Personal Finance & School children Part 12

 

Title: “Mr. Raj Returns with Profit and Loss”

The following Friday, the children rushed into Class 6, wondering if it would be Ms. Anita again or Mr. Raj. When the door opened, it was Mr. Raj, back with his bright smile and booming voice.

“Good morning, children! I heard you had a wonderful session with Ms. Anita last week. So, tell me - what did you learn?”

Hands shot up. Riya said, “We learnt about competition!” Aryan added, “If sellers compete, buyers get better deals.” Kaushik grinned, “And sometimes sellers earn less when there’s competition.”

“Excellent,” said Mr. Raj. “Today, let’s take this further. What happens when you sell something - do you always make money?”

“No, sir,” murmured a few. “Sometimes we lose.”

“Correct! That brings us to two very important words: Profit and Loss.” He wrote them on the board in big letters.

To make it fun, he set up another game. “Kaushik and Riya, you will run a sweet shop today. Aryan, you will run a juice stall. The rest of you will be customers again.”

He handed each “shopkeeper” some fake coins to represent their cost of buying sweets and juice. “You must sell to your classmates and then calculate whether you made a profit or a loss.”

The classroom turned into a mini-market once again. Students lined up, bargaining, comparing prices, and buying with great excitement. Some shopkeepers sold quickly, while others struggled because of higher prices.

When the activity ended, Mr. Raj asked the shopkeepers to calculate.

Riya said proudly, “Sir, we spent 10 tokens to buy sweets and sold them for 15 tokens. That means we made a profit of 5!”

Aryan frowned. “I bought juice for 12 tokens but only sold for 10. So I lost 2.”

Mr. Raj clapped. “Exactly! Profit means you earn more than what you spent. Loss means you earn less. Both are part of business. The trick is to plan smartly, keep track of costs, and price correctly.”

He paused and added, “But here’s something important: A small loss sometimes teaches you more than a big profit. Every smart businessperson learns from both.”

The children nodded, understanding that money wasn’t just about earning, but also about managing risks.

As the bell rang, Mr. Raj concluded, “So far, you’ve learnt about saving, needs and wants, competition, and now profit and loss. But this is not the end. Next time, we’ll see how businesses attract customers - sometimes using something very powerful: advertising.”

The students cheered, already curious about the next money magic class.

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