Digging in

They say baseball is the most difficult sport and hitting a major league pitcher the most difficult task in sports. With less than a second to react to a pitch, a hitter often must guess in advance what's coming based on a series of recent and past experiences and then execute. Even when hitters know what's coming they can't always get a hit, never mind make contact.

In teaching or writing about financial education I constantly feel like I'm swinging at curveballs that the catcher has already told me are coming, but to no avail. I know what approach doesn't work (the approach most authors have taken of presenting the material in textbook-like fashion with bold print words and no kids or animals). The search for what does work, on the other hand, has eluded me.

The authors of Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much recommend not teaching someone something till they know the students will have to use it. They find short-term memory to be stronger than long-term.

Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers: The Story of Success finds that someone doesn't attain the proficiency of an expert until they've logged 10,000 hours in a subject or career. Here, repeated experience is king.

The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right by Atul Gawande proclaims that checklists are the answer to complicated problem solving.

We do not all have the time, the interest, nor the opportunities to all become financial advisors for five years. Nor does cramming before April 15th going to help us do better on our taxes every year. Checklists are certainly helpful, but when we don't know exactly what makes up a credit score or what creditors/lenders are looking for, they cannot assure success.

How then do you teach the subject so that it sticks? As I wrote about in my last post, Nobel Prize Winner Daniel Kahneman, in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, found a light at the end of the tunnel in:

Subjects' unwillingness to deduce the particular from the general was matched only by their willingness to infer the general from the particular.

This is very helpful and easily adopted. And this is why the children's content I will most likely produce in the coming months will neither look, nor smell like financial education. Rather, it will use comedy to display the biases and heuristics we all use unknowingly everyday to our own detriment.

Batter up. Digging in.

Heartened

"For teachers of psychology, the implications of this study are disheartening. When we teach our students about the behavior of people in the helping experiment, we expect them to learn something they had not known before; we wish to change how they think about people's behavior in a particular situation. This goal was not accomplished in the Nisbett-Borgida study, and there is no reason to believe that the results would have been different if they had chosen another surprising psychological experiment."

So wrote the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize winner in Economic Sciences, Daniel Kahneman, professor emeritus of psychology and public affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School, in his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011).

In light of my recent work teaching children about personal finance, I too am disheartened. That is, till I read on.

Nisbett and Borgida went back to the drawing board and came back with this conclusion:

Subjects' unwillingness to deduce the particular from the general was matched only by their willingness to infer the general from the particular.

Or, as Kahneman explains, "The test of learning psychology is whether your understanding of situations you encounter has changed, not whether you have learned a new fact. There is a deep gap between our thinking about statistics and our thinking about individual cases...You are more likely to learn something by finding surprises in your own behavior than by hearing surprising facts about people in general." 

This is encouraging for two reasons. First, it supports my belief that the majority of children's books written on personal finance, despite their preponderance of facts and bold print words, are falling on deaf ears. Kids, hell, all of us, need a more personal story that we can identify with. In other words, there is a place for the series of kids' books that I'm working on.

Second, it paves a way for how to teach financial education in the classroom. While the kids have occasionally oohed and aahed at the cost of college or the price of a home, these facts alone will not establish good financial habits and behavior. They simply map out markets for the kids to refer to in the future. While this is important, it is not the focus of the class. The focus is to establish good financial habits and behavior. Personal stories of kids like them have the power to give the message staying power.

This semester I have focused on drawing parallels to school, an environment the kids are familiar with. Next semester I'll focus more on eliciting personal stories from the kids and using those stories to make points about personal finance. That is one of a few key changes I plan on making. 

The Lingo

Within the next ten years the six to nine year olds I work with in the Get Cheddar Club will be formally introduced to Shakespeare, the U.S. Constitution, DNA and Darwinism. Unfortunately, I have done their future teachers a disservice.

