Little Johnny was being questioned during an arithmetic lesson. “If you had eleven dollars and I asked you for a loan of six, how much would you have left?” the teacher asked. Johnny confidently replied, “Eleven dollars.” The class laughed, expecting another silly Johnny moment. But he simply shrugged and said, “My dad told me never to lend money I can’t afford to lose.”
The room fell silent. His answer wasn’t mathematically correct, but it carried a truth shaped by his family’s experiences. After class, Ms. Carter approached him gently. “Did someone lose money that mattered?” she asked. Johnny nodded and shared that his father once lent money to a friend who never paid it back. The loss had caused stress at home, and Johnny never forgot it. “Dad says you can be kind,” he explained, “but you also gotta be careful.”....
