Little BIG Town - Junior Achievement in Wisconsin

At first I imagined I would liken the overall experience to “herding cats,” but “puppies” would be much more accurate.  You see cats are creatures that (while unruly and un-herdable) are aloof, solitary, and temperamental in nature; whereas puppies on the other hand are rambunctious, careless and eager to get into stuff.  The later would describe what it’s like when dealing with 120 fifth-grade boys and girls; particularly when you’re unused to doing it.  The day was like that.  It is again (on days like that) when I reflect on just how little the average elementary school teacher is compensated for his or her sacrificial efforts.

The JA Kohl’s Corporation has dedicated a great sum of monetary sponsorship into the infrastructure of a dynamic education center located within the Wisconsin Junior Achievement Center on the very northern edge of Milwaukee, WI.  Their JA BizTown combines in-class learning with a day-long visit to a fully interactive, simulated town.  Students should leave understanding the relationship between what they learn in school, and their participation in a local economy.  Students (called “citizens”) operate a bank, restaurant, city hall, newspaper, retail store and 10 other businesses.

Volunteers are crucial to making the program successful.  JA reaches out to the participating schools for help, as well as to the surrounding communities for enough bodies to staff the various venues with adult leadership.  No previous experience with JA is necessary to volunteer; however I can testify that it couldn’t hurt either.  Careful emailed instructions are forwarded to the willing adults with attached documents to fill-out, and the emails also contain links to several tutorial videos that are to be viewed prior to your on the job training experience.  All of these pre-emptive and helpful vehicles are good; but nothing beats having been there before.

Each business and venue within JA BizTown has a CEO and CFO, as well as other worker-bees that need to come in ready to fly from the get-go.  Specific children would have been identified by each participating classroom teacher, previous to the trip to the center.  The visiting students were only somewhat prepared for their various assignments (by their sponsoring school) ahead of their experience.  I say “somewhat” because there were plenty of holes stepped into and back out of; related to that preparation phase.  Having spent more than a few hours with youth, associated with to raising my own children, and again with Cub Scout leadership; I can sympathize with the challenge.  Add to that, the type of family structure that so many of these kids come from; and you have an uphill battle with attention spans and retention of knowledge.

My assignment for the day was the “Supply and Delivery” storefront.  This was ironic, as one of my regular duties within DFMS is to oversee the warehouse operations for the District’s repair and maintenance activities.  The purpose of the venue is to provide just that; supplies and deliveries to all of the other fledgling businesses all over JA BizTown.  I likened the business model to a cross between the post office and a Sam’s Club with only business members allowed to shop. 

My five little charges for the day met me at the front of the store at around 9:00 AM; three boys and two girls.  Noah was to be the CEO and Joshua the CFO, with Mariah as the Store manager.  Travis and tiny little Fabiola were to be the mail carriers for the day.  When all the busses with students had arrived, a brief town-meeting was held with all the citizens sitting at the front of each storefront on black industrial strength, man-made carpet flooring intended to resemble asphalt.  Green was intended as intermixed grassy areas.  Step on the green and receive a fine from the town police force; that was taken immediately from your bank account.  The microphoned instructions were many and rapid-fire, covering everything from bathroom breaks, to the method by which more impromptu town meetings would be called.  Afterward, I introduced myself and gave a few Supply and Delivery ground rules before each was shown to their laminated green work-assignment job descriptions, affixed to brown clipboards.  This needed to happen quickly, as there were multiple children already standing at the opening to the pretend street; looking for supplies for their own businesses.

The idea was that each business was supposed to have given a $5.00 check to the courier that was sent over, for their individualized (start-up) supplies.  Our crew was thrown a curve right off the bat, when children were standing there with some other type of meaningless card, attempting to get their goods.  So basically, we had some kids waving legitimate paper checks, wanting service, while other hapless kids had been sent on a red herring with bupkis.  Once I was able to sort out the growing bottle-neck; we were able to fill all the orders with minimal grumbling.  I was suffering with a chest-cold, so raising my voice was not an option anyway. 

After the initial wave of humanity accosted our place of business, there was some time to concentrate on the multiple job duties, each had been given as a part of their day’s adventure.  I read and re-read each card in my head and attempted to translate what was being communicated without actually doing the task itself.  It was stressed to us often, that the “children are to do everything.”  That’s where I guess I might have spent a bit more time in “simulation” back at school.  The kids knew some things, but seemed flummoxed by other instructions on the cards.  I will give them a lot of credit however for their computer abilities.  These children were apparently raised-up with more technology available to them than mere Pong; like when I was their age.  In fact; it seemed that when it came to computer-driven tasks; they were at home.  Communicating verbally with each other was a bit of a challenge however.

