The Game of Village

Lots to Report

It's been a busy week in the towns of W (Waterville and Wolf Woods).  Here are some highlights:

Wolf Woods Worries

Rumors flew through the wood shop on Friday morning -- those who had stayed to the bitter end of the town meeting had given themselves three votes a piece, taken away the voting rights of other peeps and given themselves $300.  What could be done?  Nobody who wasn't there had a vote.  They were now voiceless, powerless.  Outraged peeps convened -- shouldn't there be a law against this kind of thing?  Wait...there was a law that said that all peeps were equal.  Didn't something that gave some peeps more votes violate that law.  Could you write a law that violated another law?  A petition was started to have an emergency town meeting in the afternoon...what would happen?  (Sorry to leave a cliff hanger, I was not privy to the afternoon meeting!)

Sometimes, from a teaching perspective, waiting for things to happen in Village can be agonizing.  However, the wait is often worth it.  Sure.  We could talk to students about the importance of equal rights.  We could suggest laws for them to pass.  We could provide a model of government for them to copy.  But laws and governments are organically developed.  They arise when the needs of people (or peeps) are not being met.  

It was only when the dangers of "government by those with enough stamina to stay in a meeting until everyone else leaves" became evident, that students understand that a governmental system might be necessary.  They didn't want to stay in meeting forever (as direct democracy necessitates) but they didn't want to leave decisions up to those who were self-interested enough to stick around in meeting until everyone had left in order to pass laws that benefited them alone.  A representative democracy, in which people choose individuals who will make good decisions in their place might be one solution.  Maybe a group who makes a promise to think about the town first when they make decisions.  Maybe they'll elect a single individual to consider all proposals and make decisions for the town.  Some towns create elaborate systems of committees of randomly chosen citizens led by elected judges who made decisions based on a hierarchy of rights.

What type of government they design is secondary.  What they realize from having lived it is that people make decisions in governments and the means by which they make those decisions is important.

Waterville Decisions

Waterville had passed a law allowing peeps to leave meeting that was very similar to Wolf Woods's.  However, at Thursday's meeting, they proposed that a president be chosen by simple majority in a run-off election.  That president would be in charge of running town meetings and would be able to veto town decisions.  The veto could be over-ridden by a 75% majority.  If the president wasn't present, the meeting could be run by the vice-president (runner up in the election.)  In a controversial move, the election was to be held immediately (with only those still in meeting having a vote).  They voted, a president took over the meeting and life continued.

The Waterville politicos who stay in meeting voted themselves $200 the first day others left.  Since then (after having listened to the outraged cries of their town mates) they have made decisions that are very town-focused.  No individuals are really voting themselves benefits.  Perhaps because of this restraint, the town didn't react very much when they found out that a minority of people had chosen a president for them (the president did not need to be in the meeting to be nominated.)  We'll see if the peace continues.

Custom Concerns

Nothing can come into the economy of Village without being paid for.  Most of the materials that students use can be purchased in the store.  Sometimes, however, students want to bring supplies from home to use in the game.  In order to do so, the item must come through customs.  Citizens declare their items on a custom form and the federal government determines how much it will cost to bring the item through customs.

If an item has been processed by someone outside of village it is subject to a tariff because the federal government wants to encourage invention and creation.  A Playmobil bicycle, for example, might be $1000 woofies to bring in -- 1/5 of the worth of a Wolf Woods peep.  It's a luxury few feel they need (especially when they can take a Peep U. class on bicycle making).  Material that has not been processed by people outside of village comes through customs at the cost it would be in the store.

Food items can be challenging to price.  A brownie 1 human inch by 3/4 human inch is equivalent to a pan of peep brownies -- and a pan of brownies costs about $4 in raw materials.  A fair profit would put that small for a human nibble at $7-8.  Would you pay that for a brownie?  Giant, hot tub sized  cups, are often brought from home to hold smoothies or root beer floats.  Of course, if they were hot tubs, they would be worth $500 or more -- but who is going to pay that for a float?  And the volume of liquid they hold?  Well, that would be 10-20 peep 2 liters!  That's about $20 per human serving.

Mayor Blumberg would not approve

Perhaps not surprisingly, giant food items can destabilize the peep economy.  Children who will think long and hard about buying a second $50 hinge will fork over $60 for a large rice crispy treat.  I once saw a child spend the equivalent of his house on a Nerds rope that I had stupidly allowed through customs (lesson learned, a similar item would now have a $10,000 tariff.)  Friday had several large food items including a $120, patio size brownie.  The federal government will be responding on Wednesday with measures to insure that peep size portions are the norm (including subsidized Dixie cups available in the store for .25 of a Wolfie a piece.)

