Facts About Finances
By Maryann Manning

Many of us were taught that it's not polite to talk about money. Although I agree that one shouldn't discuss the amounts in one's bank accounts, our students need to understand how to manage money.

Children seem to have an innate interest in money. If you ask primary students to compute 25 plus 25, there may be a pause, but if you ask "How many cents are two quarters?" students will quickly say, "Fifty cents."

Needs and wants
Students can learn a lot about money by studying the budgets that effect them. A study of personal spending can easily expand to include family, classroom and school budgets.

Ask students to list all the things on which they personally spend money, then ask them to divide that list into "needs" and "wants." Then ask students to make a "need/want" list of the things their parents buy for them, including food, housing, utilities, etc. Discuss how these lists might differ in other countries, or how the lists might have been different when the students' parents or grandparents were young.

Spending journals
Encourage students to keep track of their daily spending for a few weeks. In addition to recording the amount of money spent, ask them to write a short rationale for each purchase. At the end of each week, ask students to analyze what they spent in terms of "wants" and "needs" and encourage students to share their analyses.

Budgets: the big picture
Our students also need to become aware that every successful organization goes through a budgeting process. Primary students can understand budgets for classroom parties and field trips, while older students can study the school's operating expenses.

Newspapers contain references to the spending and budgets of local, state and federal governments. The class can collect and display news stories with highlighted references to budgets and spending practices and discuss how lawmakers and officials manage the money of others.

The money section of the newspaper, as well as the advertisements, can help students develop personal and family budgets. The Internet is a great source of information; it contains newspaper articles, plus much more. Older students can access stock quotes and the budgets of major corporations.

Invite the principal to class to discuss the school's budget. What is done in the case of unexpected expenses? Consider inviting other community members to speak to your class about the process of creating a budget.

Job interviews
Interviewing parents, grandparents and community members about jobs and money can help students to establish their own values with questions such as: What was your first job? How many jobs have you had since then? How much were you paid? How did you spend the money you earned? Did you go to school or have training before you could get your first job? What lessons about managing money are most important for young people to learn?

A wealth of research topics
Money makes an excellent research topic. Some of the interesting aspects of money include: the history of money; bartering societies; inflation; prices of gold and other precious metals; personal money management; U.S. and world stock markets; taxes; the value of the U.S. dollar vs. the euro, pound, franc, peso and yen; average yearly incomes; the U.S. Mint and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing; the U.S. Budget and much more.

Fiction and finances
There are excellent children's books you can use in the study of money. A favorite of mine is Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Scholastic, l997, ISBN: 0-590-36090-9). There are many more, such as The Table Where Rich People Sit by Byrd Baylor and Peter Parnall (Scribner, l994, ISBN: 0-684-19653-0), Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte, l999, ISBN: 0-385-32306-9), and also A Year Down Yonder (Dial, 2000, ISBN: 0-803-72518-3) and A Long Way from Chicago (Dial, l998, ISBN: 0-803-72290-7), both by Richard Peck.

These books also honor the treasures money can't buy, such as family and friends. All of this adds up to great reading!

Maryann Manning is on the faculty of the School of Education, the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

January, 2004, Vol.34, No.4