The Game of Village

The Many Skills of a House Builder

We allow students to find their own way through Village.  Some spend a lot of time creating a business; others pursue a degree; some work at the store or bank; some spend a lot of time serving in the government.  One thing we require of all villagers is to build a structure of some sort.  The skills that students develop as they create a building are just too valuable to allow anyone to miss out.

Planning the House

Students must create a plan for their house.  They begin by drawing what their house will look like from various angles.  Most students then construct the house out of paper to be able to see all of its pieces.  They create a net of their house so they can see what pieces they need and then they figure out the area and cost of each piece.  For many students, this means finding the area of parallelograms and triangles.  Some students also learn the pythagorean theorem to be able to know the length that their roof pieces need to be.

Once the wood is paid for, students use a T-Square to mark their pieces out on plywood.  The use of the T-square is not intuitive and takes practice.  Students learn how to create the best layout for the tablesaw to cut.

Time in the Woodshop

Students are often eager to nail their house together but there are a lot of steps that must come first.  During the course of building their house, students learn how to use a square, hand drill, coping saw, hand saw, keyhole saw, hammer, screwdriver and vice. Doors and windows are drawn on with a square.  Corners must be drilled out and then a coping saw is used to cut everything out.  Lots of sanding is needed to even out the edges. 

Painting comes next.  Students learn how to care for their brush.  Many students apply wall paper with Mod Podge.

Students cut posts and beams for the corners of their house.  Walls are nailed to the beams and the house becomes three dimensional.

Things rarely go as planned. Students must learn to problem solve and come up with creative solutions when walls don't quite match up or the wood splits just as you are hammering in the last nail. It also takes a lot of perseverance.

Finishing Touches

Most students put "glass" in their windows and use mouldings for a finishing touch.  Many students add hinges their roof and door, a step which is very time consuming.  Most peeps choose to shingle their house to make it more weather proof.  This year, hard wood flooring is especially popular -- one child even put in a herringbone pattern.

Then comes the interior decoration - couches, tables, chairs, mirrors, paintings, carpet, tiles, lighting...there are so many tempting things in the store and so many wonderful peep craftsman to buy things from.

Then, of course, there is landscaping to consider...

Putting it all together

Students write a real-estate description of their property, trumpeting its features and showing off all of their hard work. These are shared with our appraisers on appraisal day (June 6 this year).  Being an appraiser is a great way to see the depth of student work up close.

Next time...

Already I am hearing fourth graders talk about their plans for their house next year.  One is going to take the time to cut out windows.  Another wants to try a more adventurous shape than the cube she made this year.  A third wants to put in wood floors.  With the disruption of the last two years, it's exciting to see students planning for next year. Students are so much more confident their second year in the woodshop -- we can't wait to see what they create and how they support next year's fourth graders.

The Return of Family Workshop!

After two years away, we were able to re-open the woodshop for families on Memorial Day.  It was fun to see younger sibling trying their hand at sawing and older siblings (and parents and grandparents) lending a hand with house building. -mmm

 

 

Variety is the Spice of Life - Peep University

Three generations of quilt teachers

There are many facets of Village - government, businesses, houses.  One of my favorite opportunities for villagers is to study at Peep University.  Villagers can choose to pursue a bachelors, masters or PhD (PeephD) - or they can simply take a class or two that they are interested in.  Class content varies widely.  So far this year, peeps could take classes on rocketry, window installation, spoon carving, quilting, crochet, landscaping, hapa zome (Japanese leaf prints), journalism, weaving and more.  On line courses include diplomacy, citizenship, tractor safety, creating butterfly habitats, introductory supply and demand, the history of the alphabet and more.

Not every peep pursues higher education, but many make it a primary goal.  (We already have one peep who has taken ten classes and written her disertation!). Peeps who graduate are celebrated at mini-fair and receive a cap and gown.  They also learn a lot of great things!

Most Peep University classes are taught by volunteers.  It's wonderful for our students to be able to learn from new teachers.  I also love the range of things that peeps and their people can learn about.

This year, the town of Fondue decided to pay for all Peep University classes.  They did the math and discovered that paying for everyone to get a bachelor's degree would take about 6% of the town's money -- a price they were willing to pay.  Interestingly, 8 of 10 peeps in classes so far have been from Fondue.  Their goal is to "make the town more educated."

