Third-grade teacher reveals ‘genius’ method for preparing kids to handle money in the real world – which sees her charging them $5 RENT for their desks and FINING them for offences like tardiness and disrespect
A teacher has revealed how she teaches money management to her third-graders, charging fake money to “rent” their own desks, among a number of other strategies within what she calls her “classroom economics.”
Shelby Lattimore, a third grade teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina, announced to her class in October 2022, “Your rent for your chair and your desk is $5.”
“I’m done being broke!” one of her students shouted off camera, but Lattimore stood her ground.
“You’ll earn more if you get another job,” she reminded the children, referring to the various classroom jobs for which they are reimbursed with play money.
Shelby Lattimore, a third-grade teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina, has created a “classroom economy” to teach her students about basic financial management
“I teach them the responsibility of handling the money they earn from their classroom jobs,” the teacher emphasized
Duties include – but are not limited to – line leader, usher and table washer, with paychecks coming from Lattimore every other Friday.
‘It started with allocating jobs. Everyone gets a class job at the beginning of the year,” she explained of the origins of her class economy in one TikTok.
“Line leader, door holder, door opener, lights, calendar, technology assistant, break basket, lunch basket, table washers, teacher aid and eraser,” she further listed.
She added that depending on how much work each job required, she would pay them $5 or $10 once or twice a month.
The children can also change jobs every two weeks. In addition to their jobs, they can earn extra money by running various errands for the teacher, and they can also get paid for their homework and high test scores.
She then collects $5 monthly from each of them as bogus “rent” for their desk and chair.
But the kids can also spend their money on various rewards and perks with the money they save, such as a “food in the classroom pass” for $3, or, for a hefty $30, “be a teacher for a day,” and even on ‘homework passes’, according to Business insider.
On the other hand, she charges them ‘fines’ for ‘late work, disrespect or deliberately breaking things’.
“A lot of my kids come from check-to-check families and aren’t in the best of situations financially, so I don’t think they’re too young to ever learn how to manage money,” Lattimore explains out.
The teacher was widely praised by other users on the video sharing platform, as one viewer wrote: ‘I love that you are helping teach financial literacy’
“A lot of my kids come from families where they live from check to check and aren’t in the best financial situation, so I don’t think they’re too young to ever learn how to manage money, how to handle money and how to handle money. want to use their money,” she explained in another video.
“I teach them the responsibility of managing the money they earn from their classroom jobs,” she emphasized.
“How they want to use it, when they want to use it, what they want to use it for is up to them,” she continued, adding that she follows “certain rules,” just as there are “certain rules” around real money. handled by adults.
The teacher was widely praised by other users on the video sharing platform, as one viewer wrote: ‘I love that you are helping teach financial literacy.’
Another added: ‘This is genius and I wish more teachers did things like this. Doing things that they really need to know as an adult.’
And a third said: ‘This is a great concept! You give the children insight into the real world. This is something that needs to be taught throughout school.”