Special Event

Whenever you turn on the news lately, you always hear about two main topics, jobs and the economy. You may think it is too soon to think about what jobs your Lower School children may have someday, but I don’t feel that is the case.   As Lower School Head, I think of it quite often in the skills we need to teach children at this age to be successful as they grow older.  In Lower School, we build the foundation for job specific skills to be learned in later years.  As you know in building anything, the base is most important.  Get it right and everything else can be layered successfully on top.  At Wardlaw-Hartridge we are always looking for ways to make the foundation stronger for our students.

In looking towards the future, we often wonder what types of jobs will be available when our Lower School students reach the ages where they are planning their career paths. In order to become more informed on this topic, we have been having conversations with Professor Bill Rodgers,  the Chief Economist at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. We would like to bring the entire community in on the conversation and The Wardlaw-Hartridge Parents’ Association is sponsoring an evening with Bill Rogers on Thursday, April 7th at 7:00 to do just that. I would encourage you to come and hear what he has to say about the future of jobs and what trends are in the job market that may affect our youngest students someday.  More information about the evening is coming home in your child's backpack.  If you have any questions or would like to RSVP, please contact Linda Coleman in the Admissions Office.

Along with jobs, economics is also an important topic to introduce to young children.  Professor Rogers has created a website called EconKids (http://econkids.rutgers.edu/econkids-home-econmenu-154 ) to help parents and teachers introduce economics to children.  Another good resource for materials, ideas, and books about teaching your children about money is
http://www.extension.umn.edu/Youth&Money/  It is never too early to teach children good money habits.  The benefits of this early education last a lifetime!  I hope you find all of this information helpful and will attend the talk by Professor Rogers on April 7th in the Upper Snowdon Library.

Happy Spring!
Mrs. Baier