Financial literacy is an extremely important lesson to learn for everyone. Being able to successfully navigate the ends and outs of managing money, is the difference between between enjoying a healthy financial future as an adult or not. Well, one third grade math teacher in North Carolina is ensuring that her students start learning lessons about money early as she is charging them rent as a part of her classroom ecosystem.
@shelby_thatsmee Hard Life Lessons in 3rd Grade, my students had to pay rent for the first time! Year Two of collecting classroom rent and it is still the best feeling ever! #rent #money #teacher
♬ original sound – Ms.L
Shelby Lattimore’s lessons have gone viral on social media as people tune-in weekly to learn right alongside Lattimore’s students about things such as budgeting, inflation, investing, and more.
In Lattimore’s class, students have jobs, get “paychecks” and have to balance their budgets to make sure that they have enough “Miss Lattimore Bucks” to pay rent for their classroom essentials, including their own desks.
“We have a teacher assistant, line leader, door holder, recess basket, lunch basket. We have a cleanup crew,” Lattimore said in a recent interview with NBC News.
“All jobs do not get paid the same,” she stated. “The jobs that are every day, like line leader and teacher assistant, like those jobs that you have to do something constantly, get paid more than jobs that are like every now and then or once in a while.”
Lattimore went on to explain that at the end of each week, students collect their pay and have then to make important decisions on how and what they will spend their funds. The exercise mirrors the real world experience, arming students with the knowledge now of how to become financially literate instead of waiting until adulthood.
“Just like I have to pay bills, they have to pay bills,” Lattimore commented.
@shelby_thatsmee NEW JOB ALERT! #job #banker #spill
♬ original sound – Ms.L
So, just what are prices for things looking like in Lattimore’s ecosystem? Let’s take a look!
Desk/chair: $7
Lunch with Miss Lattimore: $7
Lunch with a friend runs: $5
Homework pass: $3
Candy: $2
Yet, the most coveted priced item is the most expensive in Lattimore’s class. If you would like to be teacher for the day, it will cost you $30.
@shelby_thatsmee New Year=New Rent, this economy can be harsh even on 3rd graders #rent #inflation #teacher
♬ original sound – Ms.L
“We believe that students need to do economics to better understand it. You know, instead of just listening to someone lecturing or talking about it,” said Ted Tucker, the executive director of Foundation for Teaching Economics. “I think what games do or simulations do is they allow students to internalize the concepts that are being taught.”
According to the 2023 TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index, Blacks and Hispanics answered 34% and 38% respectively to a survey that measures financial knowledge. This was lower than the average, although low itself, of 48%.
Miss Lattimore is striving to change those statistics. With her creative and engaging real life lessons, we definitely have a feeling that she will accomplish her goal!
Video/Photo: Shelby Lattimore TikTok; Instagram
