Teaching Children about Capitalism and the NCSCOS

The following is an excerpt from a paper I just finished on student's thinking about Social Studies. For this assignment, I interviewed two 4th graders using questions provided by my professor. The questions I asked the students were:

When you buy something from a store, who decides how much the price is?

How do they decide how much to charge for it?

Where does the store get the things it sells?

If you paid $5 for something at the store, how much would the store have paid for it when they got it- $5, more than $5, or less than $5?

Again, this was only part of the interview. I hope you comment and let me know what you think about this issue!

(On a side note, I replaced the students' names with my friends Becky and Thom- if you two are reading, I can't wait to come to dinner next week! Carol and Matt are my other friends who caught word that I was using Becky and Thom for my paper, so they get credit too because I have the greatest friends ever.)

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One of the most important conclusions I made through this interview is the discrepancy between how economics is taught across all grades and the importance of capitalism in our society. I was surprised when both Becky and Thom told me that the manufacturer spends more money on producing a product than the store or consumer spends on purchasing a product. I am curious if the wording of this question was misleading. I also recognize that through experiences at school and at home, children are always learning about how to be consumers, but I am concerned that they are not learning about how the system works and how we are active participants in the system. In today’s economic climate, I think public education may be contributing to the gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” by not addressing debt and interest in developmentally appropriate ways.

When I asked Becky about banks, money, and loans, she used what she knew from playing the game “Life” – that a person can take out loans for college- but didn’t say anything specifically about paying back the loans. When I probed his thinking, Thom was very clear that when you pay back a loan you “pay back every cent” and no more or no less. I asked him twice to see if he would revise his statement and he was very adamant that it was just “every cent.”

Personal debt is a real and pervasive problem in American society. I decided to look through the NCSCOS to see how and when economics is taught. I was looking to see what the objectives would tell me about Becky and Thom’s educational background and when personal economics would be covered in the curriculum. The NCSCOS Social Studies objectives cover economics in each elementary grade. In 1st grade, students learn about saving and spending money. In 2nd grade, they learn about basic economic concepts and evaluate the use of economic resources within communities. The 3rd grade curriculum focuses on the division of labor and the cost of resources, goods, and services in communities. Finally, these 4th graders will be learning more about economics as it relates to North Carolina by categorizing the state's resources as natural, human, or capital; recognizing that money can be used for spending, saving, and paying taxes; and by analyzing the choices and opportunity cost involved in economic decisions. Students in 4th grade do begin to make connections with themselves as participants in a market economy. In 11th or 12th grade, students can take an economics course where they learn the specifics about market economies.

The problem I have with the NCSCOS is that it is not specific enough about a person’s role in a capitalist economy. I trust that a responsible teacher would teach about debt, and I think they best way to do this would be integrating math with the social studies objectives to reflect real life. Using problem solving, a teacher could help students realize that when you borrow money you have to pay back extra money. In the early elementary grades a teacher could pose problems like, “Carol borrows ten dollars from Matt and tells him she will pay him one dollar for every day it takes to pay him back. If Carol pays Matt back in one week, how much money does Carol give Matt?” In the 3rd grade, students begin to learn about fractions, and in 6th grade they learn about percents. Both fractions and percents can be learned through authentic problem solving scenarios that include money.

I am interested in finding out more about debt and how it is taught in schools because as educators, our job is to prepare students for life beyond school. I am also wondering whether learning about debt is “too real.” Would it frighten students? For students with low SES backgrounds, learning about debt may bring up family issues, but a teacher could use this as a way to empower students to make choices that will allow them to have control over their financial stability beyond school. Ultimately, I think that relevant connection to real life lends itself to critical thinking about the consequences of debt and prepares students to be productive adults in our complex global economy.

If the textbook contains the answers, then what are the questions?

The questions ARE the questions because good, relevant questions point us in new directions and they enable us to use knowledge in new meaningful ways. When students are actively questioning, you know that you are reaching them.

Imagine a job interview. A boss who is interviewing a potential employee asks questions for the sole purpose of understanding what the person knows and whether they would be a good fit for the job. They ask them questions to probe their thinking, to get a sense of their experiences, and to find out more about their personality and preferences.