In an attempt to introduce the kids to confusing and confounding financial language, I primed them with lines from the not-always-easy-to-understand movers and shakers mentioned above (as well as Thomas Hardy's pithy line, "Some folk want their luck buttered.") in a drive-by intro.

As in previous classes I drew a parallel to their experiences in school.

"Who wants to get good grades in school?"

They all raised their hands high to the question. They all then did their best to read words and ideas severely unfamiliar to them. And they all plead guilty to not understanding what they had read. Bless their hearts.

How much, I asked, would you bet that you'd get an A on what you just read? A little or a lot? I then waited for them to reply: a little.

"A lot!!!" they all answered.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah!"

I had a feeling this was a conditioned answer, one based on confidence and expectations. I then walked them through their options. Eventually they changed their minds to a little.

"Who wants to own their own home?"

Again hands shot up in the air.

"Well then, you'll have to read this." My assistant and I then handed out sample mortgages to all the kids.

"Elena, please read the first paragraph."

Elena did so, battling through the legalese, but as she did the others skimmed the material and quickly decided they had had enough for one day, especially if no one was going to butter their mortgages never mind their luck.

I then rephrased my earlier question.

"If you don't understand this, would you sign it?"

"No!!!" they responded loudly.

"Why?"

Now I had conditioned them to answer no. Their reasons for not signing didn't quite add up. They didn't quite understand the danger of signing something they didn't understand. And this is where the chorus to the day's song came in handy:

If I don't get it,

you don't get it.

In other words, "If I don't understand, you don't get my money." They ate that up. It has attitude especially when sang three times, each time louder than the time before. In fact, it got going so good that one little boy in class outdid my conducting by introducing a little MC Hammer touch with a, "Stop!" His classmates adopted that immediately. 

While they may bristle at reading Othello or their biology textbook in high school, I can only hope when posed with a difficult financial document to sign that they remember that chorus and ask questions or walk away. Leading up to the financial crisis of 2008, too many people signed mortgages that they didn't understand out of fear of looking like a fool or weak in front of a loan officer, their spouse or their neighbor. And too many feared questioning the financial products they sold and didn't understand.

They didn't get it, and we all ended up getting it alright. 

The Rub

Shortly after teaching a class on the marshmallow experiment, I heard back from the American Psychological Association (APA) about my children's book on the subject. Unfortunately, the APA did not accept Cookie-Wise Pablo for publication. Among other reasons for rejection, the APA cited new research on the experiment.

Findings from the new research are interesting. First, they ran the experiment differently. Before the experiment even began the kids had an encounter with an adult. One adult offered to bring the kid art supplies and flaked on the promise. The other adult came through on the promise.

According to the experimenters' abstract, here is what they found:

Children in the reliable condition waited significantly longer than those in the unreliable condition (p < 0.0005), suggesting that children’s wait-times reflected reasoned beliefs about whether waiting would ultimately pay off. Thus, wait-times on sustained delay-of-gratification tasks (e.g., the marshmallow task) may not only reflect differences in self-control abilities, but also beliefs about the stability of the world.

Fascinating stuff that totally makes sense, right?

To a certain extent, yes. But there are holes or, at least, questions remaining.

It makes sense that this may not wholly be a question of nature or nurture. After all, how often does that happen? It makes sense that the answer may be a combination of the two.

It also makes sense that children in the reliable condition waited significantly longer for the second marshmallow. They just had a reliable encounter and may, in general, have more reliable encounters than unreliable ones. But some children in the reliable condition still did not make it to the second marshmallow. Why? Maybe because they, in general, have more unreliable encounters than reliable ones making a reliable one an aberration.

Or, maybe the kids in the reliable condition that did not make it to the second marshmallow do not have the skills or good habits to successfully delay gratification. These kids can benefit from a book where the protagonist builds these skills and habits.

