Many parents and teachers with children under their responsibility, want to provide a financial education to their children or students and do not know where to start.
They realize that it is important to guide them in this regard, but they do not know how to do it.
With this article I want to provide some elements that can make it easier for adults interested in financially educating young people to take the first steps in this regard.
First of all, it is important to congratulate parents and teachers who want to give financial education, because they meet the first requirement to do so: The desire, the motivation and the interest for boys and girls to have an orientation in this regard.
It is the first step, since not all adults recognize the importance and need to address this issue with infants. And many times they ask themselves:
Why educate in finance? At the end of the day I did not study anything that has to do with money and I'm fine. Let's see some reasons to provide financial education to boys and girls.
Main reasons to financially train boys and girls
- Boys and girls need to know what we use the money for:
Human beings are immersed in an economic world. We use money for many things in our lives. When we have money, we satisfy almost all our needs:
We buy food, we access health services, education, public water, electricity and telecommunications services, we buy the clothes we like, we have a place to live, we can move to our workplace, we can rest and recreate ourselves as we want.
We also use money to give ourselves tastes, to share it with those who need it, to ensure a decent life in our old age, etc. That is, having money is important because without it, it is more difficult to live the way we want.
- Boys and girls need to learn that not everything is achieved with money:
Starting from the fact that money is important, it is also essential to recognize that we do not achieve everything with money:
Our credibility, family bonding, true friendships, happiness, harmony in our relationships, our inner peace, abilities, talents, our creativity, the attitudes we assume in the face of adversity, making appropriate decisions, loving what we do and do our job well, take care of the resources we have, contribute to the world the gifts we have received, solve our own problems without waiting for others to solve them for us, grow as people, enjoy the simple things in life, etc., they are aspects that money does not provide us.
And it is these aspects that determine how prosperous we are in our lives, which allow us to generate wealth or generate poverty.
When we recognize these aspects as essential and prior to money, we begin to Learn to Have.
- Boys and girls require Learning to Have:
Learning to Have means placing above money, life, dignity, the values and principles with which we guide ourselves.
It is recognizing that money is important and allows us to do many things, and at the same time, without money, we can also do many other things in life with which we transform the world and make it a better place to live.
Learning to have means that we are able to sacrifice money for the values we have, instead of sacrificing the values we have for the money.
It is realizing that having or not having money is temporary, while having the appropriate talents, values and attitudes, we can generate wealth for ourselves and for others, at any time in life.
Learning to have is maintaining a Win-Win attitude: It is learning that we can have money, not at the expense of other people or principles or unhappiness and suffering, but that we can have money benefiting ourselves and others.
Learning to Have means that we administer with ethics and wisdom, the resources we have received (personal, social, environmental), in such a way that we maintain them, increase them, improve them, generating development and leaving a mark.
Learning to Have implies that we live a Culture of Prosperity, with which we attract what we want, we feel in peace and harmony and we understand that many times we can be illiquid, without this meaning that we are poor, since we have the necessary resources to generate the wealth we desire.
Knowing how to have is not something we are born with, it is something we learn and can transmit, and this is the importance of financially training children. In knowing that we can teach attitudes, values, economic behaviors and knowledge that allow young people to be prosperous and generate wealth with which they can transform the world.
- Boys and girls need to learn a Culture of Prosperity:
Thus, among the main reasons for financially training boys and girls,
are to facilitate that they learn to have and develop attitudes of prosperity that allow them to change the culture of poverty that prevails today in our society, for a culture of prosperity.
Requirements for providing a financial education:
Certain requirements are essential to provide financial training. As we said, the first that must be present is the desire, motivation and interest on the part of adults to give this training.
Without a genuine interest and conviction about the importance of this training, we will hardly guide children towards prosperity and proper administration of resources.
Values that support financial education: Only adults who live values of prosperity can be consistent and consistent in providing financial education:
Honest, responsible, respectful, accomplished adults can teach these values that guide children towards an ethical management of the resources they administer.
How can a child learn to be honest if the teacher who is teaching him the importance of saving steals the children's savings?
How can a child learn to respect others, if their parents do not take care of what they lend to them and return it damaged?
Children require adults whose economic behaviors (ways of earning and managing money) are a model for them.
Beliefs and Attitudes of Prosperity: A third requirement for financial education to be appropriate is that the adults who teach it maintain beliefs and attitudes of prosperity.
To understand a little what we mean by these, let's remember the perception that three different people can have on a glass that contains half the water.
One of them can say: "The glass is half empty", another person can say: "The glass is half full" and the third can say: "Although the glass still has water, it is important to prepare to fill it."
These three cases pose three different attitudes: The first attitude is an attitude focused on lack, on what you don't have, on what you lack, on scarcity. It can be said that the person tends towards pessimism. The second person shows an attitude centered on what he has, in abundance, in wealth, it can be said that he is an optimistic attitude.
