Today's blog entry has a much longer title than usual: "And now for something entirely new: Blue Metropolis Offers New Workshop for Kids on Financial Literacy! And I'm Helping!" But I think the long title is appropriate because THIS IS AN EXCITING NEW PROJECT and I'm deeeelighted to be involved (as you can see from my grin in today's pic!!)
Here's what you need to do. The Blue Metropolis Literary Foundation runs an annual international literary festival here in Montreal. It also offers an amazing variety of educational programs, many of which I've been lucky enough to be involved with. So when Blue Met's president and artistic director William St-Hilaire contacted me this summer to tell me about a new project aimed at making youngsters more financially literate I was eager to get involved. I got even more excited when she told me I would be teamed up with Yacine Abou, an up-and-coming banker with the TD Bank who's also a professor at the Université de Montréal's HEC!
When Yacine and I met in person I knew right away that the kids in our workshops would be in for fun -- and a lot of learning! The first story Yacine told me was how, when he was growing up, his grandfather gave him a wooden cigar box that Yacine used for collecting money! I don't suppose that his grandfather could have imagined that that little boy would one day become a banker.
Before I tell you about our visit today to Roslyn Elementary School where we went to do a test run of our presentation with Mr. Noah's Grade Six class, I need to tell you a little about finanical literacy. For most of us, literacy means being able to read and write. But research indicates that many grownups have little background or training when it comes to handling money. We also know that money is often a taboo subject. So Blue Met, in cooperation with the TD Bank, is working to help improve financial literacy. And what better place to begin than with the next generation?!
I have LOTS to tell you about today's workshop with Mr. Noah's students. Here are just some of the things we discussed: values, spending, saving, the role of banks, entrepreneurship, sharing, crypto currency and even scams. Yacine handled the big explanations. My job was to get the students writing!
Their first task was to write about what they VALUED. (We had discussed how we spend money as well as time on things and activities we value.) A student named Lou came up with "dance and skating." Rocky's list included "video games, hockey and eating!" Michael wrote: "Education, supplies I need, time with family, friends, and sports."
The second writing task -- in preparation for our unit on entrepreneurship -- was for the students to write about ways in which they could earn money. Here's a list of their answers. I've included their names after their ideas: Reading books to kids at the library (Stefanos); allowance, lemonade stand (Kevin); city work such as cleaning trash (Kaie); entrepreneur (Eniko); and doing chores (London). Maddox impressed us when he revealed he is already an entrepreneur: "I do this personally. In winter, I shovel people's driveways. I suggest a price. Last year, I made three hundred dollars."
Yacine captured the students' attention when he showed them a chart to explain how compound interest works. He used Maddox's three hundred dollars as an example. If Maddox invests $300 at a rate of seven per cent, in 30 years from now, he will have over $31,000! Which, as we discussed, is a lot more than what happens when you keep your money under your mattress or in a piggy bank!
The last writing exercise was about sharing. I explained that a person doesn't have to be rich to share. We can share some of what we have even if we don't have a lot, and we can always share our time. Here are some of the beautiful sharing ideas the class came up with. Michael wrote: "I would use my money and time to clean up the streets and give a bigger tip at restaurants." Lou wrote: "If I had a little extra money, I would donate it to an animal shelter." And Eniko wrote: "I'd buy fresh clothes, toys and food for families who are struggling in war."
Can you see why being with Mr. Noah's Grade Sixes this morning made me feel hopeful about our world? When I asked the students if they learned anything from us today the answer was a LOUD CHEER!
But I'm going to end today's rather long blog entry with the most amazing quote from Yacine. Are you ready because it's truly amazing?
Here it comes!
"I teach Microeconomics in a big ampitheater at HEC. But can I say something?" That's when Yacine looked up at the class: "I love you!"