In our little town of Bedford, a controversy is brewing. Recently parents of a high school student discovered a book had been assigned to their son in a Personal Finance class. After reading the book, "Nickel and Dimed,…On Not Getting By In America!" the parents determined this book was not appropriate reading material for a 16 year old and wasn’t quality material one would expect to find in a Personal Finance class.
They went through the proper channels in an effort to either remove the book or remove parts of the book they found to be the most offensive. Some of the most offensive parts to the book were: the profanity, references to Jesus and people of faith that readers would find offensive and instructions on how to clear your urine if you use drugs prior to applying for a job.
I think the average person expects a personal finance text to offer students information on banking, insurance, balancing a checkbook and other important financial matters that will face these kids as they move into adulthood. What we found was, a book written by a social activist being used in a Personal Finance class in an attempt to change the values, beliefs and attitudes of the students.
The book was brought to a review committee when the Administrators decided it was appropriate reading material. The Committee listened to their concerns, read the book and decided the book is acceptable as instructional material because "its instructional value outweighs its shortcomings."
So what are we trying to teach students in Personal Finance? Instructional value in what? The author is an avowed Marxist pushing her own Socialist agenda on those who read her books. Does Personal Finance now equal political indoctrination? That certainly seems to be the instructional…
… value one would acquire after reading a book from a political activist who has an obvious agenda within her book.
The Committee also reported, " According to he procedure for review of instructional materials (Procedure KEC-R), our charge was to weigh the book’s literary value and shortcomings and decide on its acceptability based on the material as a whole and not on individual passages out of context."
Ehrenreich has had a long and fruitful career as a social activist and no experience in finance. She may be the next Stienbeck or Fitzgerald but this is a finance class, not a literature class. Why use a literary book in a finance discipline class? If we are going to turn finance into a literary activity rather than a discipline, then why not use Steinbeck or Sinclair Lewis who are actually literary giants rather than some unknown political activist? What literary book should we use in calculus or algebra?
There are certainly good alternatives that could be used in this class:
- Personal Finance: Turning Money into Wealth (5th Edition) by Prof. Arthur Keown
- The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke by Suzy Orman
- The Wall Street Journal Complete Personal Finance Guidebook by Jeff D. Opdyke
- The Complete Guide to Personal Finance for Teachers by Tamsen Butler
In a world of limited time why are they reading a book from a social activist with no finance background instead of actually learning personal finance techniques that help them in life for that specific activity? Students can learn about Ehrenreich’s philosophy in philosophy class where other great philosophers’ views can be analyzed too.
The alternative books listed above teach a list of specific skillss so that the students will have finance skills when they leave class rather than some author’s life long social agenda.
What finance skills will the students acquire after reading her book versus the alternative books that actually teach finance skills?
Ehrenreich ignores historical data that shows few people working in low wage jobs, stay in those jobs long. They tend to move on quickly to better jobs after establishing good work ethic. Something Ehrenreich never allowed to happen in her concocted experiment.
She has contempt for the rich and middle class and blames an unjust U.S. economy for the plight of the poor. However this doesn’t take into consideration dysfunctional behavior and bad choices that often prevent people from escaping poverty.
A student that takes Marxism in a finance class will need Marxism in the real world. A student that takes finance in a finance class wont need Marx in the real world. Marxism is a utopia, personal finance is the reality of natural law.
Finally the committee found "the book provided insight into the circumstances of the working poor and an opportunity for students to demonstrate mastery of the financial impact competency. This competency requires that students evaluate the personal, local, and global impacts of various financial decisions."
Competency Based Education is Outcome Based Education (OBE). Outcome Based Education used to be called Mastery Learning. Notice how the name has changed over time.
Competency Based Ed is now part of the New Hampshire public education system courtesy the New Hampshire Department of Education. The name changes but the essence of the ideology pretty much stays the same. Although it may change a little as it moves from state to state, parents find the focus in education changing from one that is academically based to one that seeks to change the values, beliefs and attitudes in students.
Critics who’ve experienced OBE in other districts point out that the focus becomes less about academic knowledge and more on reshaping the values in students. Opponents in Pennsylvania claimed that the state’s proposed outcomes watered down academics in favor of ill-defined values. In Minnesota, Ohio Iowa and Virginia they have been forced to revise, delay or drop their efforts on OBE due to the public backlash.
I think we are now getting a good idea why OBE has been rejected in other states and school districts in favor of returning to an academic based education system. New Hampshire is new to this old fad that’s been renamed and resold to our local schools as Competency Based Eduction. I suspect as we see more examples of this effort to reshape values to ones that conflict with what the community supports, we will continue to see backlash from parents.
I brought these concerns before the Board and community in Bedford. I also suggested that our high earning administrators offer to take a salary reduction and redistribute their wealth to the low earners in the school district. I suggested that if the administrators stand behind this book as good educational material for the students they teach, they need to stand behind the book’s message too. They need to set the example for the students they seek to indoctrinate and show them they are willing to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk.
I suspect that suggestion will go ignored. Those who promote Marxism tend to be the ones who don’t appreciate having to live within that utop