Finally the third attitude is a realistic attitude: The person perceives the amount of water there is and at the same time, prepares to keep the glass with water and not let it finish.
Generally when a person has negative beliefs and attitudes focused on scarcity, we say that the person lives in a culture of poverty, because he does not perceive what he has but what he does not have; Instead of enjoying the few or many resources available to him, he suffers, is distressed and bitter about what he does not have, or what he can lose.
People who live in a culture of poverty complain about the situation in which they live and attribute responsibility for this situation to other people.
The blame for their shortcomings, their misfortunes are their parents, their relatives, their partner, their children, the neighbors, the neighborhood in which they live, the rulers, the State, etc., etc. They do not realize that they themselves attract the situation in which they live.
For this same reason, they do not find, nor do they worry about doing so, solutions to their situation: If the cause of their problems is others, the solution is also outside of themselves: When my children grow up…, when my parents change…, when change the president, when the neighbors leave, when I grow up, when my teachers understand me, etc.
Therefore, they will be waiting for favorable situations, instead of creating them, from appreciating the opportunities that exist in their own life.
People focused on what they own usually live in a culture of prosperity. They assume responsibility for the situations they live in and actively seek solutions to them.
They know that, to a large extent, the solution to their difficulties depends on them. They are people who enjoy what little or much they have, take care of it and if possible increase it.
Realistic people see both sides of the coin: What they own and what they don't. They enjoy, care for, share what they have and look for suitable ways to get what they want; Simultaneously they prepare for the times of the "skinny cows", whether they arrive or not.
They know that at any time they can change their circumstances more as they have prepared for what may happen (a financial crisis, a hurricane, a major loss),
they are better able to cope. They know that what matters is not what happens, but what they do about it.
They also live in a culture of prosperity and simultaneously prepare for temporary situations of deprivation.
Adults who assume a culture of prosperity are the best prepared to financially educate children, as they transmit attitudes of prosperity, not only with words, but also with their own experiences.
And remember that example is the best way to teach what we want you to learn.
Another requirement is to have pedagogical, didactic and methodological knowledge. Many adults, successful professionals in their areas, do not know how to transmit their knowledge to children (students or children).
It is required to be able to make the financial and economic contents that we wish to teach simple, to know the way of thinking and learning of children, according to their evolutionary stage and to develop playful and concrete activities to facilitate meaningful learning.
Take into account the Evolutionary Stage of boys and girls: Financial education is different according to the development of boys and girls.
We can classify evolutionary development into three stages: Children from birth to two years, preschool children (between 2 and 7 years old) and school-age children (between 7 and 12 years old).
After age 12, financial education is provided to teens and finally to adults. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on the training given in childhood (up to twelve years old).
Within each stage, there are also some differences and it is important to adjust to them. For example. Although the preschool school age ranges from 2 to 7 years, social, emotional, language, cognitive, motor development varies greatly between a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old.
Knowing these differences is important when giving any type of education, including financial education.
Plan the time, space, activities, and resources required to provide a financial education:
In Educational Institutions, are you going to work every day? Are you going to spend weekly, biweekly or monthly time? Is this training going to be included in an already established subject or are the financial contents to be taught going to work? as cross-cutting themes? How are the curricular policies related to this training to be defined? How are the hidden curricula to be addressed? How are they going to integrate into the educational community? How are they going to integrate this training with the Institutional Educational Project ?; What are the objectives that the institution wants to achieve with this training, at a general level and at each level: preschool, basic and middle ?, What activities can be carried out to teach attitudes, values, economic behaviors and content?How are we going to facilitate the development of the students through this training?
Answering these and other questions will make it easier to include financial education as an important part of the curriculum, rather than leaving it to chance and clearly as part of the hidden curriculum.
How can parents provide their children with financial education? What moments of daily life are they going to take advantage of to do it? Are they going to give the children an allowance? They are going to explain how to manage that money to maintain it, increase it, enjoy it and share it ?; How do you plan to handle adversity situations? How are you going to react to the child's tantrum?
The answers to these and other questions are part of the multiple decisions that need to be made to provide adequate financial training.
The preparation of adults (teachers and parents) who are going to take on this financial training is basic, as generally the education provided in this sense is more intuitive than systematic and adults do not always adequately manage their own finances.
These are some of the important requirements to be able to provide a financial education to boys and girls. The next question is: How to start this training?
Steps to start financial training
1st) -. Establish the purposes we have in relation to financial education: To achieve this, it is important for the adult to answer: What do you want to achieve by providing children with financial education?
The answer to this question will allow you to guide your actions, activities and resources so that the financial training you provide takes children where you want.
Let's look at some possible answers to this question: Some adults want their children or students to handle money based on values. For example. They want boys and girls to be honest, respectful, compliant, responsible, generous, etc.
