Politics in the Garden, Part 2...Vote results.
Well the results are in. What did our 100 students decide to do with the $254.17? (See Politics in the Garden part I) Well things went about the way we expected until...
What we expected was that the kids would decide to give all the money away. I am sure that Nate Silver could not have called it any better. As each child checked in last Friday, many were saying that they wanted the money to go to kids' lunches. By Friday afternoon, approximately 70% of our third graders had voted to give the money but we had one student (and we suspect a parent) ask to suspend the vote.
Certainly it was tense for few moments but when we found out why, we were glad to do it. It seems she wanted to write a proposal for some other things to do with the money. So we suspended the vote.
The kids proposed this...
$150 to the kids lunch funds.
$75 to a savings account for summer projects
$29 to take care of current miscellaneous projects (mail costs to send seeds, etc)
Really simple, right?
This is what we wanted to happen but we did not really know it.
This young lady proposed a budget that would prepare the garden for next year and help others in the process. The beauty of the project overall is that we have the result that we wanted. The students are thinking ahead and considering the future of the project even when they are going to be out of school. When we were their age, right about this time of the year, we were thinking about sleeping in, going to the beach and watching cartoons. Now we have them thinking about gardening and all of the opportunities that the garden affords.
So that settles it. There goes our summer break as work to maintain the garden this summer and make it better for next year.
Our goal in the next couple of weeks as the kids prepare to go on summer vacation is to find ways to move forward with the project for them and with them. This is year one and it has been a lot about the unforeseen problems but none of the problems that have come up are difficult to overcome and in fact have presented amazing opportunities for our students to excel beyond their expectations.
This is a growing endeavor and we welcome any feedback or suggestions.
Wanna contribute?
Join us on Facebook
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on twitter
Send us an email at thelifecooperative@gmail.com
What we expected was that the kids would decide to give all the money away. I am sure that Nate Silver could not have called it any better. As each child checked in last Friday, many were saying that they wanted the money to go to kids' lunches. By Friday afternoon, approximately 70% of our third graders had voted to give the money but we had one student (and we suspect a parent) ask to suspend the vote.
Certainly it was tense for few moments but when we found out why, we were glad to do it. It seems she wanted to write a proposal for some other things to do with the money. So we suspended the vote.
The kids proposed this...
$150 to the kids lunch funds.
$75 to a savings account for summer projects
$29 to take care of current miscellaneous projects (mail costs to send seeds, etc)
Really simple, right?
This is what we wanted to happen but we did not really know it.
This young lady proposed a budget that would prepare the garden for next year and help others in the process. The beauty of the project overall is that we have the result that we wanted. The students are thinking ahead and considering the future of the project even when they are going to be out of school. When we were their age, right about this time of the year, we were thinking about sleeping in, going to the beach and watching cartoons. Now we have them thinking about gardening and all of the opportunities that the garden affords.
So that settles it. There goes our summer break as work to maintain the garden this summer and make it better for next year.Our goal in the next couple of weeks as the kids prepare to go on summer vacation is to find ways to move forward with the project for them and with them. This is year one and it has been a lot about the unforeseen problems but none of the problems that have come up are difficult to overcome and in fact have presented amazing opportunities for our students to excel beyond their expectations.
This is a growing endeavor and we welcome any feedback or suggestions.
Wanna contribute?
Join us on Facebook
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on twitter
Send us an email at thelifecooperative@gmail.com
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