And what about the kids in the unreliable condition? Are they right to eat the first marshmallow immediately? When the person offering the marshmallow is unreliable, yes. But what about when the person is reliable? If the person is reliable and the kids eat the first marshmallow they have just lost out on a second. In this case the kid who had the unreliable experience is performing a knee-jerk reaction and is not weighing the new offer on the substantiated merits of the person making the offer (unless the person who flaked earlier and the person who offered them the marshmallow are one and the same).

As my prior research has shown, the cities in the U.S. with the highest average credit scores are those in the upper-midwest (Wausau, WI, Minneapolis, MN, Madison, WI, Cedar Rapids, IA). Areas with low incarceration rates and knowledge handed down over generations among people with good habits. In other words, these are the kids who have reliable encounters and who believe they will be rewarded for waiting for the second marshmallow.

Cities in the U.S. with the lowest average credit scores are found in south Texas (Harlingen, Corpus Christi), Mississippi (Jackson) and Louisiana (Shreveport, Monroe) and are, in general, minority-majority communities. Cities with higher rates of incarceration that make it difficult to hand down knowledge from one generation to the next. In other words, these are the kids who have unreliable encounters and who do not wait for the second marshmallow because they do not believe it will ever come. I don't blame these kids for eating the first marshmallow, but there's more to the story.

Not trusting one's father or neighbor is one thing. Not trusting (bear with me on this one) the rule of law and its ability to safeguard consumers from merchants is something else. Then again, as a minority why should you trust the rule of law if it only persists in putting you in jail? Or if, as is well-documented, the law is not equitably executed and you are taken advantage of by banks and their egregious lending rates to minorities? And there's the rub.

As I've learned capitalism is based on trust. If there is no trust, there is no trade as consumers doubt the products merchants sell and merchants doubt consumers' ability to pay. Part of establishing trust is a properly functioning rule of law that protects consumers and merchants. Without an equitable execution of that rule of law, trust breaks down among those who find themselves on the short end, in this case, those who have more unreliable encounters than reliable ones.

For as much as I believe in a book's ability to fill knowledge gaps left by broken families and unreliable individuals or communities, it would be disingenuous of me to portray a minority waiting for a second marshmallow when that does not line up with their reality.

Back to the drawing board.

Cookie Monsters

The most recent meeting of the Get Cheddar Club focused on the Marshmallow Experiment. The experiment first started at Stanford University in the 1960s. Over the years, Dr. Walter Mischel, the experiment's founder and Stanford psychology professor, followed those who participated in the experiment and either successfully waited for the second marshmallow or who caved and ate the first.

Mischel found that those who waited for the second marshmallow did better in school and were better stewards of their finances among other positive attributes. Mischel also found that those who could not wait for the second marshmallow and simply ate the one in front of them did worse in school and that they became poorer caretakers of their money over time.

A lot has been written about the experiment over the years for better or for worse. A 2010 WNYC report called it a greater predictor of future behavior and success than any standardized test. Others have shot holes in it claiming the ability to delay gratification is as much about nurture as nature.

In 2012, New York Times investigative reporter Charles Duhigg published The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. While Duhigg goes on to cite studies that liken willpower to a muscle that can tire after repeated use, I latched on to the successful habit of the children who passed the marshmallow test. When faced with temptation, they knew how to distract themselves. The least I can do for my students is to introduce them to this good habit.

It's easy to tell kids and people to wait for the second marshmallow, but it's rarely that easy to see through.

Putting the Get Cheddar Club through the marshmallow experiment was a fascinating chance to observe human nature first hand.

In front of each student I placed a Famous Amos chocolate chip cookie. I then asked if they wanted two cookies. The class resoundingly said yes. Then the bad news: They could not have the second cookie till Ms. Hannah, my assistant, returned. If they ate the cookie before them, no second cookie. They moaned.

How long will Ms Hannah be away? they asked.

I don't know, I said. It could be five minutes, it could be fifteen.

They groaned.

For good measure I put a cookie in front of myself as well. The kids got a kick out of that. Ms. Hannah then left the room.

