An Education That Pupils Can Bank On : They Have Checkbooks and ATM Cards, Pay Their Bills and Plan for the Future

Lupita Valencia is a clothing designer. She makes $60,000 a year, owns her own house, has a car and is considering opening a money-market account.

At least in theory.

Lupita actually is a 10-year-old student in the fifth grade at Emilie Ritchen School in Oxnard, and she is learning the value of money and the hardship of life through a hands-on classroom program.

Through the program, fifth- and sixth-grade students at Evelyn Ybarra-Grosfield’s class have assumed the fictitious lives of physicians, teachers, professional soccer players and police officers and embarked on a classroom journey to a simulated adult life.

They have checkbooks and automated teller machine cards, donated by the Bank of A. Levy, and they pay bills using grocery receipts and utility statements already paid by their parents.

“When I was in college, I got myself in a big financial mess because I was never taught how to use a credit card or a checking account,” Grosfield said. “Now I want to teach those kids that they shouldn’t have the attitude that ‘I can spend it now and pay it later.’ ”

Grosfield said that as a student she thought economics was a dry and threatening subject, and her fear of failure kept her from learning how to control her finances until she charged her credit cards to the limit.

“I learned the hard way,” Grosfield said. “That’s why I want to teach my students how important it is for them to be able to manage their finances and what that means for them in a long run.”

The program is probably the first time that most of the 34 students in Grosfield’s class have been exposed to a credit card and checking account--even if fake ones, Grosfield said.

“For various reasons, a lot of the parents of those children don’t have a checking account or a credit card,” said Grosfield, who teaches a bilingual class. “So I want to provide them with the opportunity to learn.”

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Grosfield began the program by helping the students decide what they want to be when they grow up. Once they selected an occupation, she assigned them a yearly salary and opened “bank accounts” for them.

Based on their “salaries,” students write checks to pay bills, make house payments and open savings accounts. They learn how to balance their checkbooks and are allowed to buy extras such as clothing or computer games as long as they can pay without getting in debt.

The rule is “do not spend more than you have,” Grosfield said.

For every class, students have to write reports on their household finances and make sure they do not overdraw money.

“By managing their bogus finances, they are also learning math, writing and reading,” Grosfield said. “We are tying classroom work with real-life events and that makes it more interesting for them.”

By the end of the school year, Grosfield hopes to have taught students about bonds and Wall Street.

As part of the hands-on program, Grosfield asked the Bank of A. Levy if it could provide literature on banking. The bank not only sent her the information, but also printed the students’ names on ATM cards and mailed them individually to each student in care of the school.

When the cards arrived, students eagerly tore open the envelopes and signed their names on the cards. Then they softly repeated their personal identification numbers.

As they proceeded to begin to pay their bills, the physicians had $100,000 in their fictitious bank accounts. The police officers had $35,000.

“When they see the difference in the amount of money that they make, some want to change their occupation,” Grosfield said. “But I tell them if they want to be a highly respected doctor they should strive to go to schools such as Harvard and Stanford.”

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As part of her real-life teaching, Grosfield has requested catalogues in various fields of study from several universities nationwide, and she plans to go through them with her students.

“Doing research in various careers will help them to decide on how much training and college preparation they are willing to invest on themselves,” Grosfield said. “Knowing the difference between a community college and an Ivy League school will widen their dreams.”

Principal Ernest Morrison, who said the program is the first of its kind in the school, said he is grateful for Grosfield’s creativity.

“She’s giving meaning to their school work, teaching them a work ethic that they will remember for the rest of their lives,” Morrison said. “They will learn how to look at a big picture and that life is not going to hand them things.”

As for the children, they are thrilled for having a career and a checking account.

“I always wanted to be a designer,” said Lupita Valencia, wearing a flannel dress that she designed and her mother made. “Now it’s like I’m a real designer.”