 

 

Peep Weekly Hits the Newstands

We had indoor land time on Friday because of the rain but it didn't dampen enthusiasm for "Peep Weekly: The Scoop on Peeps."  Subscribers were treated to a first issue (in human and peep sizes) full of news and advertisements.  Articles included news about a rash of lost eyes, results of the land rush, house design, and the record price paid for a cake at a recent peep auction.  (The cake had been made in a peep university class on Cake Decorating led by John Ochiato.)

Two more editions are planned, including one that you will be able to buy at mini-fair.  Many thanks to Josie Rawson for overseeing the peep press and running regular Peep Weekly staff meetings to bring the paper to life.

 

Parade of Peeps

A tradition was born on Friday when the peeps paraded at All School Gathering.  Each one climbed up to a very high stage (24 human inches!) and introduced him or herself to the whole school.  Younger children were fascinated and came up for a closer look at the end of the parade.

 

More Pictures:

 

Helping Hands

Prairie Creek alumna Sylvia Durkin helping R.J. with furniture. Sylvia was queen of her village when she was a 4th grader.

On Wednesday, Troy Cohrs brought 29 Northfield High School students out to Prairie Creek to work with our kids on Village.  It was a very productive day.  To prepare for all of the extra help, our students wrote down their goals for the day.  We then paired students to volunteers based on their interest and expertise.  The high schoolers were wonderful with their young charges, helping them feel comfortable and jumping into village as though they knew exactly what was going on.  Thanks to Mr. Cohrs for going to the effort and expense of bringing his class out -- the day will be long remembered by our kids.

 

The halls were filled with hammering and sawing (the showers kept our workshop inside but didn't dampen spirits.

 

I was very excited when several high school students literally yipped when I mentioned we had a crew of 4/5s who wanted to work on the canal system.  They were very dedicated and worked with their students through recess and a driving rain.  The team determined that we needed a dam to bring the water level up closer to the town.  They also worked on devising an archimedes screw.  One young man commented that he wished his parents had sent him to Prairie Creek -- I had to break the news that we don't get to spend every day building dams in creeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Across the field from the dam builders, we had a team of rocket scientists working on the Waterville space rocket.  One of the high schoolers, Sam, had experience with water rockets and helped A.P. and Z.H. unpack our new rocket launcher and put it all together. Colleen graciously agreed to stop at the mini-mall on her way to the bank to pick up a 2 liter bottle so that at land time, two brave peeps volunteered to ride the rocket into space.  Now all we have to do is figure out how to go straight up and stay on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We even squeezed in an epic game of capture the flag.  One high schooler, Frank, in an effort to rally his team who were facing down 60 very excited 4/5s, performed the entirety of the New Zealand rugby team's Maori haka chant.  I have no pictures of it because I was too in awe to find my camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ended the day on the land.  The federal government paid the high schoolers for their work in cha-chings and wolfies so they could buy things from the peeps.  It was a very good day for business.  Chen asked me if the kids knew about inflation yet.  Luckily, the influx of cash was only for a day and the economy should stabilize quickly. -MMM

Village Photo slide show #1

Click here!

A Failed Attempt at Representative Government in Wolf Woods

Some peeps are so tired of going to meeting day after day. Finally, there was a chance for relief! The villagers passed a very detailed law that would result in a new government. The law said that there would be a president who would choose a president's council. The president would be elected in two days. Anyone from our village could run. Candidates were to turn in a statement to be posted and put on the ballot by the next day at 9am. There were details in the law about payment for the president and council, a way to recall the president if villagers were unhappy... it was a detailed proposal. It passed, but not by much. The next proposal (after an unsuccessful motion to adjourn the meeting) was to repeal the law that we had just passed. The reason given was that peeps didn't want to give up their vote. After a brief minilesson on the pros and cons of representative government, the proposal to repeal was narrowly defeated. We would have a president!

Except...we wouldn't, because not a single peep or human submitted a statement. So direct democracy continues, and peeps continue to try to adjourn the meetings. This moderator is getting tired.  CTO

What Does It Mean to Have a Vote?

At Waterville's town meeting today fatigue was setting in.  Students had an urgent sense of having things that needed to be done.  Many were chomping at the bit to get out of meeting and get going!  The store was open.  The wood shop was open.  PEOPLE WERE PAINTING!  And here we were, stuck in a meeting making decisions together.

