I have come to realize this week that some concepts are truly international.
I feel fortunate to have the support of Adelson’s administration and math department to teach ‘Financial Math’. The course covers personal finance concepts that many young Americans say they never learned. I tell students the goal of the course is that they don’t look back on their Adelson education and think ‘Why didn’t they teach me this in school?’
I brought this same question to Lauder and never expected the Hungarian students’ interest in learning about Investing to be so strong. Students learned about 7 common ways to invest (Savings accounts, Index funds, individual stocks, etc.) and the pros and cons of each. They then played a web-based game that simulated 20 years of investing in 20 minutes. A competition was held to see which investing strategy would yield the greatest result. The leaderboard updated in real time and the collective cheers and groans could be heard throughout the class and as the markets went through their typical ups and downs. Students were surprised at how much emotion they felt but took to heart the advice that investing is a marathon, not a sprint.
I’m confident that my new colleagues at Lauder will begin incorporating personal finance topics into their math lessons. I appreciate the opportunity to debrief with their team and discuss current best teaching practices. Teaching personal finance and financial literacy concepts has given me renewed life as an educator. I’m appreciative of the opportunity to bring these strategies to students in Budapest. Understanding how to build wealth and work with money is something that all students appreciate, no matter their home country.
Brian Hemsworth
AEC Math Teacher
