The Game of Village

Socialism, in a village somewhere in America, who would have thought?

A conversation overheard  Village worktime today: Chris: "Hey, ED, when should I take my head out of the oven?" ED "Oh, in about 15 minutes."

On a more serious note, there were startling developments today.  The second proposal of the town meeting was from MR.  He proposed the formation of a socialist government that would tax Villagers at a rate of 10% on all earnings.  In turn, the government would provide services including universal health care (a gopher gnaws off half of your peep's head - no problem the Peep Health Service will be there to patch it up), subsidized education,  transportation and more to be decided.  MR had researched the meaning of socialism and was sufficiently well-informed to respond to questions and concerns - including what happens if someone spends all of their money on something frivolous, say cheese, and then asks the government to support them.  MR conceded that this could happen but that it would be unlikely for everyone to do that.  Others were concerned about the 10 member volunteer council making decisions that just benefited them.  MR said the council would have to take an oath to make decisions for the good of the town. 

In any event, the proposal passed, albeit narrowly, and in the absence of the band kids - some of whom are still feeling rebellious without being entirely sure why.  Hey, weren't we all like that once!    So, what now?  We'll the town meeting ended and a council was formed to set guidelines for governance.  In a manifesto they articulated the following principles and guidelines for decision making: "We, the council, promise to uphold the following principles when making all of our decisions: 1.  To consider all citizens, wealthy and poor 2.   To provide education for the populace  (imagine that!) 3.  To provide for wellfare of the populace.  5. To do no harm. 6.  To put the needs of society above our own. All decisions are public and the council immediately put into effect legislation that reduced the cost of house building and attendence at peep university classes.

So why the unrest?  Well it seems folks just have a hard time being governed by others even though they are entitled to attend decision making meetings and make proposals (and there are even openings on the council.)  Hmmm, interesting insights into human and peep behavior.  What will happen next?  Does the above manifesto give enough cause for revolution?  As John Lennon sang,  "You say you want a revolution, well you know, we all want to change the world.."  Our questions seem to be, why?  And how? Stay tuned and give us your thoughts.

Rebels Without a Cause

No town meeting today so all was relatively quiet.  There are still rumors of revolution but no one really seems to know why they should revolt.  We'll see if a cause materializes. 

Several peeps brought food they had prepared at home to sell at land time.  This goes through customs where, traditionally, it has received a modest tariff.  J.V-R had an interesting thought, however.  Is it really fair that people can add labor on food at home and it comes through customs as though it is raw material?  He felt it would be more fair if people had to invest school village time on making food if that was how they were going to make money.  It's a fair point.  Will the town establish new requirements?  Should the federal government?  How much work should be able to be done at home?  We usually don't allow houses to go home...should we?  Does it help or hurt Village when the work continues outside of school time.  We're ambivalent.  What are your thoughts?

You Say You Want a Revolution?

Everything was going swimmingly (well, except for the lake leak) until this afternoon when we started to hear rumblings about a group who wanted to form their own country.  This news came in the midst of a mapping frenzy.  The town was responsible for creating a scale map of the land by 2:30 this afternoon but the question arose, "To map the rebels, or not to map the rebels?"  If they weren't on the map, there was a chance they would have to forfeit their land because they wouldn't fulfill their land agreement.  In the end, they were included and we had some great conversations during land time (the period at the end of the day when our peeps all have to interact on the land).  The freedom seekers live on prime land, in fact, the only private lake property.  However, beyond the romance of revolution, they didn't seem to have a strong reason to want autonomy.  If they withdrew from the town they would not have to obey town laws.  But, since they are land locked, they are dependent on the town people to move on and off of their land.  They also have no communal money unless they give up a portion of their land or agree to be taxed.  Perhaps they feel that a small group of like-minded people will make laws they want more than the larger group does.  Is this enough of an incentive to pull away and face the unknown as an autonomous country.  As one student said, "There's bound to be friction."

