It's Nightside with Dan Ray.
I'm WBS Costs Radio.
Thanks Dan Watkins. I am delighted to welcome my next two guests. Very rarely do we have two guests at the same time, but we will take phone calls. By the way, I'd like to introduce to the principal of Westwood High School, Amy Davenport. Amy, Welcome to Nightside. How are you this evening.
I'm doing really well. Thanks for having me.
You're very very welcome. And also a math teacher who is also I guess a financial literacy teacher, Brian Mahegan. Brian, welcome to Nightside.
Hi, thanks for having us.
Yeah, this is great. Well. I happen to see a couple of articles about what you folks are doing at Westwood High School, which I think is brilliant. And I don't throw that term around often, but it's something that is I think so needed. So many kids graduate from high school these days, top high schools, middle high schools, and they have no clue of the cost of anything
or the value of anything. Let me start with you if I could, Amy, as the principal of the school, my understanding is that you thought this might be a good elective for students to have option to take, and it's actually turned into a requirement. Tell us how the idea came to you, and tell us how the program has evolved and what does it intended to accomplish. Financial literacy for students is pretty self explanatory, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
Absolutely.
I think at the core of what we do at Westwood High School, we're always thinking about how to make learning real and personal and meaningful for students, And whenever we're thinking about how how to expand our program of studies, we go right to student voice to figure out what they're interested in taking.
It's pretty hard.
To make anything happen at the high school without student buy in. And my maths department chair Tanya Ferguson, who's probably listening in right now, did some work surveying students about kinds of electives they'd be interested in taking. In mathematics just a few years ago. I think four years ago, the number one thing students said they needed was a
financial literacy course. They were saying sort of the same thing that you were sharing, that they don't have a great awareness of what their dollar means in the real world. They don't have a great understanding about loans.
About.
Finances in any personal way. And so two years ago we launched the course as an elective, and it was a really popular course, and as we saw the impact that the course was having.
On students, I proposed.
Turning the course into a graduation requirement other than an elective for some if you look sort of statewide at financial literacy offerings, there are probably sixty percent of schools in Massachusetts that offer financial literacy as an elective, but the number of schools that require the course for all students is significantly lower. It's probably the third to twenty
twenty five percent. And when we looked at the content students were encountering in this course and the real persons connections that they were making to the teacher, to Brian Mehegan, who teaches the course and is with us tonight, as well as to her co teacher, Leah Serci, it was just it was so clear that we needed to make sure that every student had the opportunity to have this
kind of learning experience. And so last spring I proposed expanding the program from an elective to a graduation requirement, and I have to say it was a pretty easy sell to both my superintendent and my school committee. They've been incredibly supportive of this endeavor.
So how about the parents and the students. Obviously, I assume they've embraced it as well.
I would say absolutely, But I would love Brian to speak a little bit more about what the experiences are like for students in the classroom.
Yeah. Absolutely, that was going to be my next question to Brian. Now, Brian, you're a math teacher, but you also are one of the teachers who teach financial literacy, and I'd love to know how the students react. I mean, do they react overwhelmed or do they really just dive right into it.
I think both Leah and I, who are teaching the course, have been an absolute awe of how the students have just bought in and every day they just work really hard at anything we're trying to give them. Some of the course, we're presenting the material, some of the course, we're making them research information that they'll need to research in the future. And there's never a class that goes by where I would say one hundred percent of the
students are really like diving into everything. All the work we're giving them and we've had really positive responses from them and the parents. When we had open house with the parents where they came in and they learned about the course. You know, it was a month into school and parents were saying that their kids were coming home and talking about credit scores and credit cards and they
were having open conversations about finances at home. And I thought that was pretty amazing that students were going home and talking to their parents about what they're learning in class.
Well, the funny thing is, you know, Briann, is that there's a lot of financial information out there that students could find on the internet. I mean, I think about things like Zillow and redfin. They could do you introduce them to that where they can get an understanding of the cost of homes, not only maybe in their community and elsewhere.
