BLUE CHIP LEMONADE
An overview of the Finance-Economics program from Class 1 to 12
Occasionally as I lie awake in the wee small hours, my mind fixates on some minor cash-flow problem. Soon the black dog of depression enters my gloom-induced fantasy and chases me through the thickets of illusion. Here I imagine that the collapse of my financial security is imminent, and bankruptcy right around the corner; to be followed by a tumble into the abyss of destitution, abject poverty – and finally starvation! All this in spite of the fact that I have never missed a meal, or been unable to provide clothing and shelter for my family. This river of confidence carries the Steiner Money Education boat safely from childhood to senior adolescence.
We first make a distinction between the natural handling of money in childhood, to the formal learning aboutit. All references henceforth relate to the latter. Rudolf Steiner recommended the 8th year for an introductory teaching unit on money. He did this in the context of Class Two Shop. Here the facts and figures associated with handling and calculating money are learned in a practical setting. This is the age when most children request – and most parents provide – pocket money. To instill work ethic values, this payment should always be for some service or other, like taking the bin out.
The needs of children to engage in some way in the world of commerce seems to be born at this age. This also manifests in the child’s incipient business enterprise, the ‘lemonade stall’ syndrome. In Charley Brown it was the Psychiatric Counseling stall! The Money Lesson Shop, providing morning tea, bric-a-brac, whatever, must succeed – or be seen to at least. It would be an educational travesty to program failure into a child’s seminal entrepreneurial soul.
The ‘shop’ might even include a ‘thon’, as in a walkathon – but not a walkathon! It is admirable for children to raise money, ideally in the spirit of philanthropy, by exerting effort for sponsorship, but to compound the value of the exercise, the effort should have some meaning; not pointless walking, but weeding gardens for the elderly, or making toys for disadvantaged children, and so on. With such a ‘Gardenthon’ or ‘Toyathon’, everyone’s a winner.
A more academic enlightenment in money education occurs in Grade 5, when 11-year-olds enjoy their Finance 3-week (30 hours) unit. This has a strong historical emphasis, where the evolution of commerce in general, and money in particular, is canvassed. (All the lessons skated across there can be found in detail in my six maths books – Class 1 to 12.)
The biography of money in Australia is especially interesting to his age group. During the early years of colonization, there was almost no money at all; barter being the main currency of the time. The first official money was Spanish dollars, followed by Sterling, with a purely Australian denomination having to wait until Federation. Of course there were other currencies, like rum. Sydney Hospital was known as the Rum Hospital, due to being paid for by the sailors’ ambrosia. Later there was the glittering universal currency dug out of the ground during the goldrush.
Indeed the history of civilization and that of the world’s gold are curiously parallel. The children love to follow the path of gold from the first recorded hoard, King Solomon’s Mines, through Egypt, Greece, Spain – and all the way to Fort Knox.
In Grade 7 we move from Finance to Economics. In the Steiner ordering of primary/high, 13-year-olds are – like Queensland – in the last year of primary; hence still open to a pictorial approach to formal subjects. This is aided by theme; how informative and fun it is to invent, say on a maritime theme, a different boat for each economic phenomenon. Inflation might be an inflatable rubber raft, which is not only difficult to steer, but could even explode!
Wages could be a busy tugboat, commodities a container ship. And what about the economic intangibles, like confidence and theft! A seaplane and a pirate ship respectively! These images and their attendant artistic expression (drawings, songs, drama, poetry) are not mere amusing diversions, they are the vehicles which carry the intellectual content. Much enlivened discovery can result in the inflation implications above; too much results in higher interest rates, a wage chase, rising unemployment – and even the sighting of Submarine Depression’s sinister periscope!
‘Poetry’ in a maths lesson?! Many calculations can be recalled with a simple verse. This provides a rhythmic memory the same as “Thirty days hath September”. Here’s one on interest calculation:
To calculate our interest, this is all we have to do,
Change percentage to a fraction, then beside,
Put the money over 1 (yes, that’s a fraction too)
Multiply them both together, and divide!
The High School Finance Stream comprises one 30-hour unit per year. We begin with Personal Finance, when the 14-year-old is exposed to the whole range of money obligations and opportunities of later adulthood. These include making a budget, cash-flow projections, assets and liabilities (even at this tender age they are often surprised to find they are worth more than they think – financially at least).
Then there is tax, home buying, and income resources – and what about the many fraud minefields awaiting them – and if they manage to avoid these, the making of a will.
From Personal Finance to Small Business in Grade 9. Here they research the responsibility-risk factor in earning a living by building their own, or working in, a small business. Then there is credit, borrowing, employment, management, and more.
This unit expands into the world of Economics in Grade 10, including running everything from a local club to a whole country. Government budgets come under scrutiny here, as well as comparisons between private and public sector influences on national financial well-being. Australia is the 13th largest economy on earth, beaten by 11 other countries … 11? The 12th is a private company, the mega-monster Microsoft!
In Grade 11 we have a unit on Accountancy, beginning with an historical overview of the trading records of the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Chinese. This is really the Business Principles lesson from my own 1950s schooling. This unit also explores the catacombs of corporate structure and constitutions.
In Grade 12 we cross our financial threshold into life with a unit on Investment. Here we range widely from actually aiding students in investing a small sum in shares, to comparing the many high risk/high return and vice versa options. A far cry from the lemonade stall! This could be called the Gambling Lesson, as all investment is punting of a kind. After all, the most respectable investment is in “blue chip” stocks, a word deriving from the gaming table.
Investment means “to clothe”, our goal in Steiner education is to invest our teaching of money with a mantle of morality. Not just profitable investment, but trusting our money to worthwhile ventures – rainforest regeneration rather than wood chipping. Our sacred task is to leave the world a better place than we found.
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