More from Blue Met's Pilot Project on Financial Literacy -- This Morning's Visit to St. Monica Elementary School

I think you will agree that today's pic is my best school visit pic EVER! This morning, TD banker and HEC professor Yacine Abou and I were at St. Monica Elementary School in NDG to give a workshop on financial literacy. These workshops are part of a pilot project, offered thanks to a unique collaboration between the Blue Metropolis Literary Foundation and TD Bank. At the end of this morning's workshop, a student named Asthwi showed us the sheet of paper she'd used for taking notes -- as you will see, it also includes a rather lifelike drawing of me and Yacine! But if you look at the notes, you'll see some of the rather serious topics we covered -- including compound interest, security, saving and even credit scores!

Today we worked with a group of students from Grades 3, 4 and 6, and what amazed us was how interested the kids were in talking about -- and learning about -- the world of finance!

The students did three short writing exercises. In one, they made a list of things they'd like to buy, in other words, how they might spend money. Here are some of the answers: mansion (Daniel); a Ferrari (Mujtaba), a light blue convertible (Rachelle); and my favourite from Luca, "infinite Hubba Bubba and an amusement park."

In another writing exercise, we asked the students to come up with a list of ideas for how they could SHARE their money, because as we discussed, a person doesn't need to be rich to be able to share. Daniel wrote, "I want to donate to cancer research" (he explained that his friend's mom is battling cancer, but thank goodness, doing well); and Shaleena wrote, "I'd share my money with the homeless." Which led us to a discussion about how the weather here in Montreal is getting colder, and how we can all help the homeless in our city by donating warm socks to shelters for the homeless.

My favorite writing exercise was the one in which we asked students to share their memories of when they first learned about money. Because we were working with a large group of nearly forty students, there wasn't time to hear all of the paragraphs they came up with. But I'll share Dario's: "One time I lost my snow hat. That led to my mom giving me a thirty minute to one hour lecture about money." I like that story a lot! I'll bet that even when Dario is much older he'll be careful not to lose valuable things. That's because research indicates the experiences we have with money when we are kids influence our later attitudes towards spending and saving.

The students were keen to meet Yacine. "Are you a trillionaire?" Ethan asked him. And Luca wanted to know, "How much money do you have?" Yacine answered, "My customers have the money!"

When we talked about the importance of saving, we asked the students, "Why save?" We were impressed when Dana answered: "to buy things and for college funds." 

Yacine left the students with some practical advice: "Start with good habits. I tell my customers, 'When you get your paycheque, pay yourself first!'"

Thanks to teachers Miss Alison and Miss Lara for sharing your students with us this morning. And hey, Miss Alison taught me something! When we were discussing old fashioned piggy banks (the kind that don't open, Rachelle said she has one), Miss Alison called out, "So that's where the expression 'break the bank' comes from!" As a word person, that made me super happy!

We hope the students at Roslyn School, where we did a similar workshop two weeks ago, and those we met today at St. Monica Elementary learned some interesting stuff from us. We also hope they'll go home and talk about some of the financial concepts that came up in our workshop. Here's to financial literacy -- and using money wisely to help make ours a better world!