 

Spoon Carving

Rocketry

Finished Quilts

7

Hapa zome printing

 

Them's Fightin' Words

Bobby Pants making his case

Yesterday, Martha (a volunteer) gathered a crew of kids together who were interested in creating a newspaper.  Today there was trouble.

It seems that one of the story proposals involved an exposé (student word) of Bobby Pants - a peep who had a troubled past that involved car theft and lots of car accidents.  Bobby had told his story with abandon when he was introduced to the town but he DID NOT want it printed in the newspaper.

He had asked the journalists not to write it but they had refused.  He came to me for help.  My guess is he and his human were hoping that I would tell the journalists that they needed to be nice and not write the article. That didn't happen.  One of our mantras as teachers in Village is to find solutions within the game.  Trouble is what propels the game and the learning.  We can't just fix things.

Bobby and I sat down and reviewed Fondue's laws.  Our Freedom of Expression law had only one restraint in it - one cannot make threats.  The council had been very careful when they wrote it.  They realized that "nice" could be defined differently by different people so they decided not to include "only say nice things" in the law.  They also realized that even the word "truth" could be interpreted differently based on your experience.  So they kept the law simple and that meant that Bobby didn't have any protection from having his story told against his will.

Bobby wanted to write a new bill.  "The Right to Privacy" stated that "No peep shall have the right to tell another peep's story publicly including but not limited to in a newspaper, non-fiction book or announcement.  To share information publicly about another peep, you must have written permission from that peep."

The bill was well received and seem to be on the way to unanimous passing when Gus raised his hand to speak, "What if one of us writes ourself a check from the town's money.  That person would never sign an agreement to have that story told.  But it would be important for other people to know." The council considered this carefully.  Clearly, there were some stories that needed to be told even if it was against the will of the people involved.  Bobby Pants saw the writing on the wall and withdrew his initial bill and proposed another - Protection from Lies and Libel.  This one stated, "No peep shall have the right to share information about another peep publicly that they do not know to be true.  This includes but is not limited to publishing rumors and speculation for which there is no evidence."  This was much more acceptable to the council. They decided to add "complaints can be brought to the council who will determine if the law was broken and what fine should be levied.  Money will go to the person who was lied about."

Bobby Pants was satisfied.  While his story might be told he was protected against speculation (he was being implicated in many different horrible accidents involving cars).  As it turned out, the exposé writers had moved on and were going to write a story about surviving squirrel attacks instead.

This law may still prove consequential.  In the afternoon, one peep loudly accused another of stealing a bed from him.  It turned out that the missing bed was in the bin of the first peep and had never been stolen.  The accused peep decided that while the law was technically broken he didn't want to go to the council - it just wasn't a big deal. But will all peeps follow this course or will the council find itself swamped with claims of public falsehoods.  Only time will tell. -mmm

 

Don't Break the Streak! (The 2022 approach to Minority Rights)

The first house is on the land!

Today the TMTF council met to discuss a possible name change.  The council had tabled a proposal (their first, actually) that concerned a name change for TMTF.  The name had just been chosen and some on the council thought it was silly (editor's note: I'm not sure at all why they would have thought that Towny Mctownface wasn't a perfectly reasonable name for a town.). At that time, the council decided it was unwise to overturn a decision of the town so quickly - it was likely to lead to the overturn of the council.  Historically, town names are a very contentious issue historically.

But now the council felt it might be time.  They had done a lot of good work and, what's more, they had decided that they might want to be named after Switzerland in some way. (Editor's note: it's possible that my peep Gus was lobbying hard for this and might have even promised that he would look in to a chocolate fountain in the town square b/c Switzerland was not only famous for its direct democracy but also for its chocolate and for the giant fountain in Lake Geneva - although the Lake Geneva fountain does not spew chocolate.)

A vote was taken...and there was one descent (a peep who was very fond of Towny Mctownface.) Everyone on the council was dismayed. This would be their first non-unanimous vote.  If we followed our Roberts Rules of Order, the person who had voted "nay" would not be able to explain why.  The majority would simply rule. There was hesitation and then someone asked if they could change their vote to "nay." Almost everyone did and the proposal failed.  It was then proposed again and the peep who had voted against it was able to explain his position.  He liked the name TMTF and thought that the town should be able to keep that name if they wanted to.  As the law was written, council members would each propose a name and then there would be a vote with the town deciding between the top two vote getters. An amendment was suggested that we include Towny Mctownface in the election for a new name so that people would be able to choose the status quo if they wanted to.  This satisfied everyone and the law was passed unanimously (the election for a new name will be held tomorrow).

