The Money Game
The money game is a social experiment and role play activity designed to simulate the original thirteen colonies creating an economy, under the supervision of the government. Mr. D'Antonio(my history teacher) played the role of central government, the class dividing up into groups of three, then being assigned a state. Once your state was assigned you came up with a name for a new currency, but the name cannot already be a type of currency(Dollars, Yen, Pesos, etc.). When addressing the central government the first word out of your mouth must be the name of your state, then you may ask your question or make your statement. The central government is quite strict, if you even say any sound as in "um" before your state name he will yell in your face and mark down debt your state owes him on a piece of paper. After your currency name is approved you are given one table and only one to work on, even a centimeter of paper on the table adjacent to you calls for more yelling and debt marks from the central government. At your table your group would then begin constructing your new currency; on each bill you made there must be your state's name, name of your currency, the bill denomination, a quote or saying, and a simple drawing. The central government walks around while you work, yelling at you for talking to other groups, and quite often, grabbing money off your table even when you owe no money and calling it debt or taxes, also known as taxation without representation. When you believed you had created enough money you were to converse with your group and choose an item or items to sell, the items had to be approved by the central government. Furthermore, when speaking with the central government you could be marked to owe him debt for: Not saying your state name before addressing him, saying something he disapproved of, and not saying thank you in an audible tone before walking away. At the time when your product, or, item, is approved you will begin constructing a basic 2D representation of it using markers and construction paper. Now the real chaos and backstabbing begins, the central government can now announce that the states can begin making offers to him, and in exchange he would reside in the state with the best offer, bringing them good fortune. Instead of thinking through their offers everyone would immediately hand the central government large quantities of money telling him to move the government to their state and the central government said yes to the requests, no state considered or paid any attention to the very obvious issue with their "agreements". All the states assumed the central government would be honorable and reside in the chosen state, but he took money from almost every state and chose the one who gave him the most; when confronted about breaking agreements he claimed we had no proof, after all all the states had were their word against his and he was the deciding factor. The central government then announced the chosen state and we all learned what good fortune he could bring them, he stated that all groups must pay the chosen state one hundred of their currency. At this point nearly all states gave in and paid the money they "owed", the only one that did not was my own, we shook our heads and said no to their faces. As punishment for this the central government grabbed a stack of bills from our table and then said loudly "New Jersey now owes every state forty of their currency"(My state was New Jersey). At this point we had had enough and simply hid our money and said no we would pay no one, it seemed the central government could not force us to pay them and had no way to enforce rules other than his own demands and words. Our group at this time had assumed we were all in trouble and decided to not care about any of the rules, we stopped saying our state's name to the central government before addressing him and we refused to pay any and all debts we owed. I was not there to buy and trade items so I do not know what happened that day but i assume it gave many people anxiety. The entire process and game was a social experiment designed by Mr. D'Antonio to see who would rebel first, us learning about trade was just a bonus. All of the rules were arbitrary and completely to his advantage, however one thing was quite interesting; everyone seemed afraid of the central government even though they had no way to enforce their debts, all the states assumed there was some horrible fate awaiting them if they said no to the rules and so they lived in fear of the tyrannical yelling terror we call Mr. D. Even when my state rebelled, we were not punished during the game, we were just told to do something and when we said no we were simply told to do another thing or pay another debt. Finally, around a week after the money game ended, Mr. D'Antonio tells us that he wanted us to rebel the whole time, that my state was doing the right thing by refusing to follow the rules of the central government. I was also told that I would be getting extra credit for these efforts. Yay, right? Nopity nope nope nope, my rebellion also came with a detention, because hey, when you break rules you are punished. Now, if we were not supposed to rebel the detention would be completely warranted, but since he wanted us to rebel and "fight the power", it seems completely unreasonable and irrational to be punished for doing EXACTLY what he wanted. Furthermore, technically I broke no school rules whatsoever, Mr. D'Antonio never told me to follow the central government's rules or orders, technically there weren't even rules, we were simply given directions; I disobeyed no teacher, only the central government, nothing I did, even if the central government were a teacher(which it isn't pfft where would you get such a preposterous ideas, not like it was Mr. D in disguise), would warrant a detention anyways! No dress codes, no cursing, no inappropriate behavior, no blatant disrespect(other than not beginning our statements with our state's name), therefore there is no reason for a detention to be attached to the extra credit given.