Oh. Absolutely. What we talked we kind of talked about three main topics I like to think about it. The first one is taxes, and so we talk a lot about property tax and we look at houses is on redsin in particular, and then we can find the increase of values of houses over the years on redsin and the property tax. And then in turn we look at like the Westwood Town's budget and we can figure out where the money, where their property tax money is going.
So yeah, we'd like to introduce them to things that they can use in the future and different calculators they can access online to maybe calculate their mortgage or look at an amnorization chart so they can figure out how much am I really saving if I can pay a little extra every month towards my mortgage.
So if I can chine into it is the part, as you mentioned, you know whether or not students feel overwhelmed and how much information there is available on the internet. I think one of the really skillful things that our curriculum does is it helps students be informed enough to be able to evaluate the information that's available to them.
Online is a completely different vocabulary for them. They're not used to talking about interest rates, they're not used to thinking about benefits, insurance benefits when they sign on for
a job. Brian has talked to students about the fact that they didn't know that they could file for a tax return even though they've been working for years, and so I think there is so much information available that part of what we're trying to do is really build that foundation and that vocabulary so that later in life students know how to find the information they need and don't fall prey to predatory financial schemes or to false information that they might encounter.
There's so much that students, particularly again students coming out of high school seventeen eighteen years old, all of a sudden, they're dealing with maybe finding a real job. Some are going off to college. Westfield rather Westwood is a great community for those who are listening anywhere in the country. It's a suburban community. Route one oh nine runs through it.
It's sort of out in the the the Dedham Dover area of of of just a little south of Boston, not you know, not part of the city of Boston proper. But this gives them these great opportunities. One of the things that I think kids would probably be interested in and not be interested if you would, if you if this comes up in the curriculum, and that is the arrival of things like uber and lyft, which have come
of age, you know, during their teenage years. Actually uh, compared to the more traditional forms of of of public transportation buses and or cabs. Uh, do you get into them at all? With about uber and surge pricing, and how at different times during the day the price of a ride and the same car the same from point A to point B might differ uh in in price because of what the time of day is. In traffic patterns, you get to all of that as well. I assume.
I will say that TPIC comes up a lot in our economics curriculum, certainly with supply and demand m.
Ahead.
We actually that's okay.
Uh.
There's actually a website that we use to get some of our curriculum called Next General Generation Personal Finance, and they have really fun games that students can play. And one of the games is they need to be an uber driver and they need to make x amount of dollars by the end of the weekend, and they need to decide do they get insurance for their Uber for their car in case someone spills something, or are they going to go closer to the city because you might
make more money. Or a concert gets out, do you go to where the concert is because you know you can charge more. So that's kind of embedded to the game into the some of the games that they play.
Sure Sure. My guest are Amy Davenport. She's the principal of West Westwood High School and a math teacher who's also a financial literacy teacher, Brian Mahegan, If you'd like to call, if you're listening from another community and you'd like to figure out maybe how you could get this
type of curriculum in your community. Love to hear from you, particularly if you're in the the academic field, either as a teacher or as an administrator, or if you're just a parent, or I shouldn't say, just if you are a parent or a high school student. Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty six one seven, nine, three, one, ten thirty will get you on the line. I think this is great also, by the way, from my audience who might not you know, who may not have children or grandchildren
in schools. This is something that you can advocate for whether you have grandchildren or children in school or neighborhood kids. Because I think this is one of those practical, exciting courses that literally can can can start someone down the road to a career. It's possible brand that you're actually exposing some young people to this whole concept of financial literacy and they may end up deciding to become a
career as a financial planner or or a CPA. I mean, this is where you take the theory of high school and you explain to them that it is very the practicality of not only application to their lives, but potentially the application of careers. I'd love to talk about that with you a little bit and we'll talk more. I'll also mention that for those in the audience who probably know me well enough, they do also have a Civics requirement at Westwood High School too, which I think is
equally important. And to have someone graduate high school without knowing civics or financial literacy, I think truly is sort of education abuse, if you will. And they're doing it right in Westwood, and that's why we are focusing upon Westwood tonight. If you'd like to call, join the conversation. Six months, seven two, five, four, ten thirty, six months, seven nine, three, one ten thirty back with Westwoo High School Principal Amy Davenport and Westwood math teacher and financial
literacy teacher Brion Mahegan. Right after this quick break on night Side, Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World.