Teachers ask questions to find out the same things about their students. In both cases if the answers lack depth, the boss and the teacher know that the applicant and the students are not really connecting to the information. The difference is the boss wants to hire the best employee for the job and the teacher needs to do a better job at making the learning relevant to the students’ interests and lives.

We have to teach students to question the relevance so they can take responsibility for their education. So when I think about, “If the textbooks contains the answers what are the questions?” I think that the answer to this question is it depends on the student. When we hear students asking good questions, it sounds like:

What does this mean?
Why should I care about this?
What does this have to do with my life and me?
Why are we learning this?
What does this have to do with anything?

The teacher needs to help the student answer these questions on his or her own. They do this by creating learning situations where students relate the content to what they care about. If the students are too young to ask these questions, we need to ask these questions FOR THEM and model how to take responsibility for our own learning by making personal connections to the content.

The answers to these very important questions are NOT in the textbook. They can be found in the ways students connect what they learn to their lives and the ways they use the information. Relevance is the most important thing we can teach our students.

The advantages of using an Annual Plan to map an interdisciplinary curriculum.

In my Integrating Social Studies and the Arts class, we are learning how to develop an interdisciplinary annual plans and I really cannot understand how or why teachers or PLTs would not use this method of “big picture” planning.  Teachers are required to know the content. We need to know exactly what it is we are going to teach and have some kind of plan for how to implement an integrated curriculum. Relevance is the key component that allows students to make a powerful personal connection to related ideas and disciplines.

I think a lot about the “real-life” skills that prepare students to become functioning members of our global society. In my day-to-day life, I struggle with having to do things that seem to have no purpose. I get terribly frustrated with assignments or housework that I find pointless or redundant. I am constantly finding ways to be efficient and develop systems to accomplish many things at once. No one wants to be bogged down with the things they’d rather not be doing and everyone prefers to focus on the things they care about.  In the classroom, teachers must plan for engaging, worthwhile activities because we do not want students to feel the same way about learning.

A good annual plan provides the structure through which students can explore and make connections to the content and find the purpose for themselves. The life skills that students learn by interacting with content in meaningful ways is how to find their niche, derive pleasure out of learning, and intrinsic motivation. With well-planned, interdisciplinary annual plans that reflect continuity and interconnectedness, we prepare students to be able to transform tedious tasks into explorations. Ultimately, we are teaching students how to become the innovators and thinkers that our society needs to solve complex global problems. 

                       

                       

           

Learning at The NC Museum of Art

For my Integrating Social Studies and the Arts class, we took a trip to the NCMA this week. The new building is a modern marvel! From the outside, the minimalistic metallic building looks small and bleak, however inside it boasts sky lights, windows, and natural light! A teacher could teach an entire science and technology unit on how this incredible building works. Our docent, who was once a school teacher, told us that the building automatically monitors and adjusts screens and shades to filter the light for the just right atmosphere, light conditions, and temperature.

I had an odd moment when I found myself standing in a (filtered) sunbeam gazing at a Giotto alter piece from the 14th century Italian Renaissance. Giotto is the "father of western painting"" because he basically reinvented the cannon of figure painting with more realistic, rounded, and proportionate figures and he inspired the great masters like DaVinci, Michaelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael. (And, yes, it is true that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were named after these artists)  Having a Giotto at the NCMA is a big deal because Italy considers his work to be national treasures and typically his pieces are not allowed to leave the country.

When I was standing there looking at this amazing treasure, I started to wonder what it would be like to take a group of elementary students to the museum.  What I would do is make the museum into a classroom by setting up discrete stations in certain galleries as learning stations. At each station there would be a task (or a choice between several tasks) for students to complete.  Since they would want to touch things, I would set up a kit with a variety of math manipulatives, tools, and materials that they could use to do purposeful tasks that relate to the art in the gallery.  The students would carry a "sketchbook" with them to draw pictures of what they observe; write responses,  descriptions, or questions about what they see, or record their thinking as they solve a math problem.  If a teacher were to do something like this, they might want to check with the museum for permission and be sure they have plenty of adult volunteers to supervise.

Our docent took us all around the museum and told us about many works from many different genres and time periods. In my opinion, the most compelling piece at the museum was a bronze sculpture by a contemporary artist named Michael Richards.  In September 2001, the NCMA was preparing for an exhibition entitled First in Flight when the attacks on the Wold Trade Center occurred. Richards was working in his studio located in the WTC and he and his work perished on this fateful day in our country's history. The piece in the museum's public collection is a similar version of the work pictured above (with the artist). 

