Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1917 — Teaching Your Child the Value of Money Through Experience [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Teaching Your Child the Value of Money Through Experience

By SIDONIE M. GRUENBERG.

In his “Children’s Story-Sermons” the Rev. Dr. Hugh T. Kerr tells the following story: One morning when Bradley came down to breakfast he put on his mother’s plate a little piece of paper, neatly folded. His mother opened it. She could hardly believe it, but this what Bradley had written: “Motherowesßradley = ===== For running errands .$0.25 For being good lo For taking music lessonsls Extras Total ~.. • .$0.55 His mother smiled, but did not say anything, and when lunch time came she placed the bill on Bradley’s plate with 55 cents. Bradley’s eyes fairly danced when he saw the money and thought his business ability had been quickly rewarded, but with the money there was another- Urtle bill, which read like this: g - Bradley owes mother For being good. ..SO.OO I’or nursing him through his long Alness with scarlet fever... .00 For clothes, shoes, gloves and (playthings ••••:• For all his. meals and his beautiful* room .00 Tears came into Bradley’s eyes, and he put his arms around his mother’s neck, put his little hand with the 55 cents in hers, and said: “Take the money all back, mamma, and let me love you and do things for you.” The homes of this country are frill of Bradleys who know nothing of rights and duties as related to money. And how should they know, never having learned? Among the children of

the poor there usually develops rather early in life a keen appreciation of the value of money. Whatever money there is is quickly spent, and comes to represent pretty definitely the necessities and the luxuries of life. A nickel means'; a loaf of bread and a penny means a stick of candy. Money is hard to get and good to have, and without it there is privation and misery. On the other hand, in the homes of the well-to-do and in the country, where comparatively little cash is handled, the opportunity to become acquainted with the sources and properties of mor Ay' are comparatively narrow. Here people somehow have what they need, and no special effort or hardship is associated with getting these things. Money plays so important a role in modern life that we are apt to take It for granted without thinking especially of teaching children what they should understand of the matter. Children should learn these things definitely and practically, beginning as soon as they are old enough to appreciate relative values. .A child’ can begin by buying things {or the household when he is able to distinguish the coins and count up the amounts. The age for this will, of course, vary with different children. In households that do not manifest through their activities and conversation the methods by which the family Income Is obtained children should be explicitly informed on the Subject. It is not only embarrassing to the child to display his ignorance when comparing notes with other children, but it is a necessary part of his understanding of the world to know just how people obtain the precious tokens; by means of -which they secure all their necessb ties and luxuries.