You Have to Be Carefully Taught

The kids have little tripartite banks they received at school that are labeled "spend, save, share." They were fascinated by the three slots and enjoyed putting money in each, not caring what the category was.

Like most 6-year olds, my kids vacillate between utterly selfish and surprisingly generous. There's really little telling when one will fetch a lovey and a bandaid for the other . . . or knock'em down again.

Of course, as Mom, I want to encourage the former, stress the "share" part of the piggy bank. We haven't done any family volunteer activities, mainly because of my situation this last year, but do regularly involve the kids in giving--to the food pantry, the coat drive, the gift collection at Christmas and Easter for kids in the shelter, and even sending money, including a part of their Chinese New Year money, to animal projects, the Red Cross during disasters, and the like.

And then I read Nicholas Kristof's Op-Ed today about Rachel, a young girl who routinely cut her hair for Locks of Love and also canceled her birthday party and had friends donate $9 each for clean water for children in Africa. Tragically, a month after her birthday, she was injured in a car accident and later died. In her name, $960,000 has been collected, up from the $220 she collected from her birthday. It's not what her family must have imagined for her ninth year, but it's a beautiful gift in her memory.

Similarly, and closer to home, a wonderful project is taking place in Austin, Texas, in honor of Janna Plentl, a friend of my family's, whose life was similarly cut short by non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She was an architect devoted to environmental causes and this year Austin's Habitat for Humanity is building a green house for a single mom with funds raised in Janna's honor and matched by her family.

We'll be donating to both causes, with the kids, who will also start getting $3 a week to put in those banks of theirs so that they, too, can learn to give to others, just like Rachel and Janna.