A message worth heeding

I write to commend Pam Frampton on her beautifully written column on an extremely important topic, “Show kids the money,” as printed in The Telegram, Sept 19.

In a forceful and very persuasive way, she points out the lunacy of trying to keep up with the Joneses.

In my opinion, this article should be required reading (perhaps, for everyone) but certainly for school children and their parents.

With a background of 31 years in the teaching profession, I can certainly agree with her that “there’s more to math than adding and subtracting.”

It’s a lesson that all of us should thoroughly understand.

Having said that, however, and upon reflection, learning that lesson is easier said than done. Our fastpaced society where, all-too-often, many folks want things yesterday — not when they can afford them — makes any attempt to change that attitude almost futile. To compound the issue even further, the element of peer pressure exerts tremendous influence upon the behaviour of our teenagers. How can we win?

But try we must, by whatever means and methods we can muster. It is my understanding that the per capita debt ratio in our country is frightfully high and to ignore the issue would be irresponsible, to say the least. We must hammer home the message that money is, indeed, finite and can only be spent once; we must not try to live beyond our means.

Attempting to do so will make us poor, indeed — in more ways than one. George Martin Clarenville