Some kids quickly pushed the cookie away from them. Others covered the cookie up with pieces of paper on their desk. A few averted their eyes or hid the cookie from view behind fingers.

Fortunately for them, I couldn't afford to spend 15 minutes of class waiting for someone to crack. So I gave in and devoured my cookie. When Hannah returned she gave me the hairy eyeball and asked me why I did it.

I just couldn't take it anymore, I said. That I felt the room getting hotter. That I couldn't take the pressure of such sweet temptation right before me. That I could not think of anything else.

I then took the kids outside where we worked on a new song and dance routine and played on the playground. Halfway through I asked them, are you thinking about the cookie?

No! they shouted as they played on the swings or slid down the slide.

We then discussed ways to avoid temptation such as going for a walk, reading a book, and playing.

Eventually a kid asked me, what does this have to do with money?

I then drew a parallel between sparing your first cookie to earn a second with putting a dollar in a savings account and waiting for it to become two.

I was proud of the kids' ability to distract themselves from cookie temptation, but know if they had been alone for a longer period of time the results may have been different. Hopefully they'll learn from my acting job rather than make the mistake themselves down the road.

Monsters & Externalities

In economics, an externality is a secondary or unintended consequence. Pollution is the classic example. People build a factory that will employ many and up the area's tax base. Pollution from the factory or the traffic it will bring are externalities.

As a teacher of financial education, I ran into my first in-class externality the other day. To give kids a better feel for the weight of debt and how it can limit one's movements, I started giving out golf balls to kids who fell behind in "paying their bills", i.e., bringing in pieces of paper from the previous class. This time a handful of students deserved four golf balls. Those who had paid all their bills deserved zero golf balls.

The externalities immediately followed.

First, kids who received golf balls accepted them as gifts, not punishments. They bounced the balls, they rolled them, they had a grand old time with them.

Second, the kids who did not receive golf balls wondered why they were being punished. They wanted fun and bouncy golf balls to play with. I couldn't blame them.

Long story short, golf balls are out. I have nine days to come up with a more appropriate alternative.

The rest of the class was a hodgepodge of highs and lows. The kids did an excellent job of remembering the first two songs and dances we had come up with weeks before, but then struggled to get through this week's despite enjoying acting like Big Scary Number monsters. The lyric "crazy scary" especially eluded them. In the end they pulled it together for a spirited on-camera performance.

Parents will attend next class. This gives us an opportunity to show off what the kids have learned and to expose the parents to our version of the Marshmallow Test...the Cupcake Test.

The Big Scary Number

Have you ever heard of a monster that grows exponentially when it isn't fed? Of a monster that towers over its victims, terrorizing them day and night so they can't sleep till their hair falls out and they become crazed?

With Halloween coming up, this is a good time to introduce kids to the idea of debt, specifically debt from credit cards and payday loans or overnight lenders. Accumulating debt is a monster, a Big Scary Number monster. Credit card companies can charge up to 25% in interest; payday loans or overnight lenders charge up to 650%. Scary numbers indeed.

Credit cards have a Jekyll and Hyde nature. They can be good, but they also have a dark side. Credit cards can cover short-term costs, but if those costs aren't covered immediately and in full they can double in a few months.

Payday loans and overnight lenders are a whole other breed of monster. People who seek to put out fires right before them and have no other alternatives often turn to these loans to extinguish kitchen fire-sized conflagrations only to set their whole homes ablaze.

How will I present these monsters to my class of six to nine year olds? Putting ballooning financial figures on a board is big, but it isn't scary. Monsters are big and scary. To address this, I'll speak their language. People like to tell kids how fast they are growing. Well, debt grows exponentially faster than kids. A foot tall overnight loan monster is 6'6" by the next paycheck. After that, the monster grows to 42 feet tall before exploding to 253' tall. The Incredible Hulk has nothing on the Big Scary Number.

