Non-profit Banking and The Five Cs of Credit

Non-profit Banking and The Five Cs of Credit

On Friday, the 9^th of December, Kat Taylor came to speak to our 5^th grade class. She is a former parent at our school who co-founded One PacificCoast Bank with her husband, Tom Steyer. It is a non-profit bank in Oakland with the goal of providing helpful fair banking services to less fortunate communities.  She spoke to us why it is important to give loans to people who would normally not be able to get them.

She also taught us the 5 C’s of Credit (the elements a borrower should have to receive credit)

1.      Capacity (the ability to pay the loan back)
2.      Capital (available money)
3.      Collateral (valuable things the bank can own until the money is paid back)
4.      Conditions (of the borrower and the environment the borrower lives in)
5.      Character (the quality of the person). Middle and high-income people are lucky because banks are kinder to them.

There is also a sixth C which she added after the suggestion of an MCDS fifth grader a few years ago: Community (it is important to have a supportive community)

One PacificCoast Bank treats everyone the same, no matter their income. 

By Ben Buder

Pennies A Day: A film about Muhammad Yunus

We watched a video called Pennies A Day about the Grameen bank started by Muhammad Yunus. Before the Grameen Bank, Bangladesh was a country in great poverty. Nobody was making money. Banks did not want to loan to poor people in Bangladesh because they did not think they would pay it back. Then Muhammad Yunus came up with the idea that he would start a bank where they would lend out money to poor rural people around Bangladesh. The business of the Grameen Bank is micro-credit which involves giving small loans to poor people so they have the opportunity to create small businesses. Loans are made for livestock, crafts and agriculture. Ninety-six percent of the loans are given to women because woman with the loans are cautious with the money and spend it first on their children. Each week the people who receive the loans gather in a large circle to make their payments.  The Grameen bank operates in almost every village in Bangladesh. The pay back rate is 99%. Now Bangladesh has roads and there are lots of small businesses.


By Anna Weisel

An ingredient I would add is confidence.

Recipe for a Good Life

Recipes for a Good Life

In school we are working on recipes to make a good life. It is just like a food recipe but instead of ingredients like sugar or butter we use things like family that make a good life. Kyle showed us her grandmother’s recipes that were worn and in little old containers. She passed them around so everyone could take a look at them. Some of them were hand written in cursive and some were typed on a typewriter. We brainstormed verbs that had to with cooking.  Some of them were mix, stir, sprinkle, and chop.  We also brainstormed measurement words like cups and pinches.  Then we worked on computers to make an ingredients list and then added directions.

What would you include in a recipe for a good life?

Posted by Alise P.

Where Children Sleep

In our class we’ve been comparing how different parts of the world live. We’ve looked at what possessions people have and looked at what people eat in a week. Now, we are looking at how children around the world sleep. First, we made a list of ten or more things a stranger would see if they walked into our bedrooms and saw all of our stuff. Then, we saw pictures of children around the world from a book by James Mollison's called Where Children Sleep with pictures of bedrooms. It was sad to see how some of the kids only had one room houses, or lived outside. There was one kid in Rome who slept on a mattress outside. I couldn’t imagine sleeping outside. There were only three kids that I was able to relate to. I was shocked to find that out.

Posted by Max P.

Our Vision for The Year on Animoto

We got the idea for our Animoto on Twitter, from a teacher in Madison, WI, Pernille Ripp. Mrs. Ripp used Animoto to make a class mission, so we thought we would use her idea and make a Room 22 Vision for the Year. This Animoto was also an adventure. It was completely kid made. This first thing that happened was that the song called Good Life by OneRepublic was a little inappropriate for school so one of the kids in our class' dad edited the song on a software program called Audacity and soon after that word was no longer part of the Animoto video. When the Animoto was completely cleaned up we watched it and are class dignity was restored! That's how we made our Animoto.


Post by Henry S

Quality of Life

We studied “Quality of Life” by talking about “What qualities would you need to have a quality life?” My top 5 qualities are:

• Health

• Family

• Education

• Community

• Confidence

My parent’s top 3 qualities are:

• Health 

• Happiness

• Gratefulness

I think people need health because if someone doesn’t have health someone could get a disease, and maybe die. All people need health. I chose family because most of the time family gives you love and you can be happy. It would be great if every one had family/love but not every one needs it.  Good education can get you in to a good high school, and a good high school can get you in to a good college, and that can help you get into a good job. Jobs get you money and with money you can pay for the things you need.  Education is very important. I chose community because people around you can help you and help you get the things that you need. I don’t think every one needs it but it’s good to have it and some people’s family is their community. 

My parent’s thought that being grateful is important because when you are grateful you can appreciate all the things in life. And they thought that happiness is important because when you are happy you can enjoy life. And if you are healthy you feel great.

This is what our class thought compared to our parents:

We all agree on friends, love/family, health, food and freedom. It was a surprise that the parents didn’t say education, because it can help you get a good job and that helps you get money.

What do you think makes a quality life?

