Making money in the classroom
Mala Kumar
If you were to tell your class 5 students that they could make money in the classroom, what do you think their responses would be? If I were to say this to you, dear educator, what would your response be? “Are you talking about play money? Paper money? Print money? Really?” Do you think students will ask you how they could make money? Do you think they would probably tell you a thing or two about how they are already making money outside the classroom but could do it in the class too?
In a fast-developing world, it is important to admit that life for students today is far more complex than it was for children in earlier generations. Today’s children have access to loads of information on everything including the meaning of money. But they need simple exercises to make this information relevant to their lives, and to understand the concepts in a practical way. Learning the formula about Compound Interest is important, but more important is for them to understand why we pay an interest. The understanding could help them to grow up into responsible citizens. I learnt many things about money really late in life, when I wrote a set of books for children on financial literacy called the Rupaiya Paisa series (see a review of the books in the July 2013 issue of Teacher Plus, Talking money with children).
‘Making money’ is often seen as a dubious activity, and hence, in a classroom, no one makes money. Right? Right! But if teaching is a noble profession, then why not become saints by teaching children lessons about something that is such an intrinsic part of the adult life? Because, making money is quite a decent activity. (How you make it is a different discussion all together!) So, let’s get on with making some money, legally, in class. This could be done in classes 3 and up, but for consistency, let me consider class 5 as our experimental group.
Let’s say you teach Sanskrit to class 5. Your lesson for the day is based on a Subhashita, the eloquent form of wise poems. The aim is not just to teach the Subhashita, but also to teach children how to make money in the class. You have 40 minutes to do this. Spend three minutes distributing 2 rupee coins to all 30 students in the class, and tell them that for every ‘work’ they do during that period, they will get a coin. And for every ‘work’ they extract from others, they have to pay a coin. Let me be realistic – you will need another 3 minutes to explain this crazy act and answer all the questions that may come up. Then you can go about teaching the poem. And finish it 5 minutes before the bell.
If nothing else, each student has still made Rs.2 for listening to you, spellbound!
Can you think of the many transactions that may have taken place in the class?
Let me list a few likely transactions here:
Meeta, give me your sharpner please? Rakesh pays Meeta Rs.2.
May I rub the board, Ma’am? You pay the helpful Ajay Rs.2.
So hot! Pass me the water, Preeti! Preeti earns Rs.2.
Ma’am, I did not understand that line. Can you explain it again please? You don’t take the proffered Rs.2, but ask him to drop it into the class piggy bank.
Clearly, you can be a teacher of any subject and still do this classroom activity. The myth that money matters go hand in hand only with mathematics and economics has to be broken. Since earning, saving, spending, and investing are common activities for all; money matters should be for all, and teaching of basic economics should be every teacher’s joy.
It would be really interesting to get feedback from teachers who take up this activity. Was it a hit? Was it a flop? I’m prepared for some teachers to say, “Make money? I LOST 60 bucks!” (Hmmm…so someone else really did make money in the class, isn’t it, dear Angry Teacher?)
Finance, a life skill
Recently, a very successful entrepreneur was asked to talk about his journey and one of the things he mentioned was this: “It is strange how many years we spend in school and college learning to solve complex mathematical problems, but are forced to learn how to operate a bank account only when we start earning. Shouldn’t holistic education include the importance and management of money?”
Many schools have introduced financial literacy to their students in innovative ways. Some schools conduct flea markets where students are encouraged to put up stalls and sell trinkets, homemade food, books, and other items. Such activities are extremely helpful in the teaching of not just money matters, but also of interpersonal skills and communication skills.
There are kids who can handle money, and there are kids who almost completely gnaw off their lips and fingertips when they have to handle money. The act of carrying money, let’s say the monthly tuition fee, to school, safeguarding it till lunch time when you can run across to the school office to pay it, remembering to take a receipt, and handing that over safely to your parents in the evening – phew! – the task can be quite traumatic! So how do we instil enough confidence in young people so that they can take care of money with equanimity? The best way is to assign small money-related tasks to them. If the school is arranging a picnic, depute the collection of travel expense to a small group of students, and select the group at random. (The best-at-studies student does not necessarily have to be the most worthy of your trust, and the ‘dullest’ student by your reckoning could turn out to be quite savvy with money!) Ask the group to appoint one person to keep accounts. Everyone would have learnt a lot about money by the time you are all back from the picnic. If everything went well, great! If there were some accounting mistakes, well, someone learnt that she must be more careful with money. If there was a shortage, someone learnt that spending has to be planned in advance. And if you chose the wrong team, you can always give them a second chance!
Here are some simple things that teachers could do to make their students better at managing money:
- Get students to record all money transactions for a week or a month. At the end of the month, ask them to go through the entries and write about/talk about an entry that makes them smile.
(Eg: July 12: Amma gave me 20 bucks. Bought an ice-cream for myself…but our dog Bageera ended up eating most of it.)
(Rohan gave me a pen-set, which I gave to cousin Sheela because she loved it, who gave it to her teacher, who sold it at the Church sale. Rohan, myself, Sheela and her teacher all ate cake at the Church fair.) - Encourage students to start a bank account, once they are 10 years old.
- Here is an activity that I’ve tried at a financial literacy workshop with great results. Ask students to think about the topic, ‘What do you do when you run short of money?’ After that, run a quick Best Suggestions Contest.
Take 10 suggestions from the kids on this question. Indicate that the suggestions can be of every nature, including funny ones. For example, steal a money plant. If you do not get the following suggestions from the students, you can add them to the list – take a loan, rob a bank, buy things on instalment, try to manage without money, go on a fast…..
Do an oral vote (by thumbs up and thumbs down) and the students who make the top three suggestions get a token gift or applause.
Economics, the branch of knowledge concerned with the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth, is part of the curriculum in high school. But by the time a student reaches high school, she should know the value of resources – not just monetary resources but of all the things we spend money on. Water, electricity, food, healthcare – our needs are great, our wants endless. It is in the younger classes that we need to spend time to help youngsters develop their value system. For example, how valuable is a bottle of water priced at Rs.20? Ask a student to distribute the water such that 10 kids get a mouthful each. Ask another student to use one bottle of water across 15 students. Throw up these questions: If all 1000 children in school need a mouthful of water each, how many bottles do you need? Who will bring the water? Where does it come from? Who pays for the water spilt in the transportation lorry? Without a lecture on morals, we can assume that most students would certainly understand the value of water, and the money needed to buy it after such an exercise!
To conclude on the importance of teaching children about money, here is a Subhashita by the greatest economics teacher, Chanakya, from his work, Chanakya Neeti:
It cannot be stolen by thieves, cannot be taken
away by the king, cannot be divided among brothers
and does not cause a load. If spent, it always
multiplies. The wealth of knowledge is the greatest
among all wealths.
The author is a freelance journalist, children’s author and editor at Pratham Books. Her books include the Happy Maths series, Paper Play, and the Rupaiya Paisa series. She can be reached at mala.kumar@yahoo.co.in.
