Nineteen volunteers from Team Hill helped eighth graders at North Davis Junior High School learn the realities of adulthood during the school's "Reality Town" activity Nov. 5. The Team Hill members joined other volunteers from local companies to man tables which represented both necessary and ancillary institutions that comprise adulthood for most Americans. They included such institutions as a bank, housing office, car dealership, the county court and a military Reserves recruiting station.
Judee Murray, a counselor at the junior high school, explained that the students were given fictitious jobs and monthly incomes determined by the grade point average they earned the previous term. Students were also given a family scenario to factor into their monthly expense considerations and then were released into the "streets" of Reality Town to acquire homes, cars and, if they had enough money left over at the end of the month, a pet.
The town was set up in one half of the school's gymnasium floor and the "buildings" were made of tables and cardboard backdrops that students painted to resemble building structures, complete with signs. A few benches and fake trees were set up in the center to give students a place to sit and calculate their expenses. Each student also received a checkbook and check register to help them keep track of expenses.
"It's a real eye-opener for some students," Murray said. "They realize that education does make a difference and that they'd better get better grades after doing this activity."
This is the fifth year the North Davis Junior High School has produced this simulation and the second year that members from Hill Air Force Base have volunteered to man the town's institutions.
Tech Sgt. Andrea Jordan, of the 75th Air Base Wing, returned this year to be a housing agent and help each student determine what type of house they could afford. "Most of the kids spend their money on the house and cars, and most of them want the big house."
The crowd that gathered in front of her table emphasized that fact and the lines hardly diminished throughout both two-hour sessions. Each session hosted approximately 150 students. Jordan and her co-agent, Senior Airman Tchaikovsky Crosley, of the 75th Security Forces Squadron, took time to explain to each student what he could realistically afford on his given monthly income.
"This activity really shines a light on what teachers try and stress to the kids," Jordan said. "Also, when the kids are placed in the predicament that their parents are in, like in today's activity, they will get less of that 'gimme' attitude with their parents."
Shortly after visiting the car and housing departments, the lines began to grow at the "second job and military Reserves recruiting" tables, manned by Rick Norstebon, of the 75th ABW, and Scott Wold, of the 372nd Recruiting Group.
"You are choosing to work a job that starts at 6 p.m. and ends at 10 p.m.," Wold explained to one student at his "second job" table. "That means, as soon as you get off from your day job, you will have to go immediately to this night job."
The student reluctantly nodded in agreement with Wold.
"When are you going to have time to hang out with your friends or eat dinner?" he asked.
"I don't know, but I need money!" The student responded. "I have to afford a house and daycare!"
This was Wold's first time participating in the Reality Town activity, but he said that he and his recruiting group actively volunteer in the community at least once a month. "We give back to this community as much as possible."
Other students crowded Wold's table while scribbling answers on the general knowledge quiz given by Norstebon at the military Reserves recruiting table nearby. Depending on the students' scores on the quiz, they qualified for either an officer or an enlisted position, or they were told there were no openings if they did not score enough points to qualify for either. If the student qualified for a position, Norstebon "deposited" $200 or $400 into the student's check register.
Then, just when the students thought they had their accounts in order and they felt like behaving like a kid again, "officer" Tom Hutchinson, a counselor at the junior high school, was standing by to arrest them for loitering, speeding (running), or assault (one friend playfully hitting another friend).
Hutchinson delivered the offenders to the county court table, manned by Tech Sgt. Kenny Hawley and Master Sgt. Kyle Perry, both of the 372nd RG. After hearing the offender's case, the two ruled a judgment and delivered either a fine or warning to the offender. If fined, the offender had to write a check to the court and the "judges" deducted the fines from the student's check registers.
Each student was also instructed to visit the "just my luck" table, where they drew cards that had either good or bad scenarios written on them. Depending on the scenario each student drew, their accounts were either deducted or supplemented.
Reality Town was created by a middle school business teacher in Utah more than 12 years ago and is now implemented in approximately 100 middle and high schools statewide.
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