I thought it was fascinating that desire for a unanimous streak was the motivating factor for consensus.  Protecting the minority voice is one of the hallmarks of a strong democracy.  When a democracy is responsive to the views of as many citizens as possible, even those who are not in the majority, it is more enduring than a democracy in which the majority rules without deference to the minority. So far, TMTF has not codified its respect for the minority.  It has been satisfied to go to a "redo" to fix a vote that is not unanimous.  We will see if a more formal move toward consensus is in our future...we'll also see if a chocolate fountain is in our future...

Hey Switzerland...Quit Copying!

Official portrait of the 2017 Swiss Federal Council. I did not make this up.

This weekend I found out something astonishing - Switzerland is run by a modified direct democracy.  Four times a year, a national vote is held on issues pertaining to the governance of the country.  Other decisions can be made by the 7 person council who are elected for four years who make their decisions by consensus.  They trade the role of president among themselves. (Here is an article to start a deep dive.)

Maybe you already knew this.  I certainly didn't and I was struck by how closely the Swiss government model resembles that of Towny McTown Face.  The eight person council has so far made all of their decisions unanimously - they don't have a consensus provision perse but the desire to be unanimous in their decisions has led to several proposals being amended until everyone is satisfied. T.M.T.F. also has many provisions in law that mandate a return to direct democracy to decide certain issues.  For example, if the town's bank account drops below half of its initial level, the town will meet as a whole again to decide if they want to continue to subsidize health care and if a tax should levied to help defray the cost.  Similarly, if someone requests that the town pay for customs to bring in an item, a whole town meeting is called to determine if the proposal should be funded.  If at any time half the town signs a petition that they want to repeal a law, a whole town meeting is called in which a repeal is considered. And finally, if the number of council members drops to five or fewer, the council is disbanded and the town returns to direct democracy.

So basically, T.M.T.F. is Switzerland without the chocolates and the Alps (although a gopher has made a mound perilously close by!)

Village is not designed to replicate our system of making decisions (although students invariably learn more about our system over the course of the game).  Instead, it's designed to help students explore different ways that decisions can be made.  Should you leave it up to who ever cares enough to go to meetings?  Should one person make the decisions and then have a group review those decisions? Could ideas be judged against a set of ideals that the town agrees to? Should the people with the most money in the bank at the end of one day make the decisions the next? Could a town postpone voting until a move to vote is unanimous to ensure that every peep has had their say?

Each of these ideas has been used to make decisions in Villages past.  Most have also been tried in the real world.  There is no one way to run a country - but there are certainly bad ways to run a country. Hopefully T.M.T.F. and the newly named G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Towns) will find a way that works for them. -mmm

 

Did I mention we have a scroll saw?! (Gotta love garage sales!)

Say What? A Village Cult? Free Speech?

Today in T.M.T.F. (Towny McTownface), the council met for the first time.  The first proposal brought up was to establish a cult so that "every school day at 10:45am, all TMTF citizens shall gather and say, "Hail to the Goose!"

This proposal was met with much hilarity and might have passed - but that's where the fact that teachers play the game along side students comes into play*.  Gus spoke up and said he wasn't comfortable forcing peeps to follow a specific religion.  The proposal would establish an official religion for the town and force people to pledge allegiance to it. "I'm just not O.K. with forcing people to follow a religion.  I think they should have the right to their own beliefs," Gus opined

A giant pause button was hit.  The council discussed what it would mean to have students say "Hail to the Goose!" against their will. The proposal was quickly rejected.  I wondered aloud if our citizens should have certain guaranteed rights that we couldn't take away. We recessed briefly to write new proposals and one of them was a bill to establish Freedom of Expression.

The students all felt strongly about not limiting the expression of religion.  But they wondered if all speech should be protected.  "What if it's hurtful?" "Who would decide it was hurtful?" "What if it wasn't true?" "Who decides if something is true?"  We talked about the prohibition against hate speech in many countries (but not the U.S.). "it seems like it would be hard to decide if some things were hate speech," one student noted.  It seemed like the council could spend a lot of its time making judgements about what people said.

