So what do you do when in the middle of talking about Jamestown in 5th grade a student raises his hand and asks you what all the Indians and Kings will do in the 2nd coming? We can't have all those kings in charge and Indians have never seen a car and where will they live when they all come back to life?
What do you do when you class develops a black market? See we have class money, and they can use their class money at our class store, our auction at Christmas and the end of year carnival. BUT now they're using their class money to buy and sell things of their own: snacks, origami, etc. They think I don't know but I do. Do you view it as capitalism and decide that you can't shut down, you can't have a communist classroom right? But what if I really want to shut down their black market/entrepreneur endeavor? Does that make me a power hungry dictator, or just a control freak? Can I justify it as preventing fights and disagreements when someone wants a refund and the seller refuses?
Do you see the dilemmas I face daily? These are tough decisions...
2 comments:
I think this is great! It prepares them for life on the inside. The inside of prison that is! :) Silly kids in a free economy. I don't know what I would do if I were you. I wouldn't like them bartering their earned classroom money for goods, but I also kinda think they are cleaver for coming up with the idea. Rough spot! Good luck with figuring it out!
If they are that smart, let it continue. However, I'd come up with a way to 'mark' the bills so that stuff that is kept with the same person until redeemed by the teacher gets extra *maybe double?* credit. So it they trade it around, it is only worth face value, but if you keep it, you get double. Would that work? So if they really want origami, then they can pay for it, but it will seriously limit their ability to buy your stuff (I'd inflate your prices to make it more attractive to hang onto your money.)
Just a thought.
In the seond coming, don't you think the people who are resurrected will have had all that time to watch what is going on and be 'up to speed'?
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