One of the activity done during TFN Fellowship.

1. Understanding the money
Documented by:-Shiv Kandel
Teach For Nepal Fellow (2014-2016)
Often times, when I stand in front of the class and deal with the question related to money (mostly in
arithmetic portion of Mathematics), I asked myself, what if they ask, ”What money is?” Do I have the
proper answer which explains the aspects associated with it? Is it necessary?
Then one day, I was on the way, to my home, after teaching my Grade 8 about the simple interest. I
stooped, and said this class should be taught something related to money, because
a) They had practiced doing business in school to learn profit and loss and earned Rs. 730.
b) They decided to open a Class Bank from the profit money of their food business which will
support their own class mates financially on a 2 % rate of interest.
And, given the two circumstances, I remembered someone saying, “Hit the iron when it is hot” and I
made a plan to go accordingly with the theme, “Understanding money”.
In the class, I started with a question, “What do people say about money?” And, among 14 students four
types of common responses were heard and they were:-
 पैसाले मान्छेलाई घमण्डी बनाउँछ । ( Money makes a person arrogant.)
 पैसा सबै थोक हो । ( Money is everything.)
 पैसा भएर पनन नहुने र नभए पनन नहुने । ( Money is both necessary and unnecessary)
 धेरै पैसा हुने बबत्तिकै धनी भइन्छ । ( To have more money is you are rich.)
After receiving the responses I randomly divided them into four groups, and assigned one sentence to
each. Students were asked to discuss on the agree and disagree about the sentence with proper
reasoning. And, at the end of 15 minutes, they were supposed to have a common understanding and
present that in an artistic way whether it can be a form of poem or story or song. One and only rule for

2. the activity was no one can be angry with the person who has the opposition thought. And, everything
went well. They discussed. Presented. And, at the end of the class, I assigned them to ask, “What money
is?” to any 5 peoples and collect the response!
I left class 8. I went to the staff which is next to Class 8. Their science teacher, Mr. Sumit Kharel entered
into the classroom. And, as he entered everyone were in such rush to ask his response. And, beautifully
and smartly with polite words Sumit, separated 5 minutes and assured them that they will get time to
discuss and they can ask their queries at the end of the class. I could hear all the conversation from the
next room. And they agreed.
That day they questioned every teacher who came to their classroom. Some answered and some
ignored. Some were complaining me that the students are asking question which is out of their subject
in the middle of the class randomly without the prior permission. And, hearing those talks from my
colleague friends sadden me. I felt there was still lacking to teach the “Value” about asking a question
and time. Again, the situation left me an opportunity to teach them on what was left untaught.
Another day came as a same old day but with different hope and lesion. I entered in the class. And,
checked if they have done their homework or not. Most of the responses were collected within the
school. When it was done, I shared which bothered me the other day. I brought the talks that they were
having the other day with their different subject teacher. I questioned about their behavior. I pointed on
what was not right in their classroom the previous day.
And, I left a question for a while, “Why asking time is important before putting a question to anyone?”
This time anyone was focused on their teachers. After the question, everyone was silent and was staring
to each other. Then I gave the reason, and some part of my talk is,
“हरेक शिक्षकले निमीहरुलाई पढाउँन आउँदा आफनै पाठ योजना बनाएर आएको हुन्छ । उनीहरुले ४५
शमनेटमा निमीहरुलाई के शसकाउँने भनेर छु टाएको हुन्छ । निमीहरुले नसोधधकन प्रश्नहरु गदाा उनीहरुको
योजना असफल हुन सक्छ । त्यसैले के ही बहहरी त्तिषयको बारेमा प्रश्न गदाा निमीहरुले उनीहरुसँग समय
शलनु पछा । उनीहरुको सहमिीमा निमीहरुले प्रश्न गदाा रा्ो उिर पाउँन सक्छौ । निमीहरुले प्रश्न गदाा
उनीहरुलाई पहहले त्यार गना समय हदनु पछा । “
I focused more on TIME in my tone. Gradually picking the context of “time” and “Asking a question”, I
build that interaction to the definition of money in developed countries. I shared what people talk about
money and time after seeing the culture of earning money in abroad. And, they say, Time is money!
Time is money because in most parts of the world people are paid on the hourly basis. The more they
work the more money they earn. To earn money people have respect for the time. An hour late means,
one has lost the opportunity to earn certain money.
I also forwarded my personal opinion about money, i.e. Money is a variable for the time being. Due to
uncertainty of life, the quantity of the money keep increasing and decreasing but the VALUE remains the
same. As our need and desire keeps shifting one do earn and spend accordingly.

