Yucktown!

Every year our school's 5th graders go to Biztown. It's supposed to be this interactive great learning experience for the kid. Each kid has a job, gets paid, spends money. Yada yada yada. The kids think it's the greatest day in the school year. I think it's the sorriest excuse for a school day.

I tried to get out of volunteering this year, but Emily begged since they needed volunteers desperately. From what I gather, the kids learn that you can make $14 dollars a day, have a couple of bucks in taxes taken out, and still have a BUCKET O MONEY to spend on popcorn, candy, trinkets, etc. No real bills to pay: no doctor, gas station, grocery store, etc. I think the whole idea is to teach them how to write checks. Uh, the only people I write checks to are the gardener and the church.

But the thing that I hate the most, and forgive me if your town's biztown is uber-organized-but there is NO organization whatsover. No master plan. Just chaos til everyone figures out what they're supposed to be doing... and then still a little more chaos.

I worked in the City Hall, which included a Mayor, a treasurer, judge, tax collector, environmental agent (still don't know what he did), and two police officers. By the end of the day the cops were handcuffing kids to the pole (handcuffs provided by Biztown). I'm just waiting for a phone call from the superintendent asking why I allowed children to be tied up. Hopefully they won't send me off to jail or worse--another round of Biztown.