First Grade Economics
My seven year old son attends a Charter School here in Colorado. Despite what the press would lead you to believe, if you want to find a Charter School near you here in Colorado, you simply find the state achievement scores by school for your county and find the highest rated schools. Last night was that time of the school year when my lovely bride and I made the trek over to school for a parent-teacher conference. The little "E" is a first grader who loves school and pressing people's buttons, and his teacher is a dedicated young woman who (like almost every teacher, administrator and parent involved in this school) has values that line up with the values of my lovely bride and I.
After the usual conversations regarding the E's current academic strengths and weaknesses, our teacher shared a story of how things are currently progressing in class. All year the first grade has been on a reward and penalty system. Tickets are earned for various good deeds and achievements, while tickets are paid back for various wrong doings and indiscretion. Like in any free market, tickets earned and saved can be used to purchase small rewards from the toy box (the small gifts in the box are donated by various parents during the year). Over the past few weeks the class has been moving into a study of the American Revolution and our old buddy King George. As you may recall, King George was not very much like our current President George on the issue of taxes. To teach this point, Miss C has introduced taxes to the ticket reward system. If a little achiever earns two tickets, one ticket goes into the King George Tax Jar. And what have these fine little first graders learned from this lesson? As Miss C pointed out with a coy little smile on her face.
They don't like TAXES!
posted by swpeterson9 @ 5:37 AM
4 Comments:
Question: What does Miss C do with these accumulated taxes?
It seems to me that Miss C doesn't really carry the experiment through to its end. If the activity is to be a valid one, then the students should benefit from the collection of the tax tickets. Taxes are used to pay for government services, so rather than use tickets on defense (as King Geroge would have done... btw, on a side note: American colonists paid fewer taxes than anyone in England itself. Not a bad deal!), perhaps she could host a pizza party once an acceptable number of tickets have been collected. Students could then see for themselves that taxes are spent on programs.
I think that Taxation Without Representation might have had something to do with it. ;)
It certainly seems to be human nature to keep what you have earned. As for what will happen with these misappropriated funds, I will endeavor to find out. What I would fear more if I were Miss C, would be the loss of motivation in the classroom as the reward for good effort is diluted by such a heavy tax burden.
Miss C has answered back (in the middle of spring break)and has proved once again that no tax system is completely fair, but that money will always try to find its way back into the economy.
To the student taxed the most goes a refund, which will almost certainly be spent immediately at the prize jar.
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