David Fields and the Class for Success

By Jared Yetto

March 22, 2022

Many students feel that the classes they attend are pointless to their future, and that all they need to do is pass the class and graduate. This belief can be true, and if you ask most adults, they will most likely struggle to explain the pythagorean theorem. However, adults have to deal with taxes, investments, mortgages, and so much more. David Fields decides to steer away from the regular curriculum, and teaches students about the dos and don’ts of the real economic world in his financial algebra class.

Growing up in Massachusetts, he developed an idea of what economic decisions one would have to make in a city environment. He also developed a love for the Boston Red Sox, as most Massachusetts residents do. “Boston is everything, I grew up in Massachusetts so Boston is definitely my favorite city”, he says.

He never planned on becoming a teacher. He originally went to college for business. In his last semester of college, he took an education elective. He fell in love with teaching and went back to college to become a teacher.

He says that the reason he wanted to become a teacher was because, “I knew the difference between the good teachers I had and the bad teachers I had, and I wanted to be one of the good ones. I knew how crucial it was and how important it was.”

His teaching style is unique and allows for students to gain independence in his class. He also uses humor to get people's attention and makes lessons interesting consistently. You can tell that he genuinely cares about the topics he’s teaching, and uses mistakes he made in his own life as examples for the class.

David Fields and his class are the solution to a common problem a lot of students face when graduating from high school. According to the Association of American Colleges and Universities, only 55 percent of students believed that high school prepared them for the real world.

When asked about this, David Fields believes that this class is one of the most beneficial classes a senior can take, as it has direct application in the real world. States like Florida are making financial literacy classes a requirement for graduation, and most schools allow for students to opt out of higher levels of math, as long as they take a financial literacy course instead.