Education Archives - Not far from the tree

Financial awareness needs to be taught in schools today. Too many young people are entering their adult lives with no understanding of how to manage money. It seems that the assumption is that parents are teaching their children how to budget their income, balance the credits and debits in their checking accounts, and pay their bills on time. Well, that’s not a valid assumption, to say the least.

We pull out the plastic (or the cool steel card) and make it happen in the moment.

And what about the management of credit accounts? As a nation, we like to get what we want before we have the cash to cover it. According to CNBC, total credit card debt surpassed the $1 trillion mark in 2017.* Now, in the culture we’ve established in our first-world thinking, we average Americans typically have to borrow money to buy a house or a car, which leaves little flexibility in most markets for everything else in our lives. So what do we do? We pull out the plastic (or the cool steel card) and make it happen in the moment. We responsible types pay it off every month, so we don’t pay the company a dime, that is, until we can’t. The transmission went in the car. The copay on my child’s surgery was more than I had in my savings account. I don’t have a savings account. The reasons to charge are infinite.

I’m not writing about how to get out of debt; I’m proposing that we start giving young people a foundation they can build upon.

Many people have made millions telling others the best way to get out of debt, but like other plagues in our society, the best way to go is to not get there in the first place. I’m not writing about how to get out of debt; I’m proposing that we start giving young people a foundation they can build upon.

Some local banks have visited the high school where I taught and made a one-time presentation to the senior class about the basics of handling money and credit. The most common question from these young people involved establishing credit. They were always eager to find a way to get that first car, that initial stepping stone to independence. I’ve heard financial gurus in the past promote saving up and paying cash for that first vehicle. Realistically, living in a rural area dictated that one must obtain a vehicle in order to get to a job to make money, to then pay for that vehicle and its associated expenses. It’s a vicious cycle, and if one is unfortunate enough to buy a lemon-flavored vehicle, one starts really early with its sibling cycle–the credit debt abyss. But I digress.

So, my point? One little piece of advice. If you have to establish credit, stay away from credit cards at all costs. That is possible. The most highly recommended way to establish credit is to put money in the bank and “borrow” it from oneself for 6-12 months; the bank representative said it could be as little as $300-500. I’d ask at a local bank how to pursue it with their establishment. Then, make the payments on time.

Six to twelve months sounds like a lifetime to most young people, but a proper foundation doesn’t cure overnight.

The bank presentation was always in tandem with warning students against getting a credit card and charging more than they had in the bank to pay it off on a monthly basis because it becomes more of a crutch when things break, etc., rather than a means of establishing credit (speaking from experience here). Savings is the way to go for emergency funds—the rule of thumb I’ve always heard is to intentionally save up six months of living expenses, and that gives you the foundation to move forward without worry for things going wrong and having to rely on credit to fix them. Again, I’m not talking to those who are already in the hole–it takes a lot longer to get out than to start off correctly in the first place (more first-hand experience here).

Six to twelve months sounds like a lifetime to most young people, but a proper foundation doesn’t cure overnight. Pour that concrete, and then get to work. When the time arrives, there will be a stable foundation of credit, savings, and no debt, not a crumbling mass of half-cured concrete that takes years, and sometimes decades, to clean up.

*Reference: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/23/credit-card-debt-hits-record-high.html

Those first few weeks of first grade left me wondering how I was ever going to survive eleven more years. One day in early October, the class was divided into small groups of three or four children who sat in chairs at round tables earnestly considering the placement of their small plastic frogs in groups according to the teacher’s instructions–sort the frogs into groups that are the same. As she circulated among the tables, the teacher nodded in approval as each inquisitive face looked up and met her eyes before continuing with their task.

When they saw the teacher approaching, they both looked up as the others had done and grinned, looking for that same nod of approval.

Some children had glanced at other tables to see what was happening in other groups; this resulted in the majority of the frogs lined up in somewhat straight-lined sets across each table. On one side of the room, however, two boys were chatting away with each other as they leaned across their table, grabbing this frog and that frog and placing each into one of four disheveled piles. When they saw the teacher approaching, they both looked up as the others had done and grinned, looking for that same nod of approval. Instead, she stared down at the frog piles, and with furrowed brow asked the boys why they hadn’t followed her directions. Without batting an eye, one boy fervently defended their sorting technique and said that they had indeed followed directions (something they were often known for not doing).

“They are the same!” he almost cried as he grasped two from the first pile in his sticky, jelly-smeared hands and thrust them up higher so she could see. “There’s little hearts all over these!” The other boy grabbed two from another pile and chimed in, “And little diamonds on these!” A look of comprehension suddenly melted the teacher’s expression as she picked up a frog from each of the other piles and observed the clovers and then the spades on each.

They had grouped the frogs as she’d asked, just not in the way she had expected.

Glancing back around the room, she once again took notice of the lines of frogs, evenly divided into groups of red, blue, green, and yellow. Then, she looked down at the seemingly mixed piles before her and gave the look of approval the boys had so desperately wanted. They had grouped the frogs as she’d asked, just not in the way she had expected. Not even she had noticed the tiny black shapes all over the frogs beyond their primary colors, but the two boys who both had the diagnosis of ADHD had seen the plastic toys differently and had never once thought to look around to see how the rest of the students were sorting theirs. Some of the other children may have noticed the shapes, but chose to play it safe and follow the norm.

I survived those eleven years after all…and so did my son. When his first grade teacher told me this story, I knew that despite the challenges he would face, his ability to see the world from a different angle would also be an asset. I learned so much from him and his education. Appearances can be deceiving, children all have value regardless of their perceived insufficiencies, and though it’s prudent to seek advice, just copying the people around us in order to fit in doesn’t bring progress or fulfillment.

I also learned that parenthood doesn’t stop when children turn 18; I realized that when he was about ten years old. It means that even if I write all of the stories from the early years, he is still impulsive and unfocused and creating new stories every day. I hope you find encouragement and many times a laugh that might help to brighten your day.

Category: Education

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Sorting Frogs