How Do I Love Thee: Abstracting

Abstracting is the process of recreating something to help reveal different fundamental aspects of it
(Root-Bernstein, 1999), which in turn can allow us to see it in a different way. It is a way of pulling out
small pieces of the whole object and changing the focus, which may help tie it to a new idea or thought.
In my first abstraction, I used a program called Tagxedo, which allows you to create a word cloud. I
came up with words that were associated with my topic Financial Literacy. I used the words needs,
wants, work, earn, money, smart, choices, save, share, financial, and literacy. These are all vocabulary
words that my Kindergarten class will be introduced to when we begin this unit, and they are the things
that I believe are the most important concepts for teaching the fundamental basics of financial literacy in a
way that would be meaningful and comprehensible at their age and grade level. I placed these words into
the shape of a dollar sign, which is one of the symbols that is commonly associated with the one thing that
typically plays the most important role in finances, money. I created two different word clouds to give
two different perspectives. At first, it may appear that the pictures are nothing more than a large letter s,
but upon closer inspection, and reading the words in the cloud, hopefully the viewer would see the dollar
sign become clearer. My goal was to showcase that the simplicity of the dollar sign is actually quite
complex when you think of all the ideas and concepts that are tied to it, just like that of financial literacy.
In my second abstraction, I tried to create more of an analogy through the use of clipart. I have to admit,
this assignment was by far the toughest for me to figure out. It made me have to think about things in a
way that my brain simply does not like to do. I am one of the people who can look at a picture and totally
miss the hidden things. When I sat and took some time to think about my topic, I was taken back to my
early childhood days and a Bible story that we learned in Sunday School, the parable of the wise and
foolish man. It is derived from a particular Bible verse.
Matthew 7:24-27New International Version (NIV)*
The Wise and Foolish Builders
24
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who
built his house on the rock.
25
The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against
that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
26
But everyone who hears these
words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
27
The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a
great crash.
What is the connection (comparison) to my topic? Financial literacy is a lot like this parable. My two
pictures depict the two different situations, one house built on the rock, and one house built on the sand.
Both of the houses are created out of dollar bills. The analogy that I was trying to convey is that if you
build a strong financial literacy foundation (the rock), and make smart choices, your house (financial
future) is more likely to keep standing (remain strong), but if you build a weak financial literacy
foundation (the sand), and make choices that are not advantageous, your house (financial future) is more
likely to collapse (financial despair). The key is building that strong foundation so that when the rain and
wind (lifes unexpected events) come, we are better equipped to bounce back. As a teacher, my
responsibility is introducing the students to what it means to be financially literate, and helping them set
that foundation, hopefully setting them on a path of success regarding their financial futures. I would not
be able to use the Bible verse in the public school environment, but the parable used in a more generic
way would be suitable.
How Do I Love Thee: Abstracting



References

Dollar Bill Clipart: origami_house_2. Retrieved from www.Flickr.com

*Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.

Retrieved from: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%207:24-27

Root-Bernstein, Robert & Michele. (1999). Sparks of Genius: The 13 Thinking Tools of the Worlds Most

Creative People. New York. Houghton Mifflin Company.