My first time teaching financial education was an experience that I will never forget. The class was an 8th grade middle school class and the topic was Budgeting. While I had been a student almost all my life, I had never presented in front of a class for more than 15 minutes – and that was my senior thesis. While I had my worries, I was able to reduce my anxiety by prepping a detailed lesson plan.
When I walked into the classroom the students were really happy to see me. First, I explained the purpose of our financial literacy program, why I was there, and the topics we would be covering. I waited for the class to fill, the teacher introduced me and I started following my lesson plan.
In the spirit of my favorite college professor, the first part of my lesson was to tell a joke. I wanted to show the students that I was fun. As it was supposed to be told the joke should have been as follows:
“A man walking along a road in the countryside comes across a shepherd and a huge flock of sheep. He tells the shepherd, ‘I will bet you $100 against one of your sheep that I can tell you the exact number in this flock.’ The shepherd thinks it over; it’s a big flock so he takes the bet. ‘973,’ says the man. The shepherd is astonished, because that is exactly right. Says ‘OK, I’m a man of my word, take an animal.’ The man picks one up and begins to walk away.
‘Wait,’ cries the shepherd, ‘Let me have a chance to get even. Double or nothing that I can guess your exact occupation.’ The man says sure. ‘You are an economist for a government think tank,’ says the shepherd. ‘Amazing!’ responds the man, ‘You are exactly right! But tell me, how did you deduce that?’
“Well,” says the shepherd, “put down my dog and I will tell you.’”
I completely butchered it by half giving away the punch the line and the only person who laughed was the teacher. The students somewhat laughed after the teacher let out a sarcastic laugh. Read next week to find out more…
