Raising a little philanthropist sounds so great in theory. But in practice? I can't quite figure out how to get it going.
I could do what parents did when I was growing up, which was to tell their kids exactly how much of their allowance to turn over to the church. But where's the lesson? The lifelong habit? We don't want charitable giving to be motivated from guilt, right? And where should the money go? Do kids get the concept of others in need?
Emily Bazelon, a writer for Slate, watched her sons get involved in charity -- one of them raising money to save an ophaned elephant in Kenya that had fallen down a well. She asks whether it wouldn't have been more relevant to raise money on behalf of orphans -- actual human ones -- in their hometown, Washington, D.C.
She concludes, with the help of David Owen, author of The First National Bank of Dad,
a book on teaching kids about money, that the opportunity to give is more important than who the actual beneficiary is.
She writes:
Owen argues that "when
parents require their children to give away a certain amount of money
every week or every month, the parents are really just craftily
confiscating what they believe to be excess resources." He thinks that
young kids, especially, have a natural interest in giving, and that if
they see you do it, they'll follow along unbidden.
OK, that makes sense. Bazelon also notes peer pressure in her older son's pursuit to save the elephant. Once his classmates were on board they each made items to sell. And it was fun. If he had to act alone, he might have felt less motivated -- or completely overwhelmed.
Both her sons' philanthropic acts have come through organized efforts. But I'd like some other ideas. Do you teach your young kids about giving? If so, how? And for what? What about the kids who don't want to share their money. Do you force them?
Am I really going to have to take a class?
