Teaching through money

An article from the British Museum draws the attention of education professionals to the pedagogical potential of teaching through money. It reflects on how all education cycles can use historical collections of banknotes and coins, or other payment systems, to understand historical processes, the world we have inherited, the one we live in and the one we want to build for the future.

Considering the learning experiences that take place in museums, the article is also a good starting point for its implementation in a formal education context.

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE:

Article “Creating an appreciation of money: Contextualised financial education through monetary collections”, by Mieka Harris, available at: http://icomon.mini.icom.museum/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/12/Creating_an_appreciation_of_money.pdf

In 2012, under the international PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) project, the OECD conducted the first financial literacy assessment of secondary school students. This resource results from the research and questionnaire developed for this assessment. These are the three questions that are deemed to be key to measure how well young people (and all of us!) are prepared to make informed and responsible financial decisions throughout their lives.

Adapted from articles by Annamaria Lusardi, Academic Director of the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center.

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES:

“Three questions to measure financial literacy”, available at: https://gflec.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/3-Questions-Article2.pdf (PDF) (in English)

and “The big three financial literacy questions” (PDF) (in Portuguese)

Do you know what a piggy bank is used for? Have you got one?

If you know but don’t have one yet, maybe it’s time. Find out the origin of the Portuguese word mealheiro (piggy bank) or why the most typical piggy banks are pig-shaped. And also, how to make one!

The word mealheiro comes from the first Portuguese coins: dinheiros. When someone needed half the value of 1 dinheiro, they cut the coin in half. Those halves were called mealhas! And the word mealha gave origin to the word mealheiro (piggy bank). The old terracotta piggy bank is like a small safe, which originally had no key or code, like some we have at home. In the past, to get coins out of a piggy bank, we had to smash it!

No one knows for sure, but pig-shaped piggy banks originated from Germany and England about 300 years ago. In England, mealheiro is called piggy-bank. But why the shape of a pig? Because this animal and its meat were and still are essential to some cultures, as a source of food, and as such they hold a lot of value.

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES:

“How to make a piggy bank” (PDF) (in Portuguese)

“Financial education - Booklet 1” (PDF), available at: https://www.todoscontam.pt/sites/default/files/SiteCollectionDocuments/CadernoEducaoFinanceira1.pdf (in Portuguese)