When children have an opportunity to give, they do so with more gusto than most adults would think, Price's research found. In San Francisco, the families of a group of 7th graders pooled money that they had planned to spend on bar and bat mitzvah celebrations to create a fund for helping others. Counselors who help people cope with wealth say that money is still a very difficult thing for families to talk about. While the barriers around sex and death have slowly eroded since the 1960s, families are just starting to tear down the barriers around money. To instill the value of giving in children, Pearne recommends that parents encourage children to give away a certain percentage of their allowance to a charity of their choice.
Children are very generous, they love the idea of helping others.
Goldbart works with a number people who have struck it rich in the high-tech economy in the Silicon Valley. And once the parents are involved in giving to charity and volunteering, the children tend to imitate their behavior, he said. Despite all the concern over materialism undermining the values of children, researchers say that they are seeing anecdotal evidence that more youths are active in volunteering and giving. Burlingame attributes the uptick in youth volunteers to schools requiring community service. Frustrated by the lack of curriculum to inspire youths to volunteer, the Council of Michigan Foundations teamed up with about 45 teachers there to develop lessons that would teach children about philanthropy.