts of a serving of pizza, and even evaluating the tastiness of that particular kind of pizza. The kids seem to be getting into it and are excited. The idea is to come up with expenses that are relatable for the kids and to evaluate what is a worthwhile expense. What makes an expense worthwhile? Obviously, saving money is good but are there times when a person is willing to sacrifice some price for taste, for example? A person may also be willing to pay more for a more nutritionally well-rounded pizza since they are getting more for their buck. The objective with buying pizza is to acquire food that is (relatively) fast in order to take care of one's body and get necessary calories for the day--in addition, of course, to the taste factor. Who doesn't love pizza? So due to its practicality and fame, pizza seemed like a natural thing to focus on.
We will use the conversation about pizza to talk about the value of time. We will also figure time into the calculations. For example, say a high school student's time is worth $10/hour. When I mentioned this rate today, the students seemed to find that acceptable. Does it make more sense for a high school teenager to make pizza from scratch (or at least a ready-made raw dough product such as Pillsbury along with sauce and cheese), buy a frozen pizza, buy a ready-made dough product such as Boboli or buy a fast food pizza? We will present our findings tomorrow!
I plan to try to update this blog weekly or even as often as daily about this experimental experience of teaching financial planning to inner city high school students. I look forward to discussing time, work, and education with these kids--and getting to know them as well. To take a step back, the classes are still fluctuating since it's the beginning of the year but I will probably have about 20-some male and female Black, Latino, Asian, and White students about ages 17-19. I am trying to appeal to their sense of maturity and real world savvy-ness as we go forward because I really want this to be a class that they enjoy and get something out of and I am so happy to see that there are other people who care about these issues as well. Maybe this blog can be the starting point of a discussion about what makes a financial planning class effective and what makes it enjoyable for students. I certainly hope so!