3. I shared my experience on how I was paid hourly R.S. 50 per hour for my first job in Teach for Nepal, as
program assistant. The experience taught me both the value of MONEY and TIME.
While talking about MONEY and TIME, I connected the ongoing culture of doing everything late in
village. I forced them to analyze the data of a person who is 5 minutes late every day. If a person keeps
doing this for a month,
 How much time a person spent in wasting a time?
 I asked them to calculate, how many days are spent doing nothing?
 Have we ever imagined how much work we can do in that time?
 Have you ever thought how much money does foreign people earn in that time?
 Have we ever realized why are we still behind and poor country?
 What are we going to do with this all?
These bombarded questions left them with their mouth open and again brought the class in deep
silence. It gave me a hint that they had never thought that way. And, at the end , I concluded with a
statement, “To know what money is, first respect time and everything follows after that.”
After some days, the class demanded me to help in their DLE exam preparation. I had really tight time as
my energy was focused on the SLC preparation. I had to be at 8 a.m. in Grade 10. I had to prepare for my
food before 8 a.m. I have to prepare my lesion accordingly. I shared with them this all. And, as a class
they decided to be at 5 a.m. early in the morning for 2 hours. This was a too ambitious for me. I had to
wake up at 4 a.m. to be at the class at 5. Their ambition changed me and my habit of being lazy. I
couldn’t say NO! I could see the deep desire to learn and excel in exams in their eyes.
Later on I came to know that my students were too ambitious than I was. Some of them were waking at
2 a.m. and practicing the Maths question till 4:30 and coming fresh at 5. I have no idea if the later
conversation of MONEY and TIME helped them to manage time or not. But, it’s sure they are slowly
learning to manage the time. If this happens slowly but continuously their upcoming generation will
learn from them, as I always felt that to teach the values one has to live that first, after then everyone
will follow not immediately but slowly. This is the very proudest and inspiring moments. This moments
will be act as an engine and a soul guider for the life time.
Pulling back on a question, “What money is?”, here I share you the responses that were collected from
students and teachers which were shared in a class.
 पैसा िक्क्ि हो । (Money is power.)
 पैसाले आँट र आत्मत्तिश्िास बढाउँछ । ( Money boosts your courage and confidence.)
 पैसाले मनोरञ्जन गना शसकाउँछ । ( Money entertains you.)
 पैसाले अक्छछपन पनन बढाउँछ । ( Money makes you lazy.)
 पैसा मान र मयाादा पनन हो। ( Money is both respect and prestige.)
 पैसा आका षण पनन हो । ( Money is an attraction.)

4.  माननस ठु लो मनले हुन्छ पैसाले हुँदैन । ( A person Is great by his heart not by money.)
 पैसालाई बुझ्ने दृक्णणकोण अनुभिमा भर पछा । ( To perceive money depends on experience.)
 पैसाले सम्बन्ध जोड्ने र िोड्ने माध्यम पनन हो । ( Money connects and also breaks the
relationship.)
 पैसा सबैको आव्ियकिा पनन हो । ( Money is a need of all.)
 पैसाले बानी पररििान गछा । ( Money changes your habit.)
 पैसा दुुःख र सुःखमा चछने कु रा हो । ( Money works both in happiness and sadness.)
 पैसा भनेको क्जत्तिका चलाउँने माध्यम हो । (Money is a medium to run a life.)
 पैसा शमत्र र ित्रु दुिै हो ।( Money is a friend and enemy both.)
 पैसालेले ज्यान शलने र बचाउँने काम गछा ।( Money takes and saves life.)
 पैसा मुद्रा हो । ( Money is a currency.)
 व््िु खररद र बबक्री गने क्षमिा भएको धचज पैसा हो । ( Money has the capacity to buy and sell
the items.)
 यो प्रत्तिधधक युगको आधारमा सब थोक हो । ( Money us everything in this technical world.)
 पैसा शिक्षक्षि हुनुलाई चाहहने साधन हो ।( Money is a medium to be educated.)
 माननसलाई आधारभुि आिश्यकिा पुरा गना चाहहने साधन हो ।( Money is a medium for a
person to fulfill their basic needs.)
 पैसा आव्श्यकिा पुरा गना चाहहन्छ िर सबै आिश्यकिा पैसाले पुरा गना सक्दैन । ( Money is
needed to fulfill our needs but our all needs can’t be fulfilled by it.)
 पैसा दोधारको पुल हो । ( Money is the pool between the duality.)
 पैसा साधन हो, साध्य होइन ।( Money is a means not a prayer.)
 पैसा पैसा हो । ( Money is money.)
Realization:
 While talking about money, most of people in village are not comfortable to express their views.
To have deeper and meaningful conversations about this kind of questions one need to have a
very personal relation, where it allows each other to listen and respect different views.
 When we ask and push our kids to dream, we also need to teach and discuss about the critical
components of the investment that actually make our dreams come true.
 Although money is the universal need, when it come to the definition of money people have a
very personal answer. And, these answers come from their experience, knowledge, mindset and
values. And, there is not THE answer.

5.  While we are teaching numbers and money in Mathematics or anything, we shouldn’t limit kids
to only understanding and solving questions. We as a teacher need to see and direct them
towards the connection between the question in book and their life. We might not find the
connection at one attempt but we should not stop ourselves there.
The hidden idea of this activity is to make them realize that there is no absolute truth answer for
many questions. There is not an absolute solution to a problem. To make our life meaning full
and purposeful one need to keep pushing and struggling to find those answers and solutions.
This was a small activity to plant that idea in their curious mind.
Some glimpses of Grade 8 doing the business where they earned around 250 then
again invested on the parents day to make 730 and now they have started a Class
Bank:-