For other adults, it may be important for boys and girls to develop Positive Characteristics and Attitudes towards money, which allow them to be prosperous, attract and feel good about the wealth (little or much) they have.
Other adults may want children to develop Economic Behaviors that allow them to earn money and manage it appropriately, Another wish is that children have basic economic knowledge to handle themselves in the world of finance: To know what a check is, how to fill it, when to give it and when not;
know the handling of credit and debit cards; knowing what simple and compound interests are, understanding how devaluation, revaluation, inflation affect us and being able to explain what each one consists of, etc.
Another purpose that adults may have is for boys and girls to develop thought processes relevant to specific situations in relation to money. We can include four types of thinking:
Literal thinking, which consists of obtaining information as it is seen, heard, read, etc. For example. If the child is reading a contract, it requires excellent literal thinking to be able to tell what are the terms and conditions that appear in the contract. Logical thinking:
It consists of obtaining relevant or essential information, mentally isolating or separately considering the qualities or essence of something that is seen, heard, read, understanding what is important and accidental.
For example. It is required that when faced with an advertisement that invites to buy an item, children can analyze the advertisement, what is it intended to do, how they are approaching the consumer, etc. Strategic thinking:
It consists of choosing the most appropriate step among a multitude of possible steps, in order to solve a problem. It is used eg. When the child is going to invest her money, and is faced with different possibilities, she who can see the advantages and disadvantages of each possibility to choose the one that best suits her needs and desires. Creative Thinking: It consists of transforming or creating ideas.
This thought is basic when the child sits down to devise various ways in which he can earn money.
Although it is not wrong to establish a single purpose or a partial purpose, as it is not to have an exclusively professional vision and not in all dimensions of our life, the ideal is that the purposes that people have of the financial education given to children, include various aspects, so that a complete education in relation to finances is provided.
Being clear about what you want to achieve by providing financial education, that is, having clear purposes, guides the efforts and activities of adults and later allows you to assess how successful the training provided was.
If we train children financially without being clear where we are going, we may not get anywhere.
2nd) -. Set Goals and Sub-Goals: These goals and sub-goals are small steps that bring us closer to achieving the purposes, wishes or dreams that we have set for ourselves. As John Maxwel says: Your dream determines your goals. Your goals trace their actions. Your actions create results. The results bring you success.
It is important to specify goals and sub-goals for each aspect of what we want to teach. For example. For our purpose of financially educating based on values, it is important to specify which values we want children to live. A value would be honesty.
Our goal is to make it easier for children to be honest. Other values that constitute goals are: That the boys and girls are financially responsible, they are fulfilled, they are generous, they are fair, etc.
Once we have the goals, we can make them even more concrete in what we call sub-goals. Some sub-goals to make it easier for children to be honest are: Correctly managing money for themselves and other people.
Return "the returns" you receive when you send an order to the store, Leave the money where your parents or other people left it, Do not take money from other people without requesting it and if they receive a "no" in response, respect that decision;
Be clear in the accounts and distribute the money according to what has been agreed, when doing a business with other people; pay the value of what you want to buy, when you enter a store, supermarket, shopping mall; return to their owner the money and objects they lend to him, etc.
Likewise, we can establish sub-goals for each of the values that we wish to teach, within financial training. For example. We want boys and girls to be responsible.
This may involve answering for one's actions, without unloading our faults on others, when spending money on purchases of goods or services, comparing what these cost us in different places, in such a way that we use the money responsibly, without wasting it.
It is important to establish goals and sub-goals for each of the purposes that we have set ourselves and that we wish to teach in relation to the financial education of children.
In Table No. 1, you can see one or two examples for each of the purposes mentioned above.
3rd) -. Determine children's prior knowledge: Once you know what you want to achieve with financial education and you have clear goals and sub-goals, it is important to determine where children are in relation to the established purpose.
For example, if you want boys and girls to have positive beliefs about money, you should find out what the current beliefs are of the boys and girls with whom you are going to work.
Do children think that the rich are bad people? Do children think that having money brings problems? Do children think that only poor people are honest? As you find out the children's prior knowledge, you will be able to determine where to start the training.
TABLE No. 1: Examples of purposes, goals, and sub-goals
| PURPOSE | GOALS | SUBMETES |
|
PROMOTE VALUES |
Be honest | - Return "the laps" you receive when you run an errand.
- Pay for the items you take out of a store. |
| Be responsible | - Accountability when they give you money to drive.
- Take care of the toys they lend you |
|
| Be fulfilled | - Pay off debts the day you agree to
do what. - Return the money and objects that they lend to their owner. |
|
| Be generous | - Share your toys with other friends
- Share with your family the money you have |
|
|
DEVELOP POSITIVE ATTITUDES |
Developing entrepreneurial attitudes | - Finding learning in the mistakes you make.
