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.