Teacher: Ms. Kirsten Anthon
Grade/Course: Civics 10, Grade 10
School: Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School
Location: Mississauga, ON

As we mourn the loss of Swaggville, a 10th Grade Civics course in Mississauga, Ontario, we should take a moment to celebrate the memories its citizens left us with and reflect upon the lessons learned during the two simulated years they existed. Fortunately, two reporters, Ashruti P and Anandi P chronicled the happenings of Swagville in their newspaper, The Swagville Times, leaving us with a permanent reminder of their time in CM World….

It all began with promises, promises.
The JSB party made many lofty promises to the citizens of Swaggville, such as guaranteeing free health services to all, and easily won the elections as the minority party.  But, when many of the Swaggville’s citizens were left without health services, they quickly realized they had fallen for one of the oldest political tricks in the book and that the JSB party had no real intention of making good on its promises.  Once the citizens began protesting the lack of services, the Prime Minister (PM) was left to deal with the fall-out.  Initially, he had no actual plan to fix the situation, but eventually come up with a brilliant idea – give the people free security!  (Really?  As if that was a fair solution!)

The citizens had obviously been taken for a ride.  What could they now do? Fortunately for them, the government had a standing Vote of Non-Confidence law which they could use to their advantage and they did!  According to the Swagville Times, “On Monday, January 16, Opposition leader called in for a Vote of Non-Confidence as the citizens had completely lost faith in their government.” The former PM was forced to give away almost all of the government assets such as money, properties, and businesses. Another election was then held and the Better Democratic Party (BDP) won as minority government.

But the struggles of the citizens of Swaggville were not over yet. The Swagville Times reported that since the BDP was still a minority party, it would have a challenging time getting bills passed in the House of Commons. So, Shamit (MP of the Opposition) joined the BDP and made it a majority government. This meant that the new BDP could now contribute to the country’s progress by being able to introduce new and improved bills.

So whoever said life is just a party?  There always need to be checks and balances to ensure that neither government party gets out of control and loses sight of its duty to benefit the citizens it represents.

Thanks to the awesome reporting of Ashruti P and Anandi P, we won’t ever forget the citizens of Swaggville or their rollercoaster ride with their political parties – because life is what you (and your vote) make of it.

The citizens of Aquabania,  students from Mr Ben Boucher’s  12th grade politics class at Bluevale Collegiate Institute, Waterloo, Ontario have created an interesting scenario in the last 2 weeks.

The Background Info:

During the first year of the country, both farms were producing food for the people, and business was good. As the demand increased, prices soared, and many citizens went to the government to complain about the issue. The government, wanting to please these dissatisfied citizens, put a cap on food prices, as well as the number of food units each individual could consume.

As you can imagine, the farmers weren’t too happy about this, and so the Farmer’s Market Co-op was born. As farmer and co-op founder Jordan stated:

Basically, there is a $400 fee to become a member of the Co-op, $200 to each farmer. Myself and Alex keep a list of our members, and those who are a part of the Farmer’s Market Co-op receive priority when it comes to buying food at the price set by the government. We reviewed the constitution extensively before implementing this organization, and we were pleased to find that we violated no laws as long as we sold the food itself at the price cap, and did not blatantly refuse to sell to anyone who was not a member. We were very pleased to report that all members of the Co-op received food this year.

Brilliant isn’t it? These students could have given up and simply sold the food at the set price, watching profits fall, and doing nothing about it. But they didn’t. They got creative, read over the constitution and found a way around it.

I really love this story. Creativity is an asset in all areas, and you can see this in the way that these students have been able to find a way around their predicament. In real life we often become stuck in our own little worlds with our set ways of doing things, and we never extend ourselves enough to discover our potential and life’s possibilities.

 So while the idea of paying membership money to supermarkets before they allow me to shop there horrifies me, I think this is such a great example of how Civic Mirror is not just teaching students about social studies course content, but how it’s teaching them to think outside to box, to dream big, to try new things, and to not just to exist in the world, but to really be a part of it.

The nation of United IB Empire, made up of students from Mr Justin Ambrose’s 10th Grade Civics class at Turner Fenton Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario, is in the middle of a major crisis. After the Open Marketsession last week many students find themselves lacking the necessities to survive. As Hazel describes:

Things (in the open market) went awfully horrible. Many people did not get residence and food units because only the three apartment complexes, one house and one farm were powered. Now, not only are we getting less wellbeing points, one person in our family is sure to die plus three other random deaths. Well done citizens. Of course the country is in jeopardy.

Information from Jaskiran paints an even bleaker picture:

The condition of our country is probably the worst. The gap between the rich and the poor is great – the poorest citizen is me with only $14 but the richest is Sadiya with approximately $15000. The gap is ridiculous. Many people are homeless, have no food and many do not have education.

Citizens are homeless, with no money, no education, no food and family members about to die!!! What is happening in United IB Empire? What can citizens do about their circumstances? Shefali has an idea:

The most important issue of the all, is the E/I unit crisis. Many necessary hexes are unpowered such as security. Many people spent a fortune on their hexes and since there is a shortage of E/I units the money spent will all go to waste! Due to the shortage, U IB E is in jeopardy! Something must be done about the unpowered hexes or our country’s condition will worsen!

How did this happen? Who is in control of E/I units? And why are all the necessary hexes unpowered? Richa shares her opinion:

Like in real life, financial planning and money management are very important in The Civic Mirror, and I found that everyone put themselves first before meeting the needs of others, which is expected and normal. However, some are suffering and many blame it on those who used the E/I units for development. I believe that the people with the E/I didn’t anticipate the effect that their actions would have on others, but this has definitely led to our country being in jeopardy. This relates to real life since one person’s decisions will affect many, especially when that person is in a position of power.

Are the people who own the E/I units to blame? Has urban development and bad judgement calls brought about the death of citizens? Could citizens have anticipated the effect their choices would have on the nation? These are tough questions, and sadly, I can’t answer them. In The Civic Mirror, as in real life, the decisions of one person can greatly affect many. How can we tell what effect our decisions will have?

The citizens of United IB Empire have a major crisis on their hand, but can they work through it? Will they be able to work out a way to power their country and provide food and housing for the people? Or will the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. As we wait to see how the nation deals with crisis, we want the citizens of United IB Empire to know that The Civic Mirror community hopes that you can turn everything around.