8th Grade students from Ms. Jamie Samione’s social studies class at Maplewood Middle School in Lynwood, WA, who make up Snorlax Sity, have just completed a Civic Mirror simulated year, and have valuable advice to students just starting the game.
The reflections of this class really stood out to me, and impressed me a lot. The class has had some great insights about life and the real world from what’s happened within the game, which is really exciting to see. The students are willing to learn from their mistakes instead of hide from them, and I can see that this will make their next ‘year’ of CM even better, as well as being a skill they will take with them from the game.
Emily shares:
“In my opinion the most important civic responsibility for every American citizen is to manage your money. If you do that then that helps you create a shelter, provide food, healthcare, security, and education for your family.”
While Sydney Boland thinks that:
“the most important responsibility is to speak up if you think something is not going good. I think this is important because if you don’t speak up nothing is going to change. I learned this in Civic Mirror because there was something i didn’t like that was going on and i just thought that someone else was going to bring it up but no one did and nothing changed.”
This is so true Sydney! We often spend so much time complaining about all the things that we see going wrong, but rarely step up to work to change it. There are always going to be things that happen out of our control, but if you have an opportunity to create change, go for it! It might start in the classroom, but this is the very essence of active citizenship, and what a great place to start learning about it.
Clayton reasons that:
“I think the most important thing is to not focus too much on a single part of your life. You need to be aware of everything you need to get and the status of getting it. (Mostly units). Also, you need to really think about your hidden agenda.”
Josie also has some great advice:
“After playing Civic Mirror, I think that if you want to have a great and fun time playing this game, you need to be active with the game and contribute your ideas. When you play Civic Mirror, you have to make smart decisions, for instance, keeping your family alive by feeding them and giving them a place to live. Similar to real life, you need to keep your family alive and supply them with the right needs. In this game, you don’t always get what you want and you have to live with what you have.”
We certainly don’t always get what we want, but it can take some people a while to figure this out. Working with what you have, making smart decisions and providing for your family, sounds like a good plan.
Snorlax Sity residents have completed their first year, and now have an opportunity to stand up, make changes where they see a need, continue fighting for their family, and rise up as a nation. Will they take this opportunity??
