Once students graduate and enter the “real world,” they often claim that their schools taught them everything except for actual life skills.
While they may be well-versed with the ins and outs of trigonometric functions and able to analyze an ambiguous poem with relative ease, these gifts aren’t really useful when it comes to navigating adult responsibilities, such as paying bills, making budgets, and figuring out finances in general.
When fostering financial literacy among young people, it’s best to do so in a low-stakes environment.
That’s why the classroom is the perfect place for kids to learn about finances. In a viral video on TikTok, one teacher from Charlotte, North Carolina is sharing her creative approach to help her students gain an understanding of financial responsibility.
Shelby Lattimore (@shelby_thatsmee) is a third-grade math and science teacher. In order to teach her students some “hard life lessons” that will prepare them for the world, she charges them rent for their desks and chairs at the beginning of every month.
In the video, she called each of her students up one by one and instructed them to pay her five dollars in “Lattimore Bucks.”
When one student tried to hand her their wallet, she informed them that they should never give another person their wallet because that person could take out as much money as they wanted.
Of course, the money was fake and could be earned by performing various classroom jobs. Like in the real world, not all the jobs had the same salary.
They also get paid twice a week. Rent isn’t the only thing the students are charged for. If they happen to break her pencils or turn in late assignments, that will incur fees as well.
WavebreakMediaMicro – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
Shelby even allowed her students to use some of their fake money to purchase rewards, such as homework passes or free time.
Her classroom economy has been a big hit among many TikTok users, who praised her for teaching such valuable lessons.
“Thank you so much for teaching these kids real-life lessons. These kids will pass this knowledge on to others, too!!!” exclaimed one user.
“More educators of young students should do exactly this. I wish I had this when I was growing up because it teaches you extremely important lessons,” commented another.
“I remember doing this back in grade school, and it was the best thing ever. Learning money responsibility was such a smart thing to do at a young age,” stated a third.
@shelby_thatsmee Hard life lessons like paying rent start in 3rd Grade for Ms.Lattimore class? #teachersoftiktok #humor #payingrent
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