Speaking of friction, land time brought many complaints of trespassing.  It seems that peeps traveling across the land are walking on private property.  One student pointed out that the white painted boundary lines should be public land.  Another pointed out that those lines are about 1.5 square human feet of each person's property (more than a ninth).  Hmmm...

Moo.  There was a great discussion today about whether or not a peep could harm an animal.  The devil is in the details it seems.  While almost everyone agreed they didn't want peeps to harm animals, an amendment which would consider "eating" animals harmful to them caused a passionate debate.  Some peeps felt the government should step in and make our village vegetarian.  Other peeps,vegetarians themselves, felt they did not want to impose their view on others.  Still others wanted to eat meat.  One compromise seeker suggested we only eat meat that died of natural causes. This is an example of how Village builds upon the experiences of the year.  S.G.'s honors project on vegetarianism has often been the topic of students' conversation.  Here it returns in the form of an amendment.  In the end, it did not pass but the larger amendment did pass. 

Napolean was inspired by the debate however and made a cow during work time.  That cow died suddenly of natural causes (according to him) and he is planning on bringing in some beef for land time tomorrow.  It brings up some interesting issues for the federal government.  We encourage the students to suspend disbelief - Village should be as real as we can make it.  So, can Napolean "eat" the cow he made?  If so, how did he butcher it (remember all weapons have been banned)?  Does he have to pay tariffs on that beef if the cow was technically made in Village?  Should the federal government allow peeps to eat meat that died of natural causes?

Finally, we played around with the Pythagorean theorem and algebra today.  We are not expecting students to understand the math completely.  Instead, we want them simply to get a "Wow!" when together we use math to figure out the side of the roof and measuring it on the model yields the same thing.  Thanks to the magic of congruent sides and angles, Simon made a discovery that made everyone's math a lot easier -- the height of a roof triangle is equal to half of its base if you are using a 90 degree roof angle.  We've called it the Tyler Theorem and there was much rejoicing.  One of our aims in introducing math like this is to help the students experience the wonder, joy and fun of math discovery.  According to Walter Isaacson, author of the new Einstein biography, helping students appreciate math and science ideas the way they would appreciate a symphony or Shakespeare play will be key to our technological success in the future. You might not understand every single nuance of Hamlet but you can still enjoy it and love its art. (See this re-print of Thomas Friedman's op-ed on the issue).

Boomers and Sooners

No cannon blast, but instead a mixture of mentos and diet coke launched the 2007 Village land rush at 10:45 imprecisely today.  Prior to the rush the land was parceled off.  As planned, the land was divided into 48 parcels, each  measuring 6X 6 human feet.  A team of workers including ZS, TY, JVR and LB labored in the morning heat to stripe the land.  All this of course was an exercise in math and voacabulary.  Parallel, perpendicular and area was explained and used throughout the process.  The rush was very exciting.  The Sooners, by virtue of yesterday's decision to stay with the democratic process, went first and attained the prime sites.  The Boomers followed. A complex number calculation led us to the conclusion that each parcel of land totaled 20,736 mf squared (144X144mf).  Thus, the value of each plot of land is $20,736 and the children spent much of the afternoon setting up bank accounts and deciding how much of a loan to take out (interest - 5%).  Math is integrated into all we do in Village.

While Simon and his crew were setting up the land for the rush, Michelle was moderating a town meeting.  CK proposed a law that the town make a jail.  It passed.  Mosiya's proposal that materials for animals would be free and animals from outside village would not be subject to a tariff was denied.  With huge implications, Grace's proposal that peeps must eat every other human day was passed into law.  Get that bakery started!

Lake update:  Tommy led a mission to repair the leak with duct tape and his endeavors appear to have been partially successful.  Most worryingly, there's a fresh gopher mound at the head of the lake.  Will the peeps survive the night in their primative shelter or will they be gopher snacks?  How big would a gopher seem to a peep? Now how about that mountain looming over Lake Peepin?  Is it a volcano?  Dormant or active?  What should it be named? Post us your comments and ideas.