We start village with direct democracy.  Everyone has a vote.  Everyone votes on everything.  Initially that's exciting, but right about now some people feel the need to be something other than making decisions for the town.  They are willing to leave it up to someone else.  That "someone else" can have many forms.  The town could chose a representative democracy in which they choose a group to make decisions.  They could choose a monarchy in which a hopefully benevolent king or queen will take care of the time consuming task of making decisions.  They could choose to create an elaborate system of courts that serves as the law making and judicial branches (that happened a few years ago.)

Today, Waterville chose a very simple system -- anyone who wanted to leave could leave but they lose their vote for the day and can't come back.  It passed overwhelmingly.  A group of eight students were left and they quickly realized the remarkable position they were in.

Their first move was to create a law that said the town would need a 75% majority to undo any law that had been passed.  They then went on to create a "Court Director" who would decide the penalty of anyone who was sued for "doing something wrong" which they later defined as "walking on someone's land without permission, hurting, abusing, or destroying."  Then they voted that everyone present should get $200 from the town's coffers (they considered making towns people pay individually but decided that might cause people to get upset.)  They also passed funding for a space program.

Tomorrow's town meeting should be interesting.  How will people react to their decisions?  Will they want to put a more structured government in place instead of having a government by those who are willing to stay?  Stay tuned. -MMM

Wolf Woods Update, May 8

Wolf Woods village continues in direct democracy, though a law was passed that peeps may leave at any time after introductions and announcements. A few peeps do leave, but many stay and try to adjourn the meeting. There seems to be a sense that they don't want to attend meetings, because they want to work on their houses, but they also don't want to miss anything. We'll see how that plays out over time.

The Wolf Woods villagers have discussed several proposals that delve into some complicated issues. I encourage parents to have further conversation at home with their students. Flora (my peep) and I try to clarify issues as they arise, but meetings move fast and some students are likely still confused.

• Repeal: The town had passed a law making the name Wolf Creek, but some peeps decided they didn't like that, so they proposed a change. I explained that as it was already a law, we would first need to repeal that law and they could propose another law with a different name. So that's what they did, and our name is now Wolf Woods.
• Funds (town, federal): Often peeps propose things that cost money, and then it needs to be determined where the money will come from. (Sometimes proposals pass without that detail, which makes those laws hard to implement.) Peeps are learning to specify the source of funds, but it is still quite vague to them about money in general. In Wolf Woods, the land is worth 1 Wolfie (our currency; see below) per square minifoot. All the land not allotted to peeps is public land and that is where the town money comes from. If the town doesn't do much in the way of public spending, we don't track it carefully. But once they pass expensive laws (see life insurance below), then we track and teach.
• Currency: We passed a currency law, though the folks in charge of it haven't yet made the currency. Once that cash enters the economy, there are more lessons we do on the differences between handling cash vs. checks.
• Patents: Two patent proposals have failed so far. They have been rather vague, and perhaps they have failed for that reason. 
• Immigration: There is already an immigration law that passed in both villages allowing villagers to trade land with someone in the other village. Those trades had to happen before peeps opened their bank accounts, so now there is no immigration allowed. Wolf Creek entertained another immigration proposal yesterday, but it didn't pass.
• Life insurance: Wolf Creek passed a life insurance law today. It reads: Peeps may buy life insurance (I provided the term based on their description, and then I gave a brief explanation of how insurance works) for $5/week. If a peep is lost or destroyed, then the town pays to replace it (a new head, eyes, and body). If what happens to your peep is in your control, then you pay full replacement price. This is one of those laws that may necessitate a careful accounting of town funds. We charge very high prices in the store for "DNA"--the material to create new life. It costs $6000 to replace all peep parts for one peep. So if lots of peeps buy insurance and make claims, it will quickly drain the town's coffers. We've had years in the past where the town has passed universal health care and then run out of money. So we'll see. There wasn't a mechanism in the law for recording who buys insurance, turning in money, etc.

A committee, a vague idea, a CANAL...Waterville!

O.K.  so maybe the title of this blog is not as catchy as the palindrome "A man, a plan, a canal...Panama." but the fact remains that, as of Friday, Waterville (the village formerly known as "B") has canals!

Three very dedicated volunteers showed up on Friday to help build canals.  Dean Paxton and Kerry Hanifl knew what they were in for but N.R.'s grandfather who is visiting from Rhode Island had no idea he was going to be digging ditches in sleet (I did offer him several different activities to help with.)  I was amazed by their willingness to help out on such a gross day.  

I had only the vaguest of notions of how to make a canal system work...we've never had one before.  Kerry and Dean jumped in with ideas and leadership that made everything a reality.One of the joys (or challenges) of volunteering in Village is that there is often a lot of autonomy.  Projects tend to take on a life of their own based on the passions of the volunteers who are supporting them. Village is a chance for us to play, too, especially on the bigger projects that are beyond what the students would be able to do independently. 

