As an entire 5th grade we launched a livable life today. The boys were enthusiastic as they went through a house drawing and amenity choosing simulation that allowed them take a closer look at socio-economic diversity in the US.
Already today we briefly touched on concepts of wants and needs, the relationship between crime and poverty, insurance and difficult choices in life. Today was the first of many days and Ms Gomez-Lobo and I look forward to having the boys investigate and answer the question, "As future tax paying citizens/permanent residents, how can you insure that minimum wage is a livable wage?" Stay tuned.
A middle class group said, "We have everything we need but it should would make life easier to have a few more amenities to choose"-HS
Low income group said, "I was in the group that started with ten amenity points to spend, and our amenity points went down to nine after someone in our group stole a pencil, but I thought it was fun thinking about what stuff was important to buy. I also didn't like it because some people in my group were negative because we didn't get much supplies or many amenity points. If we symbolize people in real life that don't have that much money, I don't think it was realistic because even with the limited amenity points we had we were able to get enough amenities and normal things to be able live pretty comfortably compared to other people in the world" -VP
"I liked it because we can learn to be happy with what we have. I disliked it because some groups who had a lot amenities did not take advantage of it. But overall it was a good experience even though our group only had 13 amenites"-AB
"In my appinion it was a good class period because it sort of extended the lesson we did last year. I personally didn't mind only having 22 amenities because we actually got more than what we needed. I also think the group that got 150 amenities was not using/saving amenities how I would. I feel like they were just buying one of everything and not really caring about what they were buying. I think the period tied to real life really well because there were some groups who got a lot and some groups barely had enough to get what they needed" - Alex
"I think it was unfair but life is unfair so I think it's just like real life and we should all know how lucky we are compared to others. Not very many people can live here and not very many people can get the education we do. I thought it was hard for my group to decide what to get with our small ten points. I liked the project because we got to make our own decisions/be in control" - Zach