Worse, these growing monsters not only wreck wallets and credit scores, they wear people down through financial stress. Financial stress impacts both physical and mental health. According to the American Psychological Association, 53% of respondents reported fatigue, 60% feelings of irritability or anger, and 52% lying awake at night in 2008. People also noted symptoms of lack of motivation, feeling depressed or sad, headaches and muscular tension. Physically,

Almost half of Americans (48 percent) reported overeating or eating unhealthy foods to manage stress, while one in four skipped a meal in the last month because of stress. Women were more likely than men to report unhealthy behaviors to manage stress like eating poorly (56 versus 40 percent), shopping (25 versus 11 percent), or napping (43 versus 32 percent). Almost one-fifth of Americans report drinking alcohol to manage their stress (18 percent), and 16 percent report smoking.

Hopefully, I can introduce the kids to this monster before it creeps up on them later in life.

Of Golf Balls, Budgets & Failure

"Is it easy to dance with your pockets full of golf balls?"

I asked that question to those in the Get Cheddar Club who had forgotten to bring in their "bills" from last class. They had just fallen behind their classmates in building up their credit scores and were given their first feel of debt.

They shook their heads.

"Are the golf balls heavy or light?"

"Light!" they answered.

"That's true," I responded. "But if you keep forgetting to pay your bills I will keep giving you golf balls."

Needless to say, there are no golfers in the class.

"Is it easy to dance with your pockets full of golf balls?"

"And that's what debt feels like. It holds you down. It feels heavy. It makes you feel like you can't do things." Yeah, I keep this class real light.

We then transitioned to the topic of the day: budgets.

I asked them what their parents spent money on. The kids hit six or seven of the eight areas I wanted to address including:

-rent/mortgage
-food
-health (insurance)
-communications (phones, internet)
-transportation (car, bus, etc)
-entertainment

I supplemented their responses with savings and credit cards. One little girl did a nice job of explaining why savings was important in the short-term. I followed her general point up with a specific example.

"How many of your parents have had car problems in the last month?"

Half the class raised their hands.

"Didn't expect that to happen, did you?"

They all shook their heads.

"What about trips to the doctor? Or a relative unexpectedly staying with you for a while? Are these unexpected events free?"

"No!"

We then tied together the expenses affiliated with a budget back into credit scores with the verse:

Pay comes in,

Bills go out.

Keep the lights on

rock 850 out!

Lastly, we've started a tally to chart their credit scores - for better or for worse. I want these kids to see how they are doing the same way they can feel debt weigh them down. If they hit 850, awesome. If they come in at 450, so be it. I would rather see them fail now than later when it's a question of real money.

At the end of the class a teacher told me there was little chance that they would remember to bring in their pieces of paper in two weeks; that they should leave them in the classroom for next time. I thanked her for her suggestion and I declined. That's not how the real world works. The point is for them to remember and to be rewarded for remembering; that's what credit rating agencies do. Sure, automatic bill pay exists, but I'd rather make it hard on them now so the alternative looks easy later.

The Get Cheddar Club will next work on The Big Scary Number, debt, how it grows exponentially and how to avoid its long, dark shadow.

Budget Talks with Six Year Olds

Budget talks in Congress always seem to come down to the eleventh hour, involve the occasional threat and, lately, have even dragged Dr Seuss in. Talking budgets with six year olds by contrast? If nothing else, they should be in bed by 11.

The second meeting of the Get Cheddar Club this Friday will focus on budgets. Specifically, we'll address what they are, how they work and why they're important.

We'll spend most of our time talking about what the kids can expect to have as monthly expenses. I want to dispel the myth that everything they earn goes to fun early on. Fun is a part of one's budget yes, but it's not the entire budget.

Like last time, I'll work to build their vocabulary and to draw a financial map in their minds that they can refer to. Traveling somewhere new without a map can be frustrating. Sure, there may be some unexpected and memorable adventures, but when it comes to finances, chances are leaving the house unprepared for the road ahead will leave one short of one's desired destination.