By Amelia L

The Danger of A Single Story

                          

TEDTALK: The Danger of a Single Story 

Our teacher showed us a TED talk called "The Danger of a Single Story".  I would recommend this video because it’s just one of those videos that you want to continue to watch.  Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian novelist, has a very interesting story.  She explains that there is not one story about any place.  There are multiple stories.

Chimamanda  grow up in Nigeria, Africa. When she was eight she got a new house-boy named Fide. All her mom told her about him was that he was poor. One day Chimamanda visited his village. When she got there Fide’s brother showed her a basket he had woven. It had never occurred to her that Fide's family could actually make something because all she had known about him was that he was poor.

Chimamanda learned how to read when she was four. She was also an early writer and started writing at age seven.  In all her stories the characters had blue eyes and blonde hair, just like in the British books. They also ate apples and talked about how nice the weather was when the sun was out. But, in Nigeria they ate mangos and the sun was always out.

When she moved to the U.S. for college her roommate asked “Where’d you learn how to speak English so well?” Chimamanda said that English is the official language of Nigeria. Then the roommate asked “Can you play some of your tribal music?” Chimamanda played Mariah Carey. Her roommate also assumed that she couldn’t use a stove. 

Chimamanda was reading a book by John Locke and it said that Africans are beasts with no houses.  Later a professor told her her stories were not authentically African because there was not enough suffering. Chimamanda had a very good childhood with a roof over her head and food on the table.

If we let only one story define Africa, then we will only think of it in one way and not realize that there are all kinds of people in different situations in Africa. I still have a lot of questions but along the way I’ll find the answers!

Posted by Lila F

The Five Ps of Poverty

Cate Biggs, the editor of the World Savvy Monitor and Writing for Global Engagement, came to speak to us about the causes of poverty.  Her talk was helpful and informative. We learned about the Five P’s of poverty.

There are 6 billion people in the world. One billion of that have what they need. Four billion of that have hope that they can get what they need. And the rest live in poverty and they get a dollar a day for the very hard work that they do.

Poor people in poor countries face huge challenges. Food is hard to get, they have to take six hours out of their day do get water and the water is sometimes not clean. No electricity, no roads so it’s hard to get from place to place, education is hard to get, there are a lot of diseases, not a lot of healthcare, and unfair rules of law, so someone can steal something and it won’t even mater.

The first P of poverty is PLACE. You don’t want to be in a country with the climate being very hot because then you have a scarce amount of water. Also you don’t want to be next to a poor country. The USA has a good climate, not a lot of diseases, and great coastlines. Chad is poor because it is small, landlocked, and has bad climate.

The second P is PAST.  A country's past matters because if your country had slaves that were sent to the USA then they took advantage of them.

The third P is PEOPLE. Overpopulation matters because if you have too many people and not enough space and not enough resources then you will have a country in poverty and you hard time controlling diseases. The USA normally has two babies per woman. In Chad it’s normally five babies per woman. 99% of people can read in the USA but only 25% of people can read in Chad. 

The fourth P in poverty is POLITICS. Nearly all voters in the USA can read. But, less then 25% of voters can read in Chad! Also the US government is all connected. But, in Chad the government spreads out.

The last P in poverty is PEACE. There are a lot of wars in the countries in poverty. For example, in Chad, after a war they are more likely to start up another. Chad is surrounded with war and bad things. Poverty is a cycle. The P’s of poverty keep the countries in poverty. India and China jumped out of poverty.  The USA is helping a lot with the countries in poverty by giving money. The USA has given of one trillion dollars to the countries in poverty. What you can do is, understand, act, and educate.
  

Post written by Elizabeth C

Room 22 Learns How to Blog

Well, what an adventure. Room 22 learned to blog. We had some challenges and some triumphs. Let's start with the fact that MCDS has a filter for the wi-fi network. You can't blame them or anything because they need to block  inappropriate content. So we had to spend about half of our first blog class  having the teachers sign into all the students' computers with their passwords to lift the filter from our computers. Our first two posts came from our teacher because when we were added as authors, some people couldn't figure out how to get in, which made it, well you can imagine, a teacher's nightmare. "Jen, Kyle can you log me in?" Imagine seventeen people yelling both their names at once. Intense. Well those were the challenges, but we also had some triumphs. Our first student post was a huge triumph because somebody had succeeded in something. Another thing was when Henry and Jen figured out why the pictures were being blocked. 


This is just a short story of a challenge when Room 22 learned how to blog. Trust me, there were more.

Heroes

This year we are studying heroes. We have made a list of what a hero is, and the qualities of a hero. These are some of the qualities of a hero: selflessness, motivation, forgiveness, courageousness, thoughtfulness, compassion and so many more. Our class believes that a hero is someone who does good for others, who makes changes for a better society, who stands up for others, who isn’t afraid to try something new, who stands up for fair rights, who makes a difference, who fights for something they believe in, who is brave and who risks his/her life for others and who works for the greater good. We believe that heroes are very important people who do all these things For example, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Mitchell, Harriett Tubman, firemen, and Navy Seals are all heroes. We also talked about the difference between a hero and a celebrity. A hero is somebody who does something to help others, and a celebrity is somebody that just makes music, or does a sport. They did not do something in order to change the world for the better.