Night Side Studios, i' WBZ News Radio.
My guests are Westwood High school principal Amy Davenport and a math teacher. I was also a financial literacy teacher Brion Mahegan. Brion, let me start this segment with you, and the question that I have for you is the students. This sounds to me like, of course students are actually going to be anxious to take It's It's not like some of those courses that you get later in your career in high school where I got to take it.
But I really I'm not interested in anymore learning about the history of the Peloponnesian Walk because it has no relevance.
I think students their opinions vary on the way in. Sometimes high school students don't want to do things when they're told they have to. But as soon as they start realizing that we can put some of this into play in their everyday life starting today, they're really interested, especially when we start talking about the savings accounts and
checking accounts unit. When they realize that their savings account might only be giving them point there are one percent interests and they're saving high yield savings online that they could get four percent interest, they really start to buy in pretty quickly, so you know, they have different opinions walking in, but all of them walk out realizing they're going to use most of this stuff in their everyday life, well at some point, if not in their everyday life.
Sure. Now, now, you folks have been doing this for at least threey.
Four years, right, this is the first year that it has become a graduation requirement.
Yes.
I've been teaching financial literacy for at least four or five years, and we had it embedded in one of our other courses for quite some time.
Yes, okay, So my question is normally, I can remember from the days of high school and college and law school, there's always that Bell curve. You have three percent of the students who are just getting, three percent who don't get it, and the rest are in the big Bell curve. I'll bet you students do pretty well in this course. If I'm wrong, please tell me. If I'm right, please tell me.
No, I think you're right. I do find that all students can find success in the course. And as you were mentioning earlier, I think some students are surprised at some of the topics that they're really interested in. I had a student last term who loved the tax unit we do th throw income taxt by hand and he just loved it. And math is typically not one of his stronger subjects, and he absolutely loved it. So I think that all students can find some sort of success in this class.
Let me ask Principal datapod Amy, have you had other school You had this big piece in the Globe in early January, and I know that you've had some other publicity in this. Have you had much reach out from other school departments of other school, you know, principals school outside of Westwood? Have there been you know, folks who have reached and said, hey, this is a pretty cool idea, would like to adopt it.
I am in.
Pretty close contacts with a lot of area principles, and all of them, I think, have expressed interest and or verging on jealousy about the fact that this is something that we're able to.
Offer to all of our students. I will say.
That the the biggest response that we have received is definitely from the community in terms of the publicity that we've received, and that has looked like an outpouring of communications from Westwood residents, including from folks who don't have children in the system, who are of different generations. I've gotten handwritten notes saying like this is what I think education should be about. And I've also gotten a lot of communications from other communities who have I think done
what you've done. They said like, this is something that I want for my kids, this is something that I want for my school. But the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Well, there's a practicality about that. Obviously. It's the sort of stuff that sometimes parents don't talk to their kids about. It's almost like I guess, you know, you know, health courses or civics courses. You know, some parents maybe spend a lot of time talking to the kids about this as they're growing up, and kids come to the course with a better understanding, just as some kids might come to the course with a better understanding of civics or
the way the government works. But it's great to give all of them a real opportunity to understand this before they walk across that stage and take the diploma. Whether they're heading off to be in the military, get into get into the workforce immediately, or go off to college. Either way, this is going to help them. Let's do this. I wanted a couple more questions. I I think I've
covered what I want to cover. I'm hoping some of our listeners might either want to comment or talk ask you a question, so I'll keep the lines open here. We've got to take a quick newscast at the bottom of the hour. I will be back right after the break six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine one ten thirty back with my guests, the principal of Western High School, Amy Davenport, and a math teacher who's also teaching financial literacy. Again, this is
a graduation requirement. This is not some optional course the students can avoid. This is one that they have to take, and this is one that they're going to benefit from for the rest of their lives. The math teachers named BRIONT. Mahigan, and we'll be back with both Amy Davenport and Brion Mahegan right after this newscast. At the bottom of the hour. You're on Night.