In fact, Dean e-mailed me on Friday night to share an idea of how we might be able to create the intersections of the canals (where the town law mandates we make lakes which will be stocked for the last week of village with fish of no greater than 2 mini feet.)

But back to the canals.  With no malarial mosquitoes in sight, we made great progress.  The kids dug out the 90 human feet of canals that they needed and lined the ditches with aluminum gutters.  We even had time to test the canals for levelness (we're close).

Next, we'll figure out the system to lift water out of the creek.  Ideas include a norria and an archimedes screw.  Sound interesting?  Maybe you'll be able to come in and help us make it happen.

Late breaking news:  Waterville has decided on how they want to divide the land.  They have given each citizen a rectangular plot that is 1.5 square human yards.  That's 50% more than the other village has granted their citizens.  Because the value of the currency is based on the amount of land an individual is given by the town, Waterville's dollar is worth 2/3 of Wolf Creek's dollar.  A citizen from either country will spend about 1/3 of their money on an average house -- but the price tags for supplies will have different amounts on them.  We'll see how that goes over! -MMM

The 3 C's (Checks, Collateral and Cash)...and an Economy is Born!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under the direction of Federal Government Official and Bank Officer, Cathy Oehmke, East Villagers entered into the world of the village economy. The announcement was made, “Now that you own land you have collateral for taking out a loan from the bank.” As you can imagine, many questions ensued. How do I actually write a check? How do checks work? How do I take out a loan? What is collateral? 

All of these questions were answered for the first time today. Villagers began by assembling their checkbooks, complete with their check registry. “Checks are one way of moving money from one bank account to another, Officer Oehmke announced. This can be for purchases from other villagers, the village store, or payments made to the government.  After learning how to write out a check and record transactions in their registry, Villagers learned about credits and debits. A serious conversation about how not to go in the red was met by wide eyes.

In order to get initial loans, villagers first needed to determine the value of their privately owned land (collateral). Each Villager owns 1 square human yard of property as determined by earlier proposals. According to the government valuation system, each mini-foot squared (which is equal to 1/2 human inch squared) is worth $1.00. After careful problem solving the villagers determined the amount of collateral to be 5,184 mini-feet squared allowing them to take out $5,184.00 in loans at most.

Many villagers were truly impressed by the value of their land. In the words of one villager, "WOAH~I have more than five thousand dollars to spend-yes! Both modest and zealous spending plans are being hatched as we speak! Money Management would make a great Peep University class offering. Any takers?  ~AB

 

 

 

It''s All About the Land...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The East Village was quick to sign their Village Land Agreement this morning. It read:

We the undersigned will receive a section of Prairie Creek land for the duration of the game of Village. The land is in two parcels each measuring 10 human yards by 10 human yards.

As part of this agreement, we hereby promise to return the land to its original pristine state by the end of the school day on June 3, 2013. A scale map of land including natural features and property lines will be submitted to Simon Tyler by noon on Tuesday, May 14th, 2013. Failure to meet either of these requirements will result in forfeiture of the land.   

Once signed, the East Village was on a mission today during its first day of town meetings. After one, no two, no three, FOUR proposals the Villagers hammered out the details of the acquisition of land for its villagers. The villagers decided on a land rush, wherein each villager marked out one square yard of land for personal property. So at 10:45 this morning, at a distance of five feet away from village property lines, following a 10 minute land viewing period (details all spelled out in the original proposal), the East Villagers made a mad dash for the prime real estate that would meet the needs of their peep. Land was staked and labeled with each villagers name. Now that the location of private land has been decided on, we are looking forward to seeing proposals for the remaining 70 square human yards public land that remain.

The Village Meeting is called to order...

The West Village came to order for the first time today. The day’s first proposal was for the village to communally build a river, similar to a road system, which is paid for by the town. The river would allow water travel among villages, using either private or public boats (another proposal would be needed at a later date to discuss boats and boat usage). The proposal included a recommendation to line the river to avoid water absorption. Discussion and debate ensued as villagers clarified the proposal. A friendly amendment was made to include a small lake in the center of the village. A second friendly amendment involved changing the rivers into “canals” to avoid one villagers concern that a river current would make travel nearly impossible for small statured villagers if they were to attempt to travel against the current. After much thoughtful discussion, there was a call to vote. It was seconded. The proposal passed with a simple majority of 17 votes, out of 30 current voting members of the village. ~AB