As I stood there studying the craftsmanship of his work I was nearly brought to tears as I listened to the docent describe how he was working in his studio the morning of the 11th.  Through his art, Michael Richards sought to challenge the viewer to think about issues of race, exclusion, and equality.  The meaning of the his sculpture, Tar-Baby Vs. Saint Sebastian, was forever transformed from a homage to the Tuskegee Airmen, a segregated group of African-American fighter pilots in WWII, to a chilling reminder of the consequences of intolerance and hate.  

In history, there are always two sides of the story and I think that a teacher who doesn't teach this to their students is not doing their job. I am not saying that it is appropriate to tell young students every detail of something as horrific as 911, but there are big messages that can be looked at in a positive, and productive way. In today's classroom sensitive issues need to be addressed with deference and care, and they must not be ignored. You don't have to lie to your students if "the biggies" like 911 come up in class. With young students I think it is responsible to simplify the explanation you provide and make sure you don't make them feel fearful or as if they are in immediate danger. As children mature they are able to take more information into account so the here-and-now is not always the place for answering those types of questions.

A meaningful, well planned Social Studies lesson is a chapter of an Epic Odyssey.

When teaching Social Studies to elementary aged students, a teacher is like a ship captain leading a crew of novice, yet eager explorers. Before they embark on a voyage the captain takes time to understand who each crew members is and what they personally need in order to be successful by observing and taking in to account every person’s specific interests and expertise.  When lead by a strong, effective, and affective captain or teacher, the crew or group of students know exactly what is expected and together they work collaboratively to reach their destination.  In a classroom, the “destination” of a well executed lesson plan is the acquisition of new discoveries, skills, and connections.

Before teaching a lesson, the teacher knows the curriculum just like a captain knows the ship before setting out to sea.  If the crew is unskilled, the captain knows that they need to sail around the harbor to gain some experiences before they set sail into open water. During this anticipatory jaunt, the captain may discover that they need to fill in gaps between the planks or that certain crew members are ready for a more challenging position or task. In education, we call this "establishing prior knowledge." Before they leave the dock, the captain and the teacher both take inventory of the tools and equipment they already have, and both find an inexpensive means to obtain whatever else they need for their respective voyages. 

The captain interviews the crew to find out what they know about the route.  An effective constructivist teacher knows they must begin with what the students already know before they can add to and revise their schema, or prior knowledge. A captain may talk to other ship captains to be sure they have all the necessary provisions and are prepared for the unexpected in the same way a teacher would collaborate with their colleagues and educational specialists.

The captain and the teacher plan ahead to anticipate challenges. They monitor progress and make adjustments to the process as needed. In order to assure success, the ship captain steers clear of shallow water. In the classroom, shallow content does not lead to new discoveries, connections, or understanding.  The captain must model strength and perseverance for the young mates as they overcome fears of sea monsters or the prospect of being lost at sea. For students the fear of failure prevents self-efficacy and is prevented with engaging content and support from the teacher to take risks and think critically.  The captain also valiantly leads the crew as they work together to steady the ship through hurricanes. In education, we know from Jean Piaget that disequilibrium precedes equilibrium at a higher level of cognitive development. Both the teacher and the captain must expect some rough water along the way.

And then, of course, there is the idea of falling off the edge of the earth. In 2010, we know that the Earth is round and learning is not a completely linear process. However, here is where this elaborate metaphor is lost because a lesson could fall off the edge of the earth if it is not relevant or purposeful.  Purpose is the essential component that transforms learning and exploration into a meaningful experience for the student. Without purpose the process is moot and the destination is insignificant.

Social Studies is a curricular treasure chest that contains all of the social sciences: economics, geography, civics, anthropology, history, and sociology.  In the journey of learning, students reach countless destinations. So, in teaching Social Studies what we are actually seeking with our students is to unlock the mysteries of the world around us in order to better understand our combined histories, people, places, and cultures. 

Here is a beautiful version of Peter, Paul, and Mary singing a traditional version of the sea-shanty song Hey, Ho, Nobody's Home, a song that is fun to sing with students in a round.