Side with Dan Ray on wz Boston's news radio.
We're talking about financial literacy as a graduation requirement for high school students. I happen to think that's a great idea. Also think that civic should be a graduation requirement for high school students in Gnarlingham, Massachusetts, but everywhere, and I'd love to hear what your thought on it is as well.
We are fortunate enough to be talking with the principal of Westwood High School, Amy Davenport, and one of the teachers who teaches this to students in the I guess it's the seventh grade now, but next year it'll be eighth grade, Brian, If I'm not mistaken. The teachers Brian.
Mahigan, No, their junior year, they're the of the Civics course. Correct. The Civics is well, Amy, you could talk a little more about Civics.
Sure, I'd be happy to right now. In Massachusetts, eighth graders spend a year looking at Civics at the national level, but the high school's ownership of that content really lives at the local level.
And so this year it's a junior course requirement. We'll be moving it into the senior year in the next couple of years.
But it's a course that really focuses on local engagement with the way that your town works.
Okay, but coming back to the literacy, the financial literacy. The students take that course in what year now, junior or.
Senior junior, junior year junior.
Okay, let's try to get some phone calls and see if folks want to respond. Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty six poets seven nine, three, one ten thirty. Let me go first to Frank in Boston. Frank, welcome next on nightside.
Hey, Dan, Frank want to applaud uh, Amy and Westwood High. I think it's fantastic.
No, we'll give you Westwood. Let's let's it's Westwood High not west Ford.
All right.
Well, I just got out of the Celtics game and I got in the car and I'm driving home and I heard I'm I'm.
Happy, trust me, I'm very Craig, I'm happy you call this. What makes sure we gave correct credit? Say hi to Amy Davenport. She's the principal of Westwood High School. UH, and also Brion Mahegan, who's one of the teachers there.
Go right ahead, Frank, Well, Amy and Brian. I just want to congratulate you. I think it's fantastic. As Dan said, whether you get out of high school and go to the military or you go to college, you're giving them practical experience. I taught at BC for years in the undergrad A long last in uh and Dan, I know you from the Cape. I know brother Horgan, but yes.
I think I taught a class that was you.
Know, explain to them the Fourth Amendment, search and seizure their rights, you know, how to avoid a speeding ticket when they get pulled over. This practical application on the financial side is fantastic. It gives them a leg up. I think it's fantastic that it's a required class. You know, geometries. We all have to take it, but really, how do we practically apply that? And when you look at the financial how do I say it with a roth ira
or whatever? Is fantastic for these young kids, and high school is great, so Amy, Brianna, thank you.
Fantastic and go Eagles. I have to put in a plug for BC as well.
Got a girl. All right, well, Frank, if Celtics win tonight, I assume they've played San Antonio right.
They were, and they beat them by I left there up by thirteen, could win for the selves.
All right. Well, Frank, thanks thanks for calling in, Thanks for listening to Nightside. I do appreciate you taking the time to call in. And whatever town you're in, it'll be interested to find out if if your community has followed through on something like this as well.
Yeah, Wellesley, I don't know if they have. I sent my kids to private school and they did take a financial class, both of them. But I think that, you know, giving it to the kids in the public school is fantastic. They can use this as a going forward when they get their first paycheck, whether it's a military or whether it's in a out of college and their first job, they can apply that they can save and they can they can have some financial acumen that we didn't have
when I was in high school. I don't know about you, Dan, Well, of course, Well.
There were a lot of kids today who work summer jobs and some of them work you know, weekends or whatever, and it constant too early for them to realize that, you know, that it's their their labor which is going to be able to have them open up a bank
account and put some money in. And as as beyond was mentioned, Brion was mentioning that they've got to realize that it was between the money that's in the checking account that's getting zero point zero zero zero one percent interest versus the money that might be in some sort of a savings account. That's probably now a little bit over four percent in that and that makes the difference because it's their money. It's a It's as simple as that. Frank.
I'm still trying to place sure. When are you on the bench? Is that you mentioned brother Horgan? Or are you in front of the bench.
