The New York Times featured a great alternative story form this week, creating “Financial Crisis Hits Teens,” a video filmed at Elisabeth Irwin High School documenting the economic crisis’s effect on a high school student.
The video’s creators sit down with teens to discuss the financial burden placed on their home life, and high school economics teachers muse about the new meaning their class takes on in the face of economic woes.
“I’ve watched it evolve over the last couple of weeks,” said Thomas Murphy, economics teacher at Elisabeth Irwin High School.
“I think that initially [economics] was seen as something distant and didn’t really pertain to most of them. Just in the last few weeks, you’re starting to get a sense that parents are beginning to talk about diminished expectations, but I don’t know if that’s actually translated into ‘Wait. You can’t buy that,'” he said.
Localize this story by interviewing students and teachers at your school. Even local business owners can offer insight on the buying patterns of teens over the last few months.