There were red, yellow, and green dots that needed to be kept track of too.  These indicated when each citizen could go to eat lunch or shop amongst the other actual stores.  These dot colors corresponded to the lit lamp of a traffic signal (“stop and go light” if you’re from the Midwest) for guidance.  There was also a single residential style, black mailbox on a stand under a large clock in the center of town.  Part of the job description of Travis and tiny little Fabiola was to “check the mail” and bring it back to our storefront for processing when the “flag was up” on the box.  I realized there was an issue when I was asked over and over as to when either of them could get the mail.  I said, “When the red flag was up.”  They looked at me curiously.  “Oh, I said, you don’t know about flags on mailboxes, do you?”  I felt old again.

During one of our mandatory “staff meetings” on the carpeted floor of the shop the CEO passed out the paper paychecks to each worker, along with a debit card.  I worked with them as quickly as I could to rip out the correct savings slip and deposit slip that had (thank the Lord) been filled out previously while they were at school.   I was asked by Mariah if I was a cowboy.  I hesitated, looking at my boots and western shirt along with my western-style leather phone holster with a five-pointed star Concho and said, “Why yes…I am a cowboy.”  I expected further questioning; but that was that.  Kids are great; if you want to be a cowboy - that’s just fine with them.

I stayed to man the store and watch over the remaining kids while each in turn, went to the bank, lunch, and shopped for trinkets with their play cash, debit cards, and checkbooks.  Occasionally some little kid would wander in to our shop with a paper in their hand and just stand there.  Each seemed to need some prompting as to what was their mission.  One in particular named Luis, needed our wee CFO Joshua, to translate into Spanish what he was there for.  One other kid named Zaire stood there with a large, half broken tape measure in his hand.  He asked to measure the shop.  I looked at his clipboard for clarification and discovered that the poor fellow had been from the assessor’s office.  He needed the square footage in order to levy a tax upon us!  Wow…talk about crappy pretend jobs. Well, I got through that day unscathed and was presented with a hand-written certificate and a scoop of Culver's custard coupon. The kids left around 1:30 PM to get back on their busses.  I went back to the office to finish my work day.  Funny how when I do that; the day seems so very, very long. 

I came back on Friday (two days later) to do it all over again.  This time I was spared the rigors of Supply and Delivery, for another (new) assignment as co-shopkeeper of the Joy Global storefront.  My business partner was named “Wei” from GE medical systems.  It seems a large group of her counterparts had all volunteered for duty on the same day as I had.  Joy Global is a large company in the City of Milwaukee that specializes in enormous mining equipment manufacturing.  Our “Joy Global” had the look and feel of that sort of company; but we were responsible for manufacturing a version of imprinted mug, and lapel button with a design impregnated upon it.  These were to be “made” and sold from the store; along with a really cool “mining simulator” game.  The latter was a timed play activity that was sold for $1.00 for two minutes of operation.

Our group of CEO, CFO, Store Manager, Design Technician, and Simulator Trainer consisted of girl, boy, girl, girl, girl in that order.  The CEO was named Milica (pronounced “milt-za”) and seemed a natural for the position.  Everyone did their part very well, and we soon had our mugs and pins cranked out and ready for sale to the “citizen customers.”  The students were all very eager to have their turn walking through the town; purchasing whatever they could buy with the money they had “earned” while “working for the company”.  Whoopie Cushions seemed to be the hot item; with the Koss earbuds (for $4.00 a pair) a close second.  The simulator was a big hit with the boys, and the mugs and pins were bought by girls, eager to have something tangible to take home from their day’s experience.

This time the day was a little more in focus; as I had done it before.  Small things I had missed during my first day were revealed; such as more detail about the ways in which the City Hall police could fine the citizens for breaking the laws of JA BizTown, who (which color group) was to “hold” onto their banking paperwork after the first staff meeting, what the orange (half-sheet) W4s were for, and who wanted them to be filled out, etc.  It was apparent that a wee bit more familiarity with the entire nuance of JA BizTown, would be immensely valuable for the new-bees; particularly those (like me) who were running a quart low due to a bad head cold.

Again, the day ended quietly and well-orchestrated, with the children returning to their assigned bus on schedule.  I returned to my office to finish the day with a great respect for the companies who volunteer their resources; both monetary and labor-dedicated to make this completely worthwhile endeavor operate.  They are to be thanked and mentioned in affectionate ways for their sacrifice.  Volunteerism is the one way in which satisfaction is a two-way street.  As someone wise once said; when you cast a vote; you get that one chance to make a difference – when you volunteer; you get that chance over and over again.

Without the many area companies and businesses to support this worthwhile endeavor; none of the magic could even get started.  Thank you to all who have "invested" in children through generous and selfless gifts!

Julie Plagge (MPS Facilities) in the KOSS storefront; awaits her student workers.