Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Paying to Go

No work today. I'm getting over a headache. It hit me hard when I got home, but it's now mostly dissipated.

Yesterday was such an interesting day. I like to see how various teachers run their classrooms. Sometimes they have interesting ideas. One of the points in yesterday's lesson plan was that the class had a class economy, so it cost the students "money" if they wanted to use the restroom.

A lot of special ed teachers have a reward system that uses fake money. On Fridays these students get to "shop" in the teacher's "store" for rewards like pencils or candy or chips. So, I was familiar with the idea. However, this teacher did it in a different way.

He charged $20 for a restroom pass.

I thought that amount a bit high. But then I saw some corrected work on the teacher's desk, and attached to that was a "check" for $6000. Okay then, $20 not that high. Since it was the going rate, no one balked when I asked for it when they asked to use the restroom.

When I asked one student for the $20, he asked to borrow it from another student. I wondered if this was legal. Since the second student readily lent the money, and the first student promised to repay, I figured they did this sort of thing all the time.

Then later in the day, I asked for the $20, and the student went looking for it in his folder. He had several ones, but nothing larger. So, he pulled out a check, and he wrote me a check for $100. He had a ledger and everything. I assumed that he had enough in his "bank account" to cover the $100. If not, I guess he'd be "overdrawn".

I left the check for the teacher. I gave the student $80 cash back. I had that student in a later period, and we did the exact same thing then. I guess they have separate funds for each class.

I wonder what else they spend their funds on. Since the classes were so well-behaved, I figure that whatever this teacher is doing is working.

9 comments:

  1. Interesting. I am in an elementary school so that system would probably result in a lot of "Clean Ups" for the custodian.
    All I know is that if I had to pay 20.00 to go to the bathroom, I would have to take a second job just to get through the day!
    Interesting article. From what I see, kids are going to need to have to learn how to budget their money long before they are out on their own. Could we call this their "PEE-conomy?" Sorry, could not help it.

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  2. Wow! I didn't know they did things like that. And, I hope your headache gets better.

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  3. Headaches are the worst. You have my sympathies.

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  4. A headache? That stinks. Hope it goes away.

    The "money" sounds like a good idea, though. They learn how to budget, how to make out checks...smart idea.

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  5. I see that fairly often. With the younger kids, they just hand over the money with no expectations of change or even thinking of the amount on the money. I guess you have to start somewhere.

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  6. $20 to pee? I think the airlines just got ideas for another fee!

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  7. Never heard of doing it that way, but whatever works! I wonder what's the punishment if they go into debt?

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  8. I hope your headache goes away!

    That's an interesting strategy.

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  9. Jennifer--When the kid handed me the $100 check, he asked for cash back (which I didn't include only due to space concerns). He did it so that he would have cash in the future.

    Rogue--Shhhh! Don't tell them. (Besides, it was fake money. I wonder if the airlines would mind copied play money.)

    And thank you all for your kind words about my headache. It's gone for now.

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