"Well, there are school rules against saying mean things - those apply during Village, right?" one person said.  I acknowledged that was true - that if one person used words to attack another person in order to hurt them, then the school rules would apply. However, if one peep said something unkind and the two students were on good terms, then the situation would be stay in Village and it would be legal (as the law was written.) This seemed to satisfy everyone and they decided to allow all speech except threats. 

Law 13 - A law to establish free speech

All people and peeps have the freedom of expression including religion and speaking.  This means that the council cannot make a law that affects the freedom of expression oa certain group or a certain person. This protection does not include threats.

After the law passed, there was some question about whether peeps would say things just because they could.  So far, no one has tested the boundaries of the law.

In other news - we're on the land.  The peeps will spend a hopefully un-stormy night on the land tonight.  Once peeps receive land, they must stay on the land at night. They can build primitive shelters with natural materials.  This gives an extra impetus to get houses done!

Village Resonance

Whenever we are immersed in Village, I find I listen to the news differently.  Issues that are playing out in Village often resonate with issues "in the real world."  I think that's one of the things I love most about playing the game.  Here is an example from our first week.

How Far Can Laws Reach?

Towny McTownface passed a law on Wednesday stating: In Towny McTownface (TMTF) there will be no use of weapons against peeps and their property in TMTF.  If you use a weapon against a peep or their property or if you attack a peep, you lose your citizenship and land.  The damaged peep would receive the land and money of the banished peep.  The very next day, one of our townspeople became outraged when they found out that their new spouse had been kissed by someone in the other village.  He vowed to fight the offender - but those involved paused.  The penalty for violence against another peep in Towny McTownface was extreme.  Would a fight be worth it?  A helpful citizen suggested that they could fight in the other village where there were no laws so far about violence.  Someone else asked if the Towny McTownface laws affected visitors and, if so, would they lose their land back in their home village?  It was decided that a fight in the land between the villages was probably the best bet.  I was reminded of the duels in the 1700s that brought people out beyond the town boundaries where anti-dueling laws didn't apply.  And I am also reminded of current questions about state laws and whether they can apply to state citizens who cross state lines.  The law in the real world is evidently gray in this area.  Will our towns decide to pass some laws clarifying their jurisdiction?  Will those laws hold up?  Who will decide?

You may be wondering what happened to the aggrieved Village duo.  They did meet in the netherlands between the two villages on Friday but the other citizens were chanting so loudly that they disrupted an arts residency group that was half a field away.  Nancy told them to fight more quietly and the crowd, along with the potential combatants, drifted away to cut their grass and see if their were mole tunnels too close to their land.

-mmm

 

Where Do We Begin?

Peep heads awaiting their bodies.

We've had our first town meetings!  We begin with peep introductions. Students have been hard at work these past two days creating their peeps - they have to craft heads, sew clothes and write a first person introduction for their peep.  We are always amazed by their creativity and their determination to learn what for many are new skills - especially the sewing.

After the peep introductions, students make proposals to the town.  This year, proposals must be written out ahead of time.  We discuss the proposals and offer friendly amendments using a modified parliamentary procedure.  Students quickly learn how to navigate meetings - sometimes they learn too quickly and move to vote before a proposal can be fully fleshed out and discussed.  The consequences or this alacrity can vary.  Sometimes it just means that the town passes a law that says the equivalent of "We support the idea of health insurance" when they meant to provide health insurance to every peep.  At other times, peeps have inadvertently emptied out the town's bank account, given up free speech or ceded their right to govern themselves.  It can get exciting at town meetings!

The laws passed so far in Town 1 (Now named Towny McTownface...see Law 3): 

Law 1 - A law to undo bad laws - If we pass a law and we find it is a bad law, a full town meeting can be called by a petition with half the town's signatures.  The meeting will be a direct democracy meeting to repeal just the law in question. If a super majority of 2/3 of the town vote it out, it is out.  Nothing can override that repeal.  This law cannot be repealed.

