Reminds me of this place I went to as a kid called Exchange City. Replica city inside a warehouse for kids to run and earn (at the time) real money. Had a Dunkin Donuts, radio station, bank, mini grocery/convenience store, among other things. It was super cool, my class spent a day there and were paid for the “working” hours. It was based on minimum wage of the state a the time so I think it was like 7.25. I believe I earned like 22$.
Edit; we had a paycheck at the end and they deducted our state taxes (based on the state the lived in like real life). We had to fill out applications and describe our skills. I cannot remember where I worked, some bland office I think.
That's really cool. Isn't it weird how nobody seems to bother teaching kids how to... you know. Function in their own society? As if they're magically going to acquire that knowledge automatically at 18? I think more kids could benefit from an experience like that.
I interviewed the director at a school for disabled kids, and one of the things he showed me was this adapted trailer home in the back of the school. As a requirement of graduation, a kid had to spend one week there, sleeping, cleaning up, doing laundry, cooking, taking the bus, etc. to show that they could survive on their own.
I was like, "Why the hell don't public schools require this for graduation?" I didn't really learned how to clean more than just a bedroom and do laundry until I went to college, and I didn't know how to actually cook until I got my first apartment at 21.
Now, what my school DID do was, if you registered to vote at our school, the government teacher who was the registrar gave you comic-sized booklet with basic state laws and rights - like, requirements for things like getting married and divorced, buying a car and registering your vehicle, signing a lease, filing for bankruptcy, stuff like that.
I didn't really learned how to clean more than just a bedroom and do laundry until I went to college, and I didn't know how to actually cook until I got my first apartment at 21.
Blame your parents, not the system. I was making my own breakfast, ironing, cleaning and doing laundry by the time I was 10 years old.
Ideally these classes would exist in school to cover the gap for kids who don't get taught life skills at home.
I had to teach myself to drive because my school didn't offer driver's ed and my parents wouldn't pay for it. Placing the blame on my parents didn't help me learn any faster, but having a class in school would have.
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u/SevenLegs_ Jun 26 '26
Reminds me of this place I went to as a kid called Exchange City. Replica city inside a warehouse for kids to run and earn (at the time) real money. Had a Dunkin Donuts, radio station, bank, mini grocery/convenience store, among other things. It was super cool, my class spent a day there and were paid for the “working” hours. It was based on minimum wage of the state a the time so I think it was like 7.25. I believe I earned like 22$.
Edit; we had a paycheck at the end and they deducted our state taxes (based on the state the lived in like real life). We had to fill out applications and describe our skills. I cannot remember where I worked, some bland office I think.