Epcot Center’s new program
Walt Disney’s Epcot Center just opened a financially-focused theme park that strives to teach children about debt, credit cards, and saving. The program, called “The Great Piggy Bank Adventure” is sponsored by financial industry giant T.Rowe Price. Although it was envisioned in 2006, its timing is perfect by inadvertently opening its doors in the middle of the recession. T.Rowe Price’s Director of Corporate Marketing, Meredith Callanan, stated, “It is sort of a timeless topic but now you realize it’s even more important.”
The new theme park houses a 3,800 square foot space with video games that focus on four key financial lessons:
- Setting financial goals
- Saving and spending wisely
- Accounting for inflation
- Diversifying
For example, children are faced with decisions. They have to choose between redecorating, going on a vacation, saving for college or saving for retirement. A plastic piggy bank digitally monitors their performance and reports their financial position as they move through the three stages of play.
Another game, reminiscent of Bozo’s famous bucket bonanza game, allows players to maneuver money to saving or spending buckets. In the end they can either reap the benefits of their good decisions, or suffer financial loss from bad ones. Mother Toni Corkill of Marshal Missouri stated that her 8-year old was picking up on savings and diversification principles adding, “She’s getting it little by little. She was understanding that it was better to get the money in the savings buckets rather than the spending ones.”
The wolf-game presses players to hide money in secret areas of a bedroom, avoiding thievery by the big bad wolf. Strategy is key here and making wise decisions are paramount. T.Rowe Price’s Director Callanan added, “We want to teach children these principles at a young age so they can serve them well over their lifetime.”
All the games are tools for children to learn from the ground-up about saving and spending. The goal is to give them a visual picture of how their financial actions affect their overall cash standing. The timing for this lesson couldn’t be better as one father, Tony Laport of Indiana, stated, “No one predicted the recession would be happening and the last thing we want is for our kids to make the same mistakes we did. Educating them now is key to making their financial futures better. We want them to know about saving and credit cards and diversity now so they can use it in their adult lives.”
In the end, children bring their plastic piggy banks to the final detection box for counting. It is here they get the final result on whether or not they have made wise decisions to meet their financial goals. And that’s the point of the entire activity: to teach children that individual decisions culminate and either benefit, or deter, from a person’s financial health.
Games as an aid to recession help
Games at Epcot Center are a reflection of where society is in the recession. It is trying to find new ways to educate and maneuver through these harrowing times, with as little damage as possible. Many people are benefiting from programs, learning resources and government aid as they use credit cards, mortgage modifications and refinancing to get through the recession.
Perhaps a better idea would be to have made this a video game and peddle it to teachers (and maybe some parents) as an educational tool.Out of all the Disney attractions, my family would skip this one.
Oh, no. Granted that children need to be better educated about finances, because it’s a huge part of adult life – which granted, sucks! – but for one, that’s the job of designers of school curricula and parents. No one is going to go to this exhibit. Any Disney ride or section that’s dedicated to this sort of thing is going to bore the kids to death, and they are going to skip the gift shop, and take a second turn on Pirates of the Caribbean.