Magic Helps Dispel Money Myths Of Fifth-Graders
It’s not easy keeping 30 fifthgraders at bay, particularly when spring is in the air and the subject is math.
But Daniel Yoho has a few tricks up his sleeve. Literally.
Yoho, who teaches a four-part course called “Math, Money & Magic” to fifth-graders at Kleckner Elementary School in Green, Ohio, isn’t above using a little sleight of hand to make his point.
He has figured out, for example, how to turn two 50-cent pieces into eight - a trick he uses to illustrate the “magic” of compound interest.
Yoho is no magician; in fact, a few alert pupils have sabotaged his tricks.
He’s a financial planner who volunteers several afternoons a week to teach grade-school children the basics of money management. When he’s not performing magic tricks, Yoho keeps the pupils on their toes by handing out 50-cent pieces and dollar coins to those who excel in his class.
If all of this sounds pretty mercenary, that’s just fine with Yoho. He wants his students to think about money: how to spend it, how to save, how to give it away.
Yoho said he learned early on that many youngsters, even those who do well in math, have only a vague idea of how much things cost. During his first class, he asked pupils to write down on an index card what they would buy if they had $100. The answers ranged from “as many chicken wings as possible” (reasonable, although not advisable) to the Dallas Cowboys (not reasonable, even after last year’s loss to the 49ers).
“They don’t have an idea of the cost of things as they relate to their world,” Yoho said. “Some don’t even know how much a postage stamp costs.”
Yoho tries to address that problem by telling his pupils to write down all of their purchases in a spending diary. He also instructs them to write down all of the ways in which they earn income.
“Just about all of them get an allowance,” he said. “I want to help them make choices and get control of their spending.”
Yoho also wants to teach pupils how smart saving can help them stay ahead of inflation. To bring that point home, he asks pupils to form a ring with their thumb and index finger apart, walks around the room with a new $1 bill and tells them to try to catch it. Each time, the dollar slips through their fingers, Yoho said, which is what happens to people who fail to plan.
“Then I drop it through my fingers and I catch it every time,” he said. “I say it’s because I have a savings plan.”
Yoho doesn’t want to come up with a new repertoire of tricks for every class, so he warns his pupils early on that anyone who gives away his secrets won’t get any rewards. That usually keeps them quiet.
Yoho said he got the idea for the course after teaching a few money management courses to high school students. He stopped teaching the course because he felt he wasn’t reaching the students soon enough.
He tried out the course - and his magic tricks - on pupils in Kleckner’s gifted and talented program last year. The course was so well-received that he expanded it this year to include all of the fifth-graders at Kleckner.
“We need to focus on the developing years,” he said. “If we get them interested in this idea now, they’re going to work on it along the way.”
Judy Lancaster, the mother of one of Yoho’s pupils, said her 11-year-old pays more attention to how his money is spent since taking Yoho’s class. She pointed to his recent decision to delay the purchase of a pog (for those who aren’t parents of preteens, pogs are sort of like tiddlywinks, only much, much cooler).
“My husband took him to the store and he saw one that was a quarter,” she said. “He said, ‘That isn’t a good way to use my money.”’
Other financial experts said it’s unusual to teach financial planning to elementary-school pupils but added that it’s never too soon to learn how to budget and save.
“Young people, on a level without precedent, are being targeted specifically by product manufacturers and service providers as direct targets for spendable dollars,” said Richard Paul, director of education for the National Center for Financial Education in San Diego.
Barbara Steinmetz, president of the San Francisco chapter of the International Association for Financial Planners, concurred.
“There’s nothing wrong with teaching kids their dollars will be worth less unless you do something to make them work now,” she said. “If we could get at them younger we would have a lot more responsible adults out there.”
xxxx If they can count, they can save Here are some ways to help kids manage their own money: Start early. As soon as your children are old enough to count, begin teaching them the value of saving. Tell your kids that a portion of their allowance must be saved. Discuss advertisements with your children. Help them learn to distinguish between truth and hype. When your children see you use a credit card, make sure they understand how those instruments work. Explain the difference between using a credit card and writing a check. Talk to them about how much things cost. For more information, send a self-addressed, stamped, businesssize envelope to: 18 Ways to Teach Your Children the Value of Money, National Center for Financial Education, P.O. Box 34070, San Diego, Calif. 92163.