Who are your heroes?

Free the Children and Think We

Free The Children Assembly

We had a Free the Children assembly with grades 5-8.

Free the Children is an orginization that helps children who are in need all over the world. Free the children also has something called "Adopt a Village" and it helps places like Haiti, China, Kenya, Equador, India, Sri Lanka and Sierra Leone. Any child can change the world like Craig Kielburger, who founded of Free the Children at age 12. Craig was born in Ontario, Canada, and as a kid, fought for children's rights after he found out how children rugmakers were treated in Pakistan.  At the assembly we learned that even the simplest of things count, like having a bake sale and donating all the money to make the world a better place. For more info about Free the Children, go to  www.freethechildren.com


Posted by Alise P

THINK-WE WORKSHOP

A group of Upper Schoolers went to a workshop called Think-We Workshop. We learned about a program called Free the Children which sponsored the workshop. We learned about many issues affecting certain people around the world. Some of these issues are child labor, not enough water, poor education, and alternative income. We learned that children our age work from 10 to 16 hours a day in certain countries in Asia and Africa. They have to carry water from a well 3 hours away! Free the Children helps families help themselves so they start off by helping the community build a school. When the village no longer needs support, Free the Children slowly transitions to another country. Most of the money goes to help countries get health care, clean water, education, and alternative income. If you would like to donate, please do. Go to Freethechildren.com If you donate you will get a big thanks from the whole Think-We program! This program works hard everyday to help children around the world.

Some of the 5^th graders who attended the Workshop are planning a bake sale to raise money for Free the Children. Also some kids are doing lemonade stands and bake sales outside of school at their homes. We are working as a community to support Free the Children and help children around the world have a voice.

Material World

In our Global Citizenship Study we are looking at many books by Peter Menzel, such as Hungry Planet, and today, Material World.  In this book, instead of people from different countries putting their food out, they put their family possessions out in front of their homes.  We observed that some people had a lot of possessions and some people didn’t have much at all.  We recorded on a sheet of paper what we noticed about each country and what we wondered.  

Here are some of the things we noticed:

• The TV seemed very important in the picture of Mexico
• In South Africa they had two beds for seven people
• In Cuba the houses are in bad shape
• In Mali they have lots of pots
• In Thailand they had mosquito nets over their beds
• In Kuwait there are lots of couches and cars
• In Japan they had 32 pairs of shoes for four people
• In South Africa they wrote that their most valued possession was their family
• In Mongolia they only have one room to sleep and eat in
• In USA they had a lot of stuff for pleasure and in other countries they had only stuff they needed
• In Iceland it seemed like musical instruments were important (only place that had them)
• In Mexico one of the kids was holding either a fake or real pistol

Here are some things we wondered:

• In Mongolia how do they walk around at night without any electricity?
• Why do the people in Bhutan have so many children?
• Where do the people in Mali sleep (what do they sleep on?)
• In Mongolia I wonder what their houses are made of, they look like giant pick up sticks?
• What happens when it rains in Mongolia?
• In Mongolia their most prized possession was a TV, but they live in a tent.  How do they get their power?
• How did they make their house?
• In Samoa what are their animals used for?
• In Cuba what do people sleep on?
• In Mali what are all the wooden tools for?
• In Mongolia do they ever feel cramped?  They have a lot furniture, but not a lot of space.

Big Questions:

• Do most people want more stuff, or are they fine with what they have?
• I wonder why a lot of the families are religious?
• I wonder what percentage of the people live in poverty?
• Why does America and Japan have so much stuff compared to other countries?
• I wonder how people in different countries share their beds when they don’t have enough for each person?
• How are the countries related in terms of material?
• Why are some countries more wealthy than others?
• What country has the least amount of possessions?
• How much does each countries possessions cost them?

Hungry Planet By Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio

We looked at a gallery of photographs from Peter Menzel's book, Hungry Planet.  We took notes on clipboards about what we wondered and what we noticed.  Here are some of the big questions that we came up with as a class:

1. Why does the U.S (and Europe) eat differently than the rest of the world?  Why fewer vegetables?
2. Which continent has the most expensive food?
3. Why is the book called the Hungry Planet?
4. Why are there such big differences in food supplies between countries?
5. In what ways does how much food countries have change them?
6. What percentage of the world lives in poverty?
7. What is it that makes countries poor?  Is it size?
8. How much does government cause a country to be poor? 

Welcome to our blog!

Welcome to the Global Citizenship blog, hosted by 5th graders, at a K-8 school in Northern California.


Hi, this is Max B. welcoming you to our blog. Thank you for your visit.This is a student-created blog to tell the story of our fifth grade year studying global citizenship. Please feel free to comment. We would enjoy hearing your thoughts about the things we do and say. Have fun.