#BTColumn – ‘Pig Money’

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

by Julia Hanschell

After last week’s article on, ‘Life’s Lemons’, I thought I would tell the sequel of how ‘Pig Money’ impacted my life and continues to change those of my students.

In the 1910s, my maternal grandparents lived on a plantation, when every estate was a sustainable community. They grew what they ate; the seasons and the generosity of neighbours dictating their diet. Any surplus from the kitchen garden, orchards or slaughtered livestock was sold and every penny was saved.

My grandmother, born into a merchant family, grew up understanding the power of investing savings rather than just placing a monthly pittance in the bank. Gradually she bought single shares in a publicly traded company, which slowly accumulated over decades and were inherited by my mother and eventually, by me.

Sound investment reaps rewards but there is almost certainly no instant return. It was these shares, that enabled me to further invest by buying premises for a school. ‘Pig money’ was the foundation of generational investment, born of example, sacrifice, savvy and patience.

‘Pig Money’ Lesson 1: vision requires a steady commitment and perseverance. ‘Rome was not built in a day’ but ‘all roads lead to’ it.

I may have inherited ‘Pig Money’, but my true inheritance was insight. One of the ways in which I share this is through insisting that primary students learn about entrepreneurship. You must start instilling ideas, that grow into opportunities, and becomes a mindset for business acumen that creates personal independence, as early as possible.

In Lower Secondary, I insist in students learning about investments and by Form 3, Economics, Business and Accounting.

One way to motivate students to read about the impact of global events is through an Investment App, where they ‘play the Stock Market’ and make connections between conflict and oil, new technology like crypto-currencies and the factors behind volatile stocks.  They are exposed to the challenges faced through the world trend to ‘go green’, its infrastructural cost and political resistance, in spite of social demand, and why investing in futures remains so risky.

Students may see the Investment App, (Investopaedia.com) as a game but the benefits behind the learning objective is profound. Discussion, discovery, collaboration and fun abound in every class. Investment classes encourage students to think in global terms and teach them the power of analysis through making connections with disparate information.

Barbados is a small cog in a global wheel; it will remain small forever if we do not ensure students understand the role they can play in changing the status quo through diversification.

‘Pig Money’ Lesson 2: diversification is key and schools must have an authentic plan to provide for “the future (which) is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.”

Learning is for life; tomorrow is closer than students think. It is going to require knowledge that is vastly different from any information they have been exposed to academically.

Children are smarter than we give them credit for and their tragic trend of disengaging from traditional education is because they want what schools here have not yet begun to offer.

Every generation of parents wants their children to achieve more than they did and suffer less hardship; this is natural. The question is: what are schools doing, in the twelve years we are teaching curriculum, to prepare students for buying into potential-fuelled, risk-welcomed, confidence-inspired, personal success?

The ‘Millennial mindset’ beautifully illustrates the evolution of the consciousness of all those under the age of forty. Those Gen X-ers (Millennials) born after 1981 have only twenty-five years before retirement, yet we are still preparing the Gen Zs for the 11+ exam and teaching CSEC curriculum, packed with archaic topics in outmoded formats.

‘Pig Money’ Lesson 3: if you do not plan for the next generation, you will leave them far worse off than yours was.

Enter opportunity costs; a concept those old time people instinctively understood. Simply, ‘the value of what you have to give up in order to choose something else; the value of the road not taken.’

Investments require personal involvement and nurturing; a lot like parenting and teaching.

As a parent, I recognised my investment came with a choice: I could either be my children’s friend when they were teenagers, unapologetically dispensing the tough love they needed (and being despised frequently) or being their friend when they inevitably became independent adults.

Too many parents make the mistake of giving for ease, favour or to meet the demands of peer-pressure, without uncompromising expectation, and end up raising dependent, entitled young adults. Weak seeds create a poor harvest.

Great teachers invest mind, body and soul into their students. We love great examination results but we understand all too well that ‘a man’s character defines his destiny’. We hope that parents will partner with us in laying the foundation for both.

Too often students live in a no-man’s-land of mixed messages. Every year I witness a greater disconnect between the parent-teacher relationship with children growing up knowing ‘the price of everything and the value of nothing.’

It is time we bring back the vision, and the action, of the ‘Pig Money’ generation.

Julia Hanschell can be contacted on smartstudying@gmail.com.