#259 Utilizing Tools for Deeper Learning
Parents born at the end of the baby boomer generation followed a curriculum where male students studied technology and female students studied home economics. It was an era when women had not yet fully entered the workforce. Isn't this a very clear example of how education is influenced by society?
One of the things currently lacking in school education is financial literacy. The education industry has long kept its distance from 'capitalism.' Perhaps this is because the industry held some kind of negative image regarding the act of 'earning money.' However, as a practical matter, it is almost impossible to live our lives while completely severing our relationship with 'money.' In modern society, financial education, much like sex education, can be said to be an indispensable part of our lives.
What is important in financial education is to understand its mechanisms firsthand. No matter how much you understand it through text, that alone is insufficient. By actually handling 'money' yourself, its essence becomes visible. The trigger for my interest in 'finance' was playing 'The Game of Life' with my family. The rules were very simple, but I remember feeling that the mechanism of money increasing and decreasing was interesting.
On Thursday, August 24, NTT Docomo launched 'comotto Wallet™,' a financial education app for parents and children to start using together.
Through this app, parents and children can learn the basic roles and uses of money by experiencing 'earning, saving, and spending' within the home.
Additionally, the popular game 'Momotaro Dentetsu' allows players to gain various knowledge about different regions while also learning about real estate by competing for assets in the form of properties.
A former colleague of mine (a social studies teacher) also used the 'Stock Learning Game' developed by the Nikko Securities industry to provide students with opportunities for financial learning.
I recently wrote a column about ICT education, and fields like financial education are highly compatible with ICT. The concepts of money and the economy are important elements within capitalism, and the knowledge, skills, and thinking related to them are crucial. Having a certain level of economic power can enrich one's life, while becoming too obsessed with money can lead life in a negative direction. I believe learning is necessary so that they can interact with money skillfully and learn to treat it as a tool to enrich their lives.