Brent Credit Or Brent Debit?

Comment from a reader on "Brent's New Class - Get Into Debt!":

Having a Child at Brent School and having been at the Cafeteria myself to load Money on the ID of my Child, I can only say that the statements are incorrect.

The reason why the ID is used for Purchases is to avoid to have to carry Cash. This system is used throughout the world. However the Parents need to load the Card and will be informed in writing when the balance is negative.

Not so different from paying cash or if you will it is exactly like using a Credit Card which all our Children will have to learn how to use sooner or later. I grant that some grown up have never learned to use Credit Cards responsibly but we should but trust in our Children.

After being informed of a negative balance I have approached the Vendor for an itemised list of my Childs purchases and was issued with a fully detailed printout of ever single item consumed within 3 minutes. I was further asked if I would like to but restrictions on the items my Child is not allowed to have (ice cream, Soft Drinks etc.). I have declined as this is not something the Cafeteria should be dealing with but it is refreshing that the possibility exists in case some Parents find it difficult to restrict or trust their own children.

How can we teach our Children about using money responsibly (and eating healthier homemade food than the cafeteria food) if we rely on a commercial enterprise to do it for us.

[The Subic Bulletin] We have two conflicting reports, we will try to get to the bottom of this and report back.