Law 2 - A law to govern immigration (passed in Village A as well) -You and an individual in another village can trade your land and your right to vote, then move to your new village.This works through this process: 1.You and the individual in the other village both agree to switch.  You must both have land and a vote in your current village.  You cannot trade public land.  You must trade all of your original private plot. 2.You and the individual both pay a immigration fee of 50 of the chosen currency to your current village to help the town’s economy and cover the cost of changing things. 3.You and your peep walk the entire way in peep steps  4.You have no structures.  If your structure has wheels, you may move it at peep speed to the new land.  The structure owner must follow any existing laws when moving the structure. If you agree to meet these prerequisites then you may immigrate

Law 3 - A change of the Village name - The town shall be named now.  The moderator shall call on five people for suggestions,  We will choose based on majority vote.  If no majority is reached on a first vote, a run off election with the top two vote getters shall be held next.  (Editor's note:  Sadly, and despite my protests that this was so 2016,  "Towny McTown Face" was chosen by 24 votes, the slimmest majority possible.)

Law 4 - A law to establish a land committee - There shall be a land committee.  this land committee will be arranged after it is decided how much town land and private land there will be.  The committee will allow anybody in this village who wants to.  The committee will not be paid.  The committee will make a scale map of the town to turn in to Simon. It will talk to the town's peeps and gather what land they want.  We will try to listen to everyone.  The town shall review and approve the map before it is submitted.

In Town A, Ryan was able to take minutes while Amber moderated the session.  Reading the play by play gives a great insight on how students are thinking about the laws and learning to ask more detailed questions before they move to vote (still, for sure, an opportunity for both villages!).  Here are a few of back and forths:

• Money - There should be FIVE options for the name of the currency, to be voted on

• (1) The Village money to be called Cha-Chings (no other suggestions liste din law)
• 
  
  • Comments in support of a menu vote
  • Could you only use this in certain situations
    • MOVE TO VOTE (ELIOT), SECONDED (Ruby)
    • VOTING
    • 40 in support
    • 1 opposed

• Town Land Proposal - ¼ of land would be common, public land, ¾ of land would be divided into private plots
  • Map + roads (four, walkable roads)
  • Comments/questions/suggestions
    • Do you have information on the actual size of the town’s land?
      •   Many students point to the land agreement (10 human yards by 9 human yards)
    • Are there going to be roads between plots of land
      • That is something we could add
    • Will the roads go by each house?
      • No, only some of them
    • Is there any accommodation for smaller land? 
      •   You are free to do what you want with your land.
  • MOVE TO VOTE
  • VOTING
  • 34 in support
  • 9 opposed
• Currency Menu Vote (proposed by a student who saw that the first law needed to be added on to)
  • Five names to be voted on for the town currency
  • You can vote for a max of two
  • The vote on the currency will immediately follow the passing of this law
  • The names are to be determined now, in this committee
  • MOVED TO VOTE
    • 42 in support
    • 2 in opposition
  • Suggestions for currency name and the results:

Cha-chings 19

Beans 14

Doll Hairs 14

Pillows 9

Ramen 27

• Insurance 
  • The town will give the peeps insurance and pays half of the money for damage
  • Friendly amendment: animal damage will be paid for by public insurance
  • Friendly amendment: damage from natural causes will be covered by public insurance
  • discussion/question/comments
    • The peep contributes what it wants. The town could change the amount later
  • What would stop the town from going bankrupt?
  • Comments in favor of withholding public payments for houses. 
  • Comments with negative views on human nature
  • Discussion of jail, private property, and how they interact with insurance. Insurance should not pay for “jerk moves”
  • Discussion of suit for damages
  • Friendly amendment: animal damage will be paid for by public insurance; accidental damage will be paid by the damager
  • Discussion of gratuitous property damage
  • Friendly amendment: damage from natural causes will be covered by public insurance
• Moved to Vote
  • 29 In support
  • 11 In opposition

I've thought a lot about this year.  We began Village at Prairie Creek in the spring of 2004.  That year, forty students played and we had a single Village. I was the only one who knew what to expect and we had an amazing adventure.  In the years since, we've had many more adventures and there are so many stories about government intrigues, floods, hungry squirrels (shudder) and tremendous civic achievements.  But the last two years have been severely disrupted.  These kids have never played Village without significant constraints that limited the scope of the game.  I am excited to see where students take the game this year when we are able to play it to its fullest - but I'm also wondering how much organizational memory we have lost.  In so many ways we are all learning together again.