Financial literacy classes Republican attempt at brainwashing
Musbah Shaheen is a PhD candidate in educational studies at The Ohio State University.
The hypocrisy of Republican legislators in Ohio had reached a new high.
Sen. Steve Wilson and his Republican colleagues recently introduced a bill to “include free market capitalism content in educational standards.”
Basically, they want school financial literacy content to teach how capitalism is good.
Did they look at current research or consult experts in financial literacy?
More:Getting kids savvier about money: Ohio high schools now must teach financial literacy
Well, given that the National Standards for Personal Financial Education, which were vetted by experts in this area, do not ever mention the need to learn about free market capitalism as a learning standard for financial literacy, I would say no.
So why is Wilson demanding it be taught to everyone?
Short answer: Brainwashing.
The Republicans have been working hard to make sure that schools only teach what they want them to teach which includes no awareness of the outside world — the real world.
No talking about race or slavery or gender or sexuality. No talking about what socialism — or even communism — mean.
No chance for teachers to “instill life-long learning by providing essential knowledge and skills based in the liberal arts tradition” (which is what the educational standards should do per the bill itself).
More:South-Western Subject Matter: Financial-literacy course helps prepare students for real world
Does presenting free market capitalism as the epitome of financial literacy serve this purpose?
Absolutely not.
To be clear, the issue here is not whether capitalism is right or wrong, good or bad.
The issue is equating financial wellness to capitalism, prescribing a specific way of thinking as a “standard,” and indoctrinating Ohio high schoolers into the Republican agenda.
More:How to submit guest opinion columns to the Columbus Dispatch
To add insult to injury as a recession looms on the horizon, the legislators listed in the proposed bill, which can only be described as a capitalism education manifesto, that “the free market can include effects and market failures where at least part of the cost of the transaction, including producing, transporting, selling, or buying, is born by others outside of the transaction.”
So, kids, don’t worry if daddy loses his job or mommy has to take an extra shift. This is just a “side effect” of the free market.
Perhaps ironically, the last item on the list says that “societies that embrace the free market often embrace political and personal freedom as well.” This bill represents the antithesis of political and personal freedom and makes apparent the GOP tradition of hypocrisy about free expression.
New education trend:New education trend: Students required to take personal finance classes. Is it working?
First, they ban teachers from talking about diversity or recounting the history of slavery and injustice in this country. Then they demand they teach capitalism as “financial literacy.” When you only teach students one way of thinking about the world, that is not freedom. That is indoctrination.
Want to get more scared? I grew up in Syria and experienced an authoritarian education agenda. What the Republicans are doing here feels strangely familiar. We also learned one reality, one way of thinking, with no regard for our ability to think for ourselves.
I am not the first to point out this authoritarian trajectory of the GOP. Is that what you want your schools to become? I hope not.
Free speech and expression are essentially what brought me and what keeps me in this country that I choose to call my home.
This trend of legislation that restricts thinking troubles me as a person and as educator. It should concern you, too.
I assure you, the future of generations of young people depends on it.
Musbah Shaheen is a PhD candidate in educational studies at The Ohio State University.