No, no, no, I'm in front of the bench. I see you walking down on Harward Sport in the summertime, and I am in front of the bench, and I take beatings from or I took beatings from our mutual friend, Judge Morgan, who was one of the greatest judges in the history of Combo's past.
No question about that. There's no question in my mind about that. Frank. Next time you see me, stop and say hello. Okay, thanks very much, appreciate it all right, Amy and Brian. I think what we have done is we've convinced everyone here of the value of this course. I was hoping we would have heard from some Westwood tax payers or Westwood listeners, residents, because you were doing a great service for not only the students, but also
for the community of Westwood. I know a lot of people passed by high schools and junior high schools, and they say, what are they teaching those kids these days? You folks are actually teaching something that is going to have not only immediate but even more importantly long term value to these students. What sort of reaction have you gotten from your community to this? I mean it is the community of Westwood aware that this sort of instruction is going on.
Community support has been really really positive, and I think it has a lot to do with actually what Frank our caller said, that you really do feel like you're giving your child a leg up on a conversation that might not be happening at everybody's dinner table. You mentioned earlier in the show, Dan that this might be exposure to a career they haven't even considered.
And what we do know is that students who.
Come historically marginalized backgrounds, who are really up against fighting a wage gap, these aren't conversations or ideas that they're exposed two with as much frequency. And so it's really, you know, opening doors for students to consider assets on financial streams that they might not be aware of, but also careers and lifelong passions. And I think that's really clear to our community, and they've been really really supportive.
I remember when I was young, which was, you know, the last century that as a child, I took a great deal of when I probably was nine or ten and my parents opened an account in my name as a past book savings account. Now most banks don't provide past book savings accounts to kids anymore. I was able to briefly get past book savings accounts for my own children when they were young. They're now adults and out
in the work world and now in their thirties. But I don't know if there are any banks today which provide, you know, that past book savings account where the child, if he's eight, or he or she is eight or ten or twelve, can actually walk to the bank, walk in and go up to the counter with either cash or a check that they might have earned and see it deposited and then reflected in that past book savings account.
That's I think that for me, that was a great way for me to understand an a tangible level what a bank account was all about. I'm sure I don't know if if either of you when you were children, or if you've been able to find a bank that can provide a pastbook savings account for your children or nieces or nephews.
I vividly remember that as well having my passport savings account. I do have a ten to eleven year old at home, and I have an online savings account for them, and I think they're just in the digital world. So when I show them digitally the interest they're earning, they're like, wait a second, I just made twenty dollars and I just by letting my money sit there. I think that's
really powerful for them to see. I think being in the digital world that the past book, the passport book itself probably wouldn't mean as much to them as it meant to us as a child, but definitely seeing those numbers change is very impactful for them.
Well, the thing with the past book account was if you went in and you earn and some interest, and you hadn't been into the bank for a couple of weeks, the teller would say, oh, you've got some interest here, and you would hand you back the pass boot. And again, it wasn't a lot of money back in those days, but they represented the money that you earned when you were shoveling your neighbor's walkway or maybe if you were lucky enough to rake someone's leaves in the fall and
you begin to earn some money. Well, look, you're doing a great job. Thank you so much for making this commitment. I hope that other school systems are inspired by this, and we're not going to have every school system on talking about financial literacy, but you folks are the flagship as far as I'm concerned, And congratulations you're you're doing a great service for your students and for their community,
and I wish all the best. Amy Davenport, principal of Westwood High School, and Breon Mehegan literacy teacher and also a math teacher. So thanks very much both of you for joining us tonight.
Thank you so much for having.
Us all right, thanks again, say hi to everybody westward for us. Okay, I had honestly hoped that we would have had more interest in that subject, but that's okay. We're going to switch topics, and as a matter of fact, we will preview what we're going to do coming up
after ten o'clock. We'll take a quick break here and we'll be back right after a couple of quick messages, and we're going to talk about a whirlwind day that a couple well certainly whirlwind days, but this has been a day in which President Trump and the Trump administration has been very active on the international stage, and I want to talk about that, in relation to Russia and in relation to what's going on in the Middle East. We'll be back on Nights side right after the break