LFMI’s #FreedomTalks hosted by the Bank of Lithuania today!

March 20, 2023

To open World Money Week, the Bank of Lithuania – together with the Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI) – is organizing a #FreedomTalks debate for students from all over Lithuania. The #FreedomTalks debate is a lesson in citizenship and awareness. The format of the debate is designed to develop a critically and self-thinking young person who is able to listen to various opinions, argue, and discuss the most pressing social, economic, and cultural problems.

In the freedom debate qualifying round, students in grades 9-12 will debate the topic “Can we buy everything with enough money?”. The winning teams will make it to the final, where they will debate “Does a person need money?”. The debate is being broadcast on the Facebook accounts of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute and the Bank of Lithuania today, March 20, from 10 am to 2 pm.

One of the most important tasks for every educator is to develop youth who are critical and self-thinking. These qualities are especially important as young people become involved in solving communal and social problems. Critical thinking is a universal ability that helps both in work and in personal life. Recently, with information technology opening huge fields of information, critical thinking is particularly relevant for assessing the reliability of this information. We learn to think independently by discussing and justifying our opinions. In this way, we learn to listen to others and counter opinions that we do not share.

For schoolchildren, these abilities are extremely important when taking the first steps in an independent life. Studies have shown that critically minded students achieve better results, are more creative, and are able to make decisions that are favorable not only for themselves, but also for their communities.

For these reasons, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI) has undertaken the project #FreedomTalks, during which it seeks to promote the involvement of local communities and schoolchildren in the examination of the most relevant social, economic and cultural problems. They aim to engage young people in discussions about issues that are relevant to them and their communities. The format of #FreedomTalks is designed for young people to learn how to analyze problems and find solutions through discussion.

World Money Week Lithuania is part of a significant global event, organized by OECD, known as Global Money Week, which brings together more than 170 countries and tens of millions of young people. Global Money Week is an annual global awareness-raising campaign on the importance of ensuring that young people, from an early age, are financially aware, and are gradually acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve financial well-being and financial resilience.