- Show curiosity in unfamiliar situations. - Generate ideas about how to get money in a way adequate. |
| Developing prosperity attitudes | - Appreciate what they give away
- Take care of your toys - Use and Enjoy what you have |
|
|
TO EASE ECONOMIC BEHAVIORS |
Finding suitable ways to earn money | - Understand that there are many ways to obtain
money - Assess the different ways people use to earn money |
| Properly manage money | - Pay yourself a percentage, of any income
receiving - Define before you go shopping what you need and what wants to buy. |
|
|
FAVOR ECONOMIC KNOWLEDGE |
Develop procedural knowledge | - Know how to fill out a check.
- Know how to open a savings account |
| Learn theoretical knowledge | - Know what a CDT is
- Know the differences between different banknotes denomination |
|
| Develop conditional knowledge | - Identify when to write and not write a check
- Identify when and to whom to lend and when and to whom don't lend money |
|
|
DEVELOP FINANCIAL THINKING PROCESSES |
Developing literal thinking | - Read a paragraph about an economic topic and be able to repeat it in
his words what the author said |
| Develop logical thinking | - Analyze a consequence that the application may have
of a financial law |
|
| Developing strategic thinking | - Choose between several savings alternatives, which one produces
major interest. |
|
| Developing Creative thinking | - Find alternatives to reduce poverty |
4th) -. Devise or carry out activities with which the established sub-goals are met. It's not about doing activities for doing activities. It is about carrying out activities that, in the light of reflection, allow children to relate them to the sub-goals that we are working on.
Activities should be concrete for younger children, and as they get older they can be more abstract. With the activities and reflection that come from them, the aim is to promote meaningful learning, that is, to make it easier for children to understand what they want to teach through these activities.
The activities that children enjoy the most and with which they learn very well, are playful, that is, those that use the game to provide financial training:
Let the children play the store, play the bank, play to advertise any object. Children to color, draw, move and through movement work processes and content.
Other activities that also facilitate learning are narrations: Stories, fables, stories, allow us to transmit values, attitudes, beliefs and the content we want to teach.
When choosing activities, it is important to keep in mind that the different intelligences that children use to learn work: Carry out activities for linguistic intelligence, for logical-mathematical intelligence, for spatial, musical, bodily, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences.
When working on financial content, it is important to remember that the way we present it facilitates or hinders learning.
We can take into account the approaches of Jeromé Bruner, in this regard: Carry out activities with young children where they act or carry out actions on objects (active presentation), use with older children graphic representations such as photos, diagrams, maps, drawings (Iconic presentation)
and use symbols such as words and numbers with older children (symbolic presentation). When starting to teach new content, it is important to carry out different types of presentation, which implies going from the concrete to the formal.
5th) -. Evaluate what has been learned: It is important that we frequently evaluate how well we are achieving the sub-goals:
Do infants save? Do they differentiate the values of the different bills? Do they maintain healthy hygiene habits in relation to money? Do they know how to make comparative purchases? Do they distinguish between needs and desires? They accept being told "no" without doing Tantrums ?, share with their friends ?, are generous with those who have less than them ?.
Evaluating allows us to determine what aspects to emphasize, what are the strengths and weaknesses of our training and we can act on them.
By evaluating the learning that children achieve, we can say how much they have Learned to Have.
If children learn to have, they can relate to their possessions by putting them in perspective, that is, recognizing that they are a means in their lives and not an end.
As we provide financial education, boys and girls will be able to be better people every day and work to make their mark and a better world.
It is important to differentiate between wealth (Being rich) and prosperity (Being rich) as well as differentiating between being poor and being poor.
Wealth is a temporary state. It refers to the amount of resources that a person, a family, a community, a city, a country possesses at a given moment. The greater the amount of money, the richer economically the person is.
Prosperity is a deep and lasting feeling of abundance, which generates peace, tranquility, security and happiness. It is also a process that involves:
a) Be aware of the resources you have, b) Maintain a positive attitude towards life and towards what one possesses, which leads the person to enjoy what he has, to feel abundance and security in himself and in the environment and
c) Know how to manage the resources (few or many) that are owned.
Being poor is not having money at any given time. It is a temporary lack of resources, while Being poor (Culture of Poverty) is a deep and lasting feeling of scarcity that generates anguish, fear, and insecurity.
It is also a process that involves:
a) Not realizing the resources that are owned;
b) Maintain a negative attitude towards life and what one owns, which leads the person to complain, criticize, envy, blame others for their situation and think that they have no control over it, and
c) Inappropriate management of the resources (few or many) that are owned.
Notes:
Maxwell, John. The map to achieve success. Miami: Editorial Caribe, 2003, p.91.
Sprinthall, Norman. SPRINTHALL, Richard. OJA, Sharon. Psychology of the education. 5a. Edition, Madrid: MacGraw-Hill, 1996, pp. 189-193.
