The day started out great…until Simon came into the Robins, glanced at the Peepsburg Land Agreement and noted that the deadline for the scale map had been missed and the consequence, clearly stated in the contract was that the town's land was forfeited. Needless to say, the citizens were agitated.
Some gleeful Ho Chi Minians called out, "Take their land!" They were later chastised for possibly antagonizing a neighboring country and necessitating an expensive military defense.
An emergency meeting was called and many options considered. It wasn't clear initially how it had happened. Two cartographers had volunteered and had very diligently completed the scale map on time. Somehow it never got delivered to Simon.
One of the themes that comes up again and again in Village is the necessity for specificity and clarity in communication. What is going to happen? Who is going to make it happen? When is it going to happen? It takes a while for students to figure out what makes a complete proposal and to anticipate all of the possible pitfalls. In this case, not all of the blanks had been filled in the proposal and, consequently, no one knew what to do.
Peepsburg currently has a government of attrition meaning that anyone can come and anyone can leave. There is no single group who must be present and, therefore, there is little continuity between town meetings. A group can say something during one session and no one knows it was said during the next session. This is a dangerous form of government. It is easy to abuse (just stick around until no one else is there to object to one's corrupt motions) and, if it isn't abused, it is rarely effective. We can't just leave decisions to those who are willing to hang around. It's a key lesson for being a citizen in a democracy.
Peepsburg citizens were contrite (well, with the exception of the three who immediately upon hearing of
the town's troubles decided to try to immigrate to Ho Chi Mini City). They had a very serious and rich discussion about what happened and how to fix it. The game ends if you lose your land…how could they avoid that? Gabe led the discussion and shared some ways that Simon might be still be satisfied and let them keep the land. They have until Friday to put together their proposal for Simon, laying out a new land agreement. We shall see.
Peep Unviersity classes are going well. So far peeps have learned about interior design, wonderful
windows, marketing savvy, wall papering, campfire magic, construction principles, calligraphy, and food safety. Teaching a class is a wonderful way to get involved in the game.
The first houses are out on the land. The baseball teams have had an exhibition match. And many businesses are off the ground.
Comments