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Citizens of New Countries Learning Tough Lessons!

The following ‘lessons learned’ are coming out of the latest batch of brand new Civic Mirror Countries …

1. Bangelopia, Hyrule, and Laughganistan!
These three countries are made up of students from Shawnee Mission North High School in Overland Park, Kansas. When asked by their instructor what they learned most from The Civic Mirror Practice Run, these students had the following thoughts:

Samantha, Laughganistan: … and we should have some kind of anti hobo law that makes sure everyone who can afford an apartment or house can get one.

Michaela, Hyrule: I think that I will personally have a very difficult time obtaining the units to support my family. Some people in this class have a lot of money, therefore every kind of unit is going to be very expensive. However, I am the poorest person in this classsmiley for :roll:. The poor minority, which I am a part of, is going to have a lot of trouble keeping their family alive. Hopefully we’ll have a political leader who is aware enough of all the people in this country, not just the rich ones, and makes decisions accordingly.

2. Pangea
This country is made up of Grade 12 International Relations students from Shanghai American School. In reading only a few of their many Practice Run responses, one has to wonder what direction this country is going to take?!

Jeewon, Pangea: I never knew that a capitalist economy could create such inequality. The wealthy got wealthier, and the poor got poorer. It was interesting to experience this myself. If I were to do this again, I think I could do a much better job.

Sammy, Pangea: I think the best system of government would be a government that is actively involved in our country’s activities much like communism. It would regulate food, shelter, energy, and other necessities to keep your family alive. The government could also control the pricing on a lot of the basic needs so prices will not be too high, which isn’t fair to the poor

Jille, Pangea: After the practice run of the civic mirror I have come to realize that one word, chaos, could sum the entire experience up … It was only a matter of seconds in to the simulation before greed was prevalent on each students face … I believe that a dictatorship would be the most affective form of rule (hopefully a dictatorship with socialist views). We desperately needed one person there to tell everyone to stop talking and give us some order.

3. Reunia, Fortress of Solitude, Sinland, and JRS Wasteland.
These four countries come from RULH High School in Ripley, Ohio. Here are what citizens from these countries are saying after their Practice Run:

Andrea, Reunia: The most important thing that i have learned from this game is it is really hard to start off and build your life.

Nick, Reunia: I think that we need to learn how to talk to each other, b/c if not then we are going to fail as a government and as a country.

Shane, Sinland: It’s difficult when no one works together to keep order.

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Citizen Tom Claims Ductopia’s Government is Communist

This post garnered 149 replies from citizens of Ductopia (a CM Country from Queen Elizabeth Secondary School in Surrey, BC) and other CM Countries. In it, Tom, one of the most successful and controversial citizens of Ductopia, analyzes his government’s proposed bill. I learned lots from this discussion, and I hope you do too!

Tom’s Post:

Just for fun lets analyze this Bill. Lets also bring up the discussion of communism in our country.

The Consumer Protection Bill: Effective immediately, income tax is to be raised to 20%. The following parties are applicable to a 50% refund: Persons not possessing ownership of a unit-producing hex, and persons possessing ownership of a unit-producing hex at the discretion of the government. The government will refund taxes to business owners based on the ethical pricing and sale of any produced units.

I guess I will divide this into my main points on what I see wrong with this bill.

Continue reading

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We hope your Civic Mirror story, video, idea, or ‘lesson-learned’ makes its way to the civicmirror.com homepage!

Thanks for reading!

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The Civic Mirror, Version 1, Successfully Launched

LAUNCHED! After 15 months of teachers and students playing and experimenting with the beta version of The Civic Mirror program in over 35 classrooms across North America, South Korea, and China, I am proud to announce that “The Civic Mirror, Version 1” has successfully launched!

THANK YOU! I would like to send out a special thanks to all of the pilot teachers and awesome students for their great feedback, their sense of fun and adventure, and their participation in the online community. Also a big thank you to the web developers who made it happen; to the book designing guru who made the The Civic Mirror’s companion manuals way better than I ever thought they would be; and to two outstanding graphic designers whose talents have made the new program look as good as it does.

A huge thanks to all my students who have participated in the program over the years. Your excitement and passion, your lingering around after class to talk strategy, your ‘ah ha’ moments, and all of your brilliant insights and ideas have truly been my inspiration. Each and every one of you has shown me what education can – and should – be like. Thanks.

Thank you to all my friends and family who encouraged me along the way … even if you didn’t really get it. 🙂 This started out as a silly idea in my classroom because I was bored with textbooks, but if it wasn’t for your support and belief in my vision, The Civic Mirror would never have evolved.

And most of all … Thank you Amy for being the rock that you are. None of this would have happened without your endless support, encouragement, belief in me and the project, and your shared passion for making education more fun, exciting, and meaningful for learners everywhere.

PHASE 2: PIONEERING THE CIVIC MIRROR. We are now moving into the next phase of its growