Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: I'm WBS Costs Radio.
Speaker 3: Thanks Dan Watkins. I am delighted to welcome my next
Speaker 3: two guests. Very rarely do we have two guests at
Speaker 3: the same time, but we will take phone calls. By
Speaker 3: the way, I'd like to introduce to the principal of
Speaker 3: Westwood High School, Amy Davenport. Amy, Welcome to Nightside. How
Speaker 3: are you this evening.
Speaker 4: I'm doing really well. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: You're very very welcome. And also a math teacher who
Speaker 3: is also I guess a financial literacy teacher, Brian Mahegan. Brian,
Speaker 3: welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 1: Hi, thanks for having us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is great. Well. I happen to see a
Speaker 3: couple of articles about what you folks are doing at
Speaker 3: Westwood High School, which I think is brilliant. And I
Speaker 3: don't throw that term around often, but it's something that
Speaker 3: is I think so needed. So many kids graduate from
Speaker 3: high school these days, top high schools, middle high schools,
Speaker 3: and they have no clue of the cost of anything
Speaker 3: or the value of anything. Let me start with you
Speaker 3: if I could, Amy, as the principal of the school,
Speaker 3: my understanding is that you thought this might be a
Speaker 3: good elective for students to have option to take, and
Speaker 3: it's actually turned into a requirement. Tell us how the
Speaker 3: idea came to you, and tell us how the program
Speaker 3: has evolved and what does it intended to accomplish. Financial
Speaker 3: literacy for students is pretty self explanatory, but I'd love
Speaker 3: to hear your thoughts on it.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: I think at the core of what we do at
Speaker 2: Westwood High School, we're always thinking about how to make
Speaker 2: learning real and personal and meaningful for students, And whenever
Speaker 2: we're thinking about how how to expand our program of studies,
Speaker 2: we go right to student voice to figure out what
Speaker 2: they're interested in taking.
Speaker 4: It's pretty hard.
Speaker 2: To make anything happen at the high school without student
Speaker 2: buy in. And my maths department chair Tanya Ferguson, who's
Speaker 2: probably listening in right now, did some work surveying students
Speaker 2: about kinds of electives they'd be interested in taking. In
Speaker 2: mathematics just a few years ago. I think four years ago,
Speaker 2: the number one thing students said they needed was a
Speaker 2: financial literacy course. They were saying sort of the same
Speaker 2: thing that you were sharing, that they don't have a
Speaker 2: great awareness of what their dollar means in the real world.
Speaker 2: They don't have a great understanding about loans.
Speaker 4: About.
Speaker 2: Finances in any personal way. And so two years ago
Speaker 2: we launched the course as an elective, and it was
Speaker 2: a really popular course, and as we saw the impact
Speaker 2: that the course was having.
Speaker 4: On students, I proposed.
Speaker 2: Turning the course into a graduation requirement other than an
Speaker 2: elective for some if you look sort of statewide at
Speaker 2: financial literacy offerings, there are probably sixty percent of schools
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts that offer financial literacy as an elective, but
Speaker 2: the number of schools that require the course for all
Speaker 2: students is significantly lower. It's probably the third to twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five percent. And when we looked at the content
Speaker 2: students were encountering in this course and the real persons
Speaker 2: connections that they were making to the teacher, to Brian Mehegan,
Speaker 2: who teaches the course and is with us tonight, as
Speaker 2: well as to her co teacher, Leah Serci, it was
Speaker 2: just it was so clear that we needed to make
Speaker 2: sure that every student had the opportunity to have this
Speaker 2: kind of learning experience. And so last spring I proposed
Speaker 2: expanding the program from an elective to a graduation requirement,
Speaker 2: and I have to say it was a pretty easy
Speaker 2: sell to both my superintendent and my school committee. They've
Speaker 2: been incredibly supportive of this endeavor.
Speaker 3: So how about the parents and the students. Obviously, I
Speaker 3: assume they've embraced it as well.
Speaker 2: I would say absolutely, But I would love Brian to
Speaker 2: speak a little bit more about what the experiences are
Speaker 2: like for students in the classroom.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, that was going to be my next question
Speaker 3: to Brian. Now, Brian, you're a math teacher, but you
Speaker 3: also are one of the teachers who teach financial literacy,
Speaker 3: and I'd love to know how the students react. I mean,
Speaker 3: do they react overwhelmed or do they really just dive
Speaker 3: right into it.
Speaker 1: I think both Leah and I, who are teaching the course,
Speaker 1: have been an absolute awe of how the students have
Speaker 1: just bought in and every day they just work really
Speaker 1: hard at anything we're trying to give them. Some of
Speaker 1: the course, we're presenting the material, some of the course,
Speaker 1: we're making them research information that they'll need to research
Speaker 1: in the future. And there's never a class that goes
Speaker 1: by where I would say one hundred percent of the
Speaker 1: students are really like diving into everything. All the work
Speaker 1: we're giving them and we've had really positive responses from
Speaker 1: them and the parents. When we had open house with
Speaker 1: the parents where they came in and they learned about
Speaker 1: the course. You know, it was a month into school
Speaker 1: and parents were saying that their kids were coming home
Speaker 1: and talking about credit scores and credit cards and they
Speaker 1: were having open conversations about finances at home. And I
Speaker 1: thought that was pretty amazing that students were going home
Speaker 1: and talking to their parents about what they're learning in class.
Speaker 3: Well, the funny thing is, you know, Briann, is that
Speaker 3: there's a lot of financial information out there that students
Speaker 3: could find on the internet. I mean, I think about
Speaker 3: things like Zillow and redfin. They could do you introduce
Speaker 3: them to that where they can get an understanding of
Speaker 3: the cost of homes, not only maybe in their community
Speaker 3: and elsewhere.
Speaker 1: Oh. Absolutely. What we talked we kind of talked about
Speaker 1: three main topics I like to think about it. The
Speaker 1: first one is taxes, and so we talk a lot
Speaker 1: about property tax and we look at houses is on
Speaker 1: redsin in particular, and then we can find the increase
Speaker 1: of values of houses over the years on redsin and
Speaker 1: the property tax. And then in turn we look at
Speaker 1: like the Westwood Town's budget and we can figure out
Speaker 1: where the money, where their property tax money is going.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we'd like to introduce them to things that
Speaker 1: they can use in the future and different calculators they
Speaker 1: can access online to maybe calculate their mortgage or look
Speaker 1: at an amnorization chart so they can figure out how
Speaker 1: much am I really saving if I can pay a
Speaker 1: little extra every month towards my mortgage.
Speaker 2: So if I can chine into it is the part,
Speaker 2: as you mentioned, you know whether or not students feel
Speaker 2: overwhelmed and how much information there is available on the internet.
Speaker 2: I think one of the really skillful things that our
Speaker 2: curriculum does is it helps students be informed enough to
Speaker 2: be able to evaluate the information that's available to them.
Speaker 2: Online is a completely different vocabulary for them. They're not
Speaker 2: used to talking about interest rates, they're not used to
Speaker 2: thinking about benefits, insurance benefits when they sign on for
Speaker 2: a job. Brian has talked to students about the fact
Speaker 2: that they didn't know that they could file for a
Speaker 2: tax return even though they've been working for years, and
Speaker 2: so I think there is so much information available that
Speaker 2: part of what we're trying to do is really build
Speaker 2: that foundation and that vocabulary so that later in life
Speaker 2: students know how to find the information they need and
Speaker 2: don't fall prey to predatory financial schemes or to false
Speaker 2: information that they might encounter.
Speaker 3: There's so much that students, particularly again students coming out
Speaker 3: of high school seventeen eighteen years old, all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: they're dealing with maybe finding a real job. Some are
Speaker 3: going off to college. Westfield rather Westwood is a great
Speaker 3: community for those who are listening anywhere in the country.
Speaker 3: It's a suburban community. Route one oh nine runs through it.
Speaker 3: It's sort of out in the the the Dedham Dover
Speaker 3: area of of of just a little south of Boston,
Speaker 3: not you know, not part of the city of Boston proper.
Speaker 3: But this gives them these great opportunities. One of the
Speaker 3: things that I think kids would probably be interested in
Speaker 3: and not be interested if you would, if you if
Speaker 3: this comes up in the curriculum, and that is the
Speaker 3: arrival of things like uber and lyft, which have come
Speaker 3: of age, you know, during their teenage years. Actually uh,
Speaker 3: compared to the more traditional forms of of of public
Speaker 3: transportation buses and or cabs. Uh, do you get into
Speaker 3: them at all? With about uber and surge pricing, and
Speaker 3: how at different times during the day the price of
Speaker 3: a ride and the same car the same from point
Speaker 3: A to point B might differ uh in in price
Speaker 3: because of what the time of day is. In traffic patterns,
Speaker 3: you get to all of that as well. I assume.
Speaker 2: I will say that TPIC comes up a lot in
Speaker 2: our economics curriculum, certainly with supply and demand m.
Speaker 3: Ahead.
Speaker 1: We actually that's okay.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: There's actually a website that we use to get some
Speaker 1: of our curriculum called Next General Generation Personal Finance, and
Speaker 1: they have really fun games that students can play. And
Speaker 1: one of the games is they need to be an
Speaker 1: uber driver and they need to make x amount of
Speaker 1: dollars by the end of the weekend, and they need
Speaker 1: to decide do they get insurance for their Uber for
Speaker 1: their car in case someone spills something, or are they
Speaker 1: going to go closer to the city because you might
Speaker 1: make more money. Or a concert gets out, do you
Speaker 1: go to where the concert is because you know you
Speaker 1: can charge more. So that's kind of embedded to the
Speaker 1: game into the some of the games that they play.
Speaker 3: Sure Sure. My guest are Amy Davenport. She's the principal
Speaker 3: of West Westwood High School and a math teacher who's
Speaker 3: also a financial literacy teacher, Brian Mahegan, If you'd like
Speaker 3: to call, if you're listening from another community and you'd
Speaker 3: like to figure out maybe how you could get this
Speaker 3: type of curriculum in your community. Love to hear from you,
Speaker 3: particularly if you're in the the academic field, either as
Speaker 3: a teacher or as an administrator, or if you're just
Speaker 3: a parent, or I shouldn't say, just if you are
Speaker 3: a parent or a high school student. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 3: ten thirty six one seven, nine, three, one, ten thirty
Speaker 3: will get you on the line. I think this is
Speaker 3: great also, by the way, from my audience who might
Speaker 3: not you know, who may not have children or grandchildren
Speaker 3: in schools. This is something that you can advocate for
Speaker 3: whether you have grandchildren or children in school or neighborhood kids.
Speaker 3: Because I think this is one of those practical, exciting
Speaker 3: courses that literally can can can start someone down the
Speaker 3: road to a career. It's possible brand that you're actually
Speaker 3: exposing some young people to this whole concept of financial
Speaker 3: literacy and they may end up deciding to become a
Speaker 3: career as a financial planner or or a CPA. I mean,
Speaker 3: this is where you take the theory of high school
Speaker 3: and you explain to them that it is very the
Speaker 3: practicality of not only application to their lives, but potentially
Speaker 3: the application of careers. I'd love to talk about that
Speaker 3: with you a little bit and we'll talk more. I'll
Speaker 3: also mention that for those in the audience who probably
Speaker 3: know me well enough, they do also have a Civics
Speaker 3: requirement at Westwood High School too, which I think is
Speaker 3: equally important. And to have someone graduate high school without
Speaker 3: knowing civics or financial literacy, I think truly is sort
Speaker 3: of education abuse, if you will. And they're doing it
Speaker 3: right in Westwood, and that's why we are focusing upon
Speaker 3: Westwood tonight. If you'd like to call, join the conversation.
Speaker 3: Six months, seven two, five, four, ten thirty, six months,
Speaker 3: seven nine, three, one ten thirty back with Westwoo High
Speaker 3: School Principal Amy Davenport and Westwood math teacher and financial
Speaker 3: literacy teacher Brion Mahegan. Right after this quick break on
Speaker 3: night Side, Now back to Dan Ray live from the
Speaker 3: Window World.
Speaker 2: Night Side Studios, i' WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3: My guests are Westwood High school principal Amy Davenport and
Speaker 3: a math teacher. I was also a financial literacy teacher
Speaker 3: Brion Mahegan. Brion, let me start this segment with you,
Speaker 3: and the question that I have for you is the students.
Speaker 3: This sounds to me like, of course students are actually
Speaker 3: going to be anxious to take It's It's not like
Speaker 3: some of those courses that you get later in your
Speaker 3: career in high school where I got to take it.
Speaker 3: But I really I'm not interested in anymore learning about
Speaker 3: the history of the Peloponnesian Walk because it has no relevance.
Speaker 1: I think students their opinions vary on the way in.
Speaker 1: Sometimes high school students don't want to do things when
Speaker 1: they're told they have to. But as soon as they
Speaker 1: start realizing that we can put some of this into
Speaker 1: play in their everyday life starting today, they're really interested,
Speaker 1: especially when we start talking about the savings accounts and
Speaker 1: checking accounts unit. When they realize that their savings account
Speaker 1: might only be giving them point there are one percent
Speaker 1: interests and they're saving high yield savings online that they
Speaker 1: could get four percent interest, they really start to buy
Speaker 1: in pretty quickly, so you know, they have different opinions
Speaker 1: walking in, but all of them walk out realizing they're
Speaker 1: going to use most of this stuff in their everyday life,
Speaker 1: well at some point, if not in their everyday life.
Speaker 3: Sure. Now, now, you folks have been doing this for
Speaker 3: at least threey.
Speaker 1: Four years, right, this is the first year that it
Speaker 1: has become a graduation requirement.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: I've been teaching financial literacy for at least four or
Speaker 1: five years, and we had it embedded in one of
Speaker 1: our other courses for quite some time.
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, So my question is normally, I can remember
Speaker 3: from the days of high school and college and law school,
Speaker 3: there's always that Bell curve. You have three percent of
Speaker 3: the students who are just getting, three percent who don't
Speaker 3: get it, and the rest are in the big Bell curve.
Speaker 3: I'll bet you students do pretty well in this course.
Speaker 3: If I'm wrong, please tell me. If I'm right, please
Speaker 3: tell me.
Speaker 1: No, I think you're right. I do find that all
Speaker 1: students can find success in the course. And as you
Speaker 1: were mentioning earlier, I think some students are surprised at
Speaker 1: some of the topics that they're really interested in. I
Speaker 1: had a student last term who loved the tax unit
Speaker 1: we do th throw income taxt by hand and he
Speaker 1: just loved it. And math is typically not one of
Speaker 1: his stronger subjects, and he absolutely loved it. So I
Speaker 1: think that all students can find some sort of success
Speaker 1: in this class.
Speaker 3: Let me ask Principal datapod Amy, have you had other
Speaker 3: school You had this big piece in the Globe in
Speaker 3: early January, and I know that you've had some other
Speaker 3: publicity in this. Have you had much reach out from
Speaker 3: other school departments of other school, you know, principals school
Speaker 3: outside of Westwood? Have there been you know, folks who
Speaker 3: have reached and said, hey, this is a pretty cool idea,
Speaker 3: would like to adopt it.
Speaker 4: I am in.
Speaker 2: Pretty close contacts with a lot of area principles, and
Speaker 2: all of them, I think, have expressed interest and or
Speaker 2: verging on jealousy about the fact that this is something
Speaker 2: that we're able to.
Speaker 4: Offer to all of our students. I will say.
Speaker 2: That the the biggest response that we have received is
Speaker 2: definitely from the community in terms of the publicity that
Speaker 2: we've received, and that has looked like an outpouring of
Speaker 2: communications from Westwood residents, including from folks who don't have
Speaker 2: children in the system, who are of different generations. I've
Speaker 2: gotten handwritten notes saying like this is what I think
Speaker 2: education should be about. And I've also gotten a lot
Speaker 2: of communications from other communities who have I think done
Speaker 2: what you've done. They said like, this is something that
Speaker 2: I want for my kids, this is something that I
Speaker 2: want for my school. But the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Speaker 3: Well, there's a practicality about that. Obviously. It's the sort
Speaker 3: of stuff that sometimes parents don't talk to their kids about.
Speaker 3: It's almost like I guess, you know, you know, health
Speaker 3: courses or civics courses. You know, some parents maybe spend
Speaker 3: a lot of time talking to the kids about this
Speaker 3: as they're growing up, and kids come to the course
Speaker 3: with a better understanding, just as some kids might come
Speaker 3: to the course with a better understanding of civics or
Speaker 3: the way the government works. But it's great to give
Speaker 3: all of them a real opportunity to understand this before
Speaker 3: they walk across that stage and take the diploma. Whether
Speaker 3: they're heading off to be in the military, get into
Speaker 3: get into the workforce immediately, or go off to college.
Speaker 3: Either way, this is going to help them. Let's do this.
Speaker 3: I wanted a couple more questions. I I think I've
Speaker 3: covered what I want to cover. I'm hoping some of
Speaker 3: our listeners might either want to comment or talk ask
Speaker 3: you a question, so I'll keep the lines open here.
Speaker 3: We've got to take a quick newscast at the bottom
Speaker 3: of the hour. I will be back right after the
Speaker 3: break six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six
Speaker 3: one seven, nine one ten thirty back with my guests,
Speaker 3: the principal of Western High School, Amy Davenport, and a
Speaker 3: math teacher who's also teaching financial literacy. Again, this is
Speaker 3: a graduation requirement. This is not some optional course the
Speaker 3: students can avoid. This is one that they have to take,
Speaker 3: and this is one that they're going to benefit from
Speaker 3: for the rest of their lives. The math teachers named BRIONT. Mahigan,
Speaker 3: and we'll be back with both Amy Davenport and Brion
Speaker 3: Mahegan right after this newscast. At the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 3: You're on Night.
Speaker 2: Side with Dan Ray on wz Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3: We're talking about financial literacy as a graduation requirement for
Speaker 3: high school students. I happen to think that's a great idea.
Speaker 3: Also think that civic should be a graduation requirement for
Speaker 3: high school students in Gnarlingham, Massachusetts, but everywhere, and I'd
Speaker 3: love to hear what your thought on it is as well.
Speaker 3: We are fortunate enough to be talking with the principal
Speaker 3: of Westwood High School, Amy Davenport, and one of the
Speaker 3: teachers who teaches this to students in the I guess
Speaker 3: it's the seventh grade now, but next year it'll be
Speaker 3: eighth grade, Brian, If I'm not mistaken. The teachers Brian.
Speaker 1: Mahigan, No, their junior year, they're the of the Civics course. Correct.
Speaker 1: The Civics is well, Amy, you could talk a little
Speaker 1: more about Civics.
Speaker 2: Sure, I'd be happy to right now. In Massachusetts, eighth
Speaker 2: graders spend a year looking at Civics at the national level,
Speaker 2: but the high school's ownership of that content really lives
Speaker 2: at the local level.
Speaker 4: And so this year it's a junior course requirement. We'll
Speaker 4: be moving it into the senior year in the next
Speaker 4: couple of years.
Speaker 2: But it's a course that really focuses on local engagement
Speaker 2: with the way that your town works.
Speaker 3: Okay, but coming back to the literacy, the financial literacy.
Speaker 3: The students take that course in what year now, junior or.
Speaker 4: Senior junior, junior year junior.
Speaker 3: Okay, let's try to get some phone calls and see
Speaker 3: if folks want to respond. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 3: ten thirty six poets seven nine, three, one ten thirty.
Speaker 3: Let me go first to Frank in Boston. Frank, welcome
Speaker 3: next on nightside.
Speaker 5: Hey, Dan, Frank want to applaud uh, Amy and Westwood High.
Speaker 5: I think it's fantastic.
Speaker 3: No, we'll give you Westwood. Let's let's it's Westwood High
Speaker 3: not west Ford.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 5: Well, I just got out of the Celtics game and
Speaker 5: I got in the car and I'm driving home and
Speaker 5: I heard I'm I'm.
Speaker 3: Happy, trust me, I'm very Craig, I'm happy you call this.
Speaker 3: What makes sure we gave correct credit? Say hi to
Speaker 3: Amy Davenport. She's the principal of Westwood High School. UH,
Speaker 3: and also Brion Mahegan, who's one of the teachers there.
Speaker 5: Go right ahead, Frank, Well, Amy and Brian. I just
Speaker 5: want to congratulate you. I think it's fantastic. As Dan said,
Speaker 5: whether you get out of high school and go to
Speaker 5: the military or you go to college, you're giving them
Speaker 5: practical experience. I taught at BC for years in the
Speaker 5: undergrad A long last in uh and Dan, I know
Speaker 5: you from the Cape. I know brother Horgan, but yes.
Speaker 4: I think I taught a class that was you.
Speaker 5: Know, explain to them the Fourth Amendment, search and seizure
Speaker 5: their rights, you know, how to avoid a speeding ticket
Speaker 5: when they get pulled over. This practical application on the
Speaker 5: financial side is fantastic. It gives them a leg up.
Speaker 5: I think it's fantastic that it's a required class. You know, geometries.
Speaker 5: We all have to take it, but really, how do
Speaker 5: we practically apply that? And when you look at the
Speaker 5: financial how do I say it with a roth ira
Speaker 5: or whatever? Is fantastic for these young kids, and high
Speaker 5: school is great, so Amy, Brianna, thank you.
Speaker 4: Fantastic and go Eagles. I have to put in a
Speaker 4: plug for BC as well.
Speaker 3: Got a girl. All right, well, Frank, if Celtics win tonight,
Speaker 3: I assume they've played San Antonio right.
Speaker 5: They were, and they beat them by I left there
Speaker 5: up by thirteen, could win for the selves.
Speaker 3: All right. Well, Frank, thanks thanks for calling in, Thanks
Speaker 3: for listening to Nightside. I do appreciate you taking the
Speaker 3: time to call in. And whatever town you're in, it'll
Speaker 3: be interested to find out if if your community has
Speaker 3: followed through on something like this as well.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Wellesley, I don't know if they have. I sent
Speaker 5: my kids to private school and they did take a
Speaker 5: financial class, both of them. But I think that, you know,
Speaker 5: giving it to the kids in the public school is fantastic.
Speaker 5: They can use this as a going forward when they
Speaker 5: get their first paycheck, whether it's a military or whether
Speaker 5: it's in a out of college and their first job,
Speaker 5: they can apply that they can save and they can
Speaker 5: they can have some financial acumen that we didn't have
Speaker 5: when I was in high school. I don't know about you, Dan, Well,
Speaker 5: of course, Well.
Speaker 3: There were a lot of kids today who work summer
Speaker 3: jobs and some of them work you know, weekends or whatever,
Speaker 3: and it constant too early for them to realize that,
Speaker 3: you know, that it's their their labor which is going
Speaker 3: to be able to have them open up a bank
Speaker 3: account and put some money in. And as as beyond
Speaker 3: was mentioned, Brion was mentioning that they've got to realize
Speaker 3: that it was between the money that's in the checking
Speaker 3: account that's getting zero point zero zero zero one percent
Speaker 3: interest versus the money that might be in some sort
Speaker 3: of a savings account. That's probably now a little bit
Speaker 3: over four percent in that and that makes the difference
Speaker 3: because it's their money. It's a It's as simple as that. Frank.
Speaker 3: I'm still trying to place sure. When are you on
Speaker 3: the bench? Is that you mentioned brother Horgan? Or are
Speaker 3: you in front of the bench.
Speaker 5: No, no, no, I'm in front of the bench. I see
Speaker 5: you walking down on Harward Sport in the summertime, and
Speaker 5: I am in front of the bench, and I take
Speaker 5: beatings from or I took beatings from our mutual friend,
Speaker 5: Judge Morgan, who was one of the greatest judges in
Speaker 5: the history of Combo's past.
Speaker 3: No question about that. There's no question in my mind
Speaker 3: about that. Frank. Next time you see me, stop and
Speaker 3: say hello. Okay, thanks very much, appreciate it all right,
Speaker 3: Amy and Brian. I think what we have done is
Speaker 3: we've convinced everyone here of the value of this course.
Speaker 3: I was hoping we would have heard from some Westwood
Speaker 3: tax payers or Westwood listeners, residents, because you were doing
Speaker 3: a great service for not only the students, but also
Speaker 3: for the community of Westwood. I know a lot of
Speaker 3: people passed by high schools and junior high schools, and
Speaker 3: they say, what are they teaching those kids these days?
Speaker 3: You folks are actually teaching something that is going to
Speaker 3: have not only immediate but even more importantly long term
Speaker 3: value to these students. What sort of reaction have you
Speaker 3: gotten from your community to this? I mean it is
Speaker 3: the community of Westwood aware that this sort of instruction
Speaker 3: is going on.
Speaker 2: Community support has been really really positive, and I think
Speaker 2: it has a lot to do with actually what Frank
Speaker 2: our caller said, that you really do feel like you're
Speaker 2: giving your child a leg up on a conversation that
Speaker 2: might not be happening at everybody's dinner table. You mentioned
Speaker 2: earlier in the show, Dan that this might be exposure
Speaker 2: to a career they haven't even considered.
Speaker 4: And what we do know is that students who.
Speaker 2: Come historically marginalized backgrounds, who are really up against fighting
Speaker 2: a wage gap, these aren't conversations or ideas that they're
Speaker 2: exposed two with as much frequency. And so it's really,
Speaker 2: you know, opening doors for students to consider assets on
Speaker 2: financial streams that they might not be aware of, but
Speaker 2: also careers and lifelong passions. And I think that's really
Speaker 2: clear to our community, and they've been really really supportive.
Speaker 3: I remember when I was young, which was, you know,
Speaker 3: the last century that as a child, I took a
Speaker 3: great deal of when I probably was nine or ten
Speaker 3: and my parents opened an account in my name as
Speaker 3: a past book savings account. Now most banks don't provide
Speaker 3: past book savings accounts to kids anymore. I was able
Speaker 3: to briefly get past book savings accounts for my own
Speaker 3: children when they were young. They're now adults and out
Speaker 3: in the work world and now in their thirties. But
Speaker 3: I don't know if there are any banks today which provide,
Speaker 3: you know, that past book savings account where the child,
Speaker 3: if he's eight, or he or she is eight or
Speaker 3: ten or twelve, can actually walk to the bank, walk
Speaker 3: in and go up to the counter with either cash
Speaker 3: or a check that they might have earned and see
Speaker 3: it deposited and then reflected in that past book savings account.
Speaker 3: That's I think that for me, that was a great
Speaker 3: way for me to understand an a tangible level what
Speaker 3: a bank account was all about. I'm sure I don't
Speaker 3: know if if either of you when you were children,
Speaker 3: or if you've been able to find a bank that
Speaker 3: can provide a pastbook savings account for your children or
Speaker 3: nieces or nephews.
Speaker 1: I vividly remember that as well having my passport savings account.
Speaker 1: I do have a ten to eleven year old at home,
Speaker 1: and I have an online savings account for them, and
Speaker 1: I think they're just in the digital world. So when
Speaker 1: I show them digitally the interest they're earning, they're like,
Speaker 1: wait a second, I just made twenty dollars and I
Speaker 1: just by letting my money sit there. I think that's
Speaker 1: really powerful for them to see. I think being in
Speaker 1: the digital world that the past book, the passport book
Speaker 1: itself probably wouldn't mean as much to them as it
Speaker 1: meant to us as a child, but definitely seeing those
Speaker 1: numbers change is very impactful for them.
Speaker 3: Well, the thing with the past book account was if
Speaker 3: you went in and you earn and some interest, and
Speaker 3: you hadn't been into the bank for a couple of weeks,
Speaker 3: the teller would say, oh, you've got some interest here,
Speaker 3: and you would hand you back the pass boot. And again,
Speaker 3: it wasn't a lot of money back in those days,
Speaker 3: but they represented the money that you earned when you
Speaker 3: were shoveling your neighbor's walkway or maybe if you were
Speaker 3: lucky enough to rake someone's leaves in the fall and
Speaker 3: you begin to earn some money. Well, look, you're doing
Speaker 3: a great job. Thank you so much for making this commitment.
Speaker 3: I hope that other school systems are inspired by this,
Speaker 3: and we're not going to have every school system on
Speaker 3: talking about financial literacy, but you folks are the flagship
Speaker 3: as far as I'm concerned, And congratulations you're you're doing
Speaker 3: a great service for your students and for their community,
Speaker 3: and I wish all the best. Amy Davenport, principal of
Speaker 3: Westwood High School, and Breon Mehegan literacy teacher and also
Speaker 3: a math teacher. So thanks very much both of you
Speaker 3: for joining us tonight.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having.
Speaker 3: Us all right, thanks again, say hi to everybody westward
Speaker 3: for us. Okay, I had honestly hoped that we would
Speaker 3: have had more interest in that subject, but that's okay.
Speaker 3: We're going to switch topics, and as a matter of fact,
Speaker 3: we will preview what we're going to do coming up
Speaker 3: after ten o'clock. We'll take a quick break here and
Speaker 3: we'll be back right after a couple of quick messages,
Speaker 3: and we're going to talk about a whirlwind day that
Speaker 3: a couple well certainly whirlwind days, but this has been
Speaker 3: a day in which President Trump and the Trump administration
Speaker 3: has been very active on the international stage, and I
Speaker 3: want to talk about that, in relation to Russia and
Speaker 3: in relation to what's going on in the Middle East.
Speaker 3: We'll be back on Nights side right after the break