TikTok Teacher Explains Why He Makes His Elementary Students Pay Desk Rent

teamvuong/TikTok

September 30, 2021, 7:27 am*

An elementary school teacher is trying to teach kids financial literacy by charging them rent for their desks, but now some people are complaining about teaching them capitalism.

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If you went to school in the United States, you’re keenly aware that schools don’t teach a number of the life skills necessary to thrive as an adult. Students certainly rarely learn about budgeting or taxes outside of history lessons.

But Mr. Vuong, (@teamvuong on TikTok) wanted his 4th and 5th graders to start getting just a hint of how the real world works without the stress of facing down actual consequences that comes with being an adult, so he introduced something called Brain Bucks.

Students earn Brain Bucks every day for attending class, but also for things like participation and showing responsibility throughout the month. Then, on the last Friday of the month, they write him a check for 15 Brain Bucks to rent their desks — unless they’ve chosen to save up and pay the 75 Brain Bucks to “own” it outright.

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“Whatever they have left over, they can spend it on the treasure chest, or purchase a more expensive prize from the treasure trove,” Vuong said in a video explaining his system. They also have to add 3 Brain Bucks for tax on anything they buy.

Some viewers immediately pounced on Vuong for his teaching methods, with one comment complaining that he’s trying to “replicate capitalism in the classroom” while others questioned whether it was appropriate to put children under that sort of “stress.”

But Vuong is a teacher and reiterated in a later video that this is a teaching method, not something designed to add complications for struggling students. If students don’t have enough rent, there’s no punishment or shaming, and Vuong talks through the why of it with them, to see whether it was a budgeting issue or if there’s something out of their control going on that prevented them from accumulating enough Brain Bucks. They’re also given the opportunity to earn more.

“At the end of the day, this is still a token economy system for positive reinforcement,” he said. “I never punish a kid by taking away their Brain Bucks, because they earned it.”

Despite the naysayers, many commenters were enthusiastic about Vuong’s methods, and mentioned wishing they had been exposed to real life adulting like that before getting thrown into the deep end after high school.

“This is great. Low-risk situation to learn these concepts but also real enough for them to feel personal responsibility (and get some fun toys!!)” wrote @hyperfocuspod.

“My 4th-grade teacher did something similar, and I still remember it more than 30 years later,” @tacos_and_starbucks recalled. “He also raised our rent in January!”

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@autumnelizabethtu also pointed out that “unlike capitalism they earn bucks by being good people, and no one starts with privilege bucks.”

So in that sense, it’s certainly more than a little unrealistic to reality, but in a way that still helps children learn important values before they start having to worry about quite as much in the real world.

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*First Published: September 30, 2021, 7:26 am