The Opportunity Cost of NOT teaching Opportunity Cost!

Michele and her Summer 2013 GTA students.

By Michele Thorne

I began teaching at Game Theory Academy in 2011, and I always look forward to meeting new youth who want to earn money and learn money. During the summer, the GTA curriculum is taught twice weekly, as opposed to once a week, which makes the class fly by. This summer wasn’t entirely different, except for the fact that I had twice as many students than the usual, who came to class full of vibrance, personality and lots of conversation. Sounds awesome. And it was, but this was a tough crowd.

Since I didn’t teach last Fall or this past Spring, I was really eager to dust off my teacher’s hat and get back into the classroom. For personal reasons, I had almost considered NOT teaching this summer too, but I really missed the engagement between me, Trish, Dillon and the youth, so I agreed to teach, and was very excited. On the first day, I received nothing short of a warm welcome, and things were on and poppin’ from day one. But after trudging through classes 2-5, competing with lots of unrelated and disruptive, interpersonal chatter, combined with the stifling Oakland summer heat, I was reaching a tipping point with my patience and the class was reaching its tipping point with my consequences.

Then, just like that, I had the class’ attention, and it was time to teach Lesson 6 – the Opportunity Cost lesson.  That day, the class was fun and filled with lots of engagement. There was rich discussion, team participation, and ample time to answer questions. It was awesome. But that got me wondering, what would the opportunity cost of NOT teaching this summer?

Here’s what it looked like for me…

And here’s the opportunity cost of NOT teaching this summer class

There are tradeoffs that come with every decision and I may never know whether anything I taught this summer will spark something in one or more of the youth that attended my class, over the course of their lives. I know that if I had chosen NOT to teach, I would have had more free time relaxing and spending time with my family, and I would have been very happy doing that too. But fortunately for me, I get to do that often enough anyway. And, if I had chosen NOT to teach, I would have given up all the benefits of teaching, which, for me at least, far outweigh the costs.

But reflecting back on the class now, if I had chosen NOT to teach, I am confident that I would have missed out on some really great opportunities to engage with a sharp, creative, yet boisterous group of youth, and I would have missed out on the joy and utility I get out of teaching with Trish and everyone at GTA. I also may have missed a great opportunity to teach someone something new, that could potentially be very useful in life AND, I would have missed out on earning extra income that will more than replenish my gas, parking and toll costs, and provide some extra cash flow to get in a little more fun in the summer sun just before school starts.

Thanks to my 2013 GTA Summer class, and to Trish, Dillon, Jeremy & Preunky. It was a delight to work with all of you this summer. 🙂 I think I made a good decision.