For the love of money...

Dear Educators,

One of the biggest impacts of the COVID-19 crisis is, and will continue to be, financial. Money is something that we cannot escape in our lives. It is essential to our survival. Those of us who have experienced insecurity about money know the stress that it can place in our lives. Our lives, liberty, and pursuit of happiness are very much contingent on our ability to support ourselves while we pursue those things. Teaching our students about the value and meaning of money is vital, as it will play an enormous role throughout their lives. This week, our materials talk about money, gold, and the impact they have on society.

GDP by Country

While some countries, like Bhutan, focus on GDH (Gross Domestic Happiness), most of us still measure a country’s success in GDP. This map shows GDP by country—I wonder how this will change post-COVID. Great opportunity for an exercise in prediction for your students!

One of the greatest empires of our history was the Aztec empire. Montezuma was the leader, and his end was extremely unfortunate. This article talks about how a generous gift led to greed from the invaders as the splendor was just too tempting. Fantastic discussion opportunity for students with how coveting changes our moral compass. Also, you get to talk about a gold crab necklace, which is pretty cool.

We are preparing students for lives and careers, and the accumulation of money is going to be a big part of that for them. However, we want to make sure they are focused on building happy, healthy lives first. Studies have shown that while living in poverty does cause unhappiness, making money beyond a comfortable living wage doesn’t actually affect happiness in any significant way. This article from Berkeley talks about the other ways in which your finances affect your psychology and emotional well—being. As teachers, we pick a profession that is fulfilling emotionally, mentally, and spiritually more so than financially…this article might make you grateful for that choice!!