We'll then tie our discussion of budgets back into credit scores, how they relate to each other and how sticking to one's budget will improve their credit score and help them to build up credit month by month.

Unlike last class I will come prepared with a song for the kids to sing. Asking them to come up with one on their own fell flat on its face. Letting them come up with their own dance moves, on the other hand, worked like a charm. I'll also break up the class with more activities for the kids (quick drawings to break up the talking, some Q&A), introduce the lines of the song, and ask for corresponding dance moves earlier and more often. This should keep them more engaged.

As always, I look forward to hearing what the kids have to say, seeing which material works, which does not, and what I can improve on for next time.

Fool

Confession: When I learned "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes," as a kid I didn't know what I was doing. I just followed my teacher and, when in doubt, cheated by sneaking a peak at the other kids. In time, I learned that those words corresponded to parts of my body.

Last Friday I introduced the idea of credit scores to six to nine year olds. We started by drawing a parallel to the grades they got in school and how an A brought a smiley face and how an F brought a sad face which they drew on strips of paper. It progressed into the a good credit score will make college tuition and home ownership more affordable while poor credit will make it more expensive. It culminated in the following song with corresponding dance moves:

Don't be a fool,

pay on time.

Get 850

on your credit score line.

As a teacher who assisted in the class told me afterward, "They didn't understand most of that." 

That's fine. They probably didn't understand "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes" the first time they did it either. But it built a connection between words, objects and actions. And each time they did it it made more sense.

Along the same lines I've planted a seed. I've introduced terms to their vocabulary that they wouldn't have otherwise learned till it was, perhaps, too late. Terms that I'll continue to use the rest of the fall. Terms that they will see in action as their in-class credit scores go up and down.

800 and You're The Mack

The Get Cheddar Club will meet six times between Friday, September 13th and early December. So there's only six times to impart the most important lessons about money that I can think of to a bunch of six to nine year olds.

I've decided to kick the Get Cheddar Club off with a song and dance about credit scores before moving into budgets. How do you teach six to nine year olds about credit scores? By drawing a parallel to grades in school. Assigning scores to grades does a couple things. It speaks the kids' school language and it lets them know what the range in scores are. Do you know what the range in scores are? I didn't as a kid or as a college student. Knowing what the range is gives the kids a starting point.

Learning the range of credit scores is one thing. Learning why they are important is another. School analogies help here too. If a student gets As, can we say there is little risk that the student will get all Fs? If a student gets all Fs, can we say there is a big risk that the student will not pass? Along the same lines, if I borrow $1 from a student and don't pay the student back, is there a big risk that I won't pay back other lenders? If a student borrows $1 from another student and pays it back the next day, is there little risk that in trusting that borrower again?

While I'd like to provide a detailed, cradle to the grave accounting of their lives, I need to keep their focus. I also don't want to overwhelm them right off the bat. So I'll ask two questions: Where do they want to go to college (the local state university or a noted private college) and where do they want to live (in their hometowns or a big city)? These are two big financial decisions that can impact the rest of their lives.

These goal are more attainable if they have good credit scores. Tuition and homeownership will cost less if they have good credit. The credit score song and dance combo will focus on:

1) Getting good credit by paying bills on time

2) Getting bad credit by paying bills late

3) Good credit keeps life less expensive

4) Bad credit makes life more expensive

In the first class I'll give each student a handful of brightly colored pieces of construction paper. They'll have to hand them in when class reconvenes in two weeks. If they do, their class credit score will improve. If they don't, it will get worse. I'll keep the scores up for all to see. Nothing like public shaming. As their credit scores change over the course of the class so will the price of their life on the big board.

The fun will come from how the kids understand these ideas and how they express themselves. It could be something such as, "600 lands a shack, 800 and you're the Mack." Using the language of grades will serve as a basic way for the kids to understand the terms, but at this age they're probably more worried about being cool and having fun than they are about their GPAs.


I'm curious what questions they'll ask and what lyrics and dance movies they'll come up with.

More Moves Than Kasparov

Despite stiff competition from the Juggling Club, the Get Cheddar Club got its name out among kids at the after-school center's Fair Day the other night.

Boys and girls, black, white and Hispanic, all came by to learn more and to graze on the candy bowl. I'll find out exactly how many students I'll have in a couple days. I'm hoping for a small group, say three to four kids. For a first time around, a small group will allow me to focus on the kids, what they have to say and how they react to the material. After this group, I'll have more experience and confidence to handle a larger group in the spring semester.

My interactions with kids didn't go quite as I'd predicted. They turned out rather shy and downplayed their dance moves while believing I had some. I did have the pleasure of watching a mother and son have the following exchange:

Me (to son): Do you like music?

Son (whispering): Yeah.

Me: Do you like to write songs?

Son shrugs.

Mother (to son): Come on now. We talked about this just the other day.

Son: Mom!

Me (to son): Do you like to dance?

Son looks down at the table.

Son: I guess.

Mom: I guess. Pssht.

Me (to son): You got some moves you can teach me?

Son unconvincingly shakes his head.

Mom: Son, please. You got more moves than Kasparov.

Son smiles.

OK, she didn't say that, but I wish she had.

Mom (to me): What is this club really about?

Me (to Mom, sottovoce): Financial education.

Mom nods and winks, but doesn't encourage him to sign up knowing a parent's recommendation is the kiss of death.

Up next: Teaching six to nine year olds about credit scores.

Foul Play at Fair Day

It's Fair Day at the local after-school center and tonight's my first and only opportunity to sweet talk first to third graders to sign up for the Get Cheddar Club.

First rule of the Get Cheddar Club, do not call it the Financial Education Club. Would you sign up for the Financial Education Club as a seven year old? Me neither.

Rule Two: Bribe potential students with candy. They may as well learn about competition, never mind the grey and black markets, at an early age.

Rule Three: Act the fool. Example:

Kid: The Get Cheddar Club? What's that about?

Me: It's about me teaching you my mad dope hip hop dance moves.

Kid: Pshht. Come on, man. You don't have any mad dope hip hop dance moves.

Me: OK, you're right. I don't. But I bet you do.

Kid: You know it.

Me: So how 'bout this. I teach you how to get cheddar and you teach me your mad dope hip hop dance moves.

Kid: Maybe.

Me: Holding out for more, eh? I like it. How about I teach you how to get cheddar and then we write a song, put your mad dope hip hop dance to it and then record a music video.

Kid: Now you're talking, fool.

Fist bump.

Predictions: I will come home with no candy, some good stories, and a few interested pupils. Will report back later on how it went and whether or not I successfully played the fool. I like my chances.

On The Good Foot

After writing about financial education for kids the past two years the act is now going into the classroom. Starting this fall I will try out the Hooey Savvy material on kids in the first to third grade every other Friday after school. This blog will follow the class. More bluntly, it will find out if this material works at all. If it doesn't, it will document my attempts to adapt it on the fly.

The first major hurdle is this Thursday evening when students pick which after school programs they want to participate in this fall. Traditionally, the most popular programs have been art and cooking. Deservedly so. Both programs allow the students to actively participate and to go home with something they've created in their hands or in their tummies.

How do I talk kids into learning about financial education without bribing them or telling them we're going to make counterfeit bills? By not making it primarily about money or education. No, this is about catchy lyrics and killer dance moves. Every class we'll come up with a song about a specific topic (week one is Move It Or Lose It, aka The Budget Dance), put dance moves to it and then record it for kicks.

Mistakes will be made this fall, but hopefully they'll be fun ones that we can brush off our shoulders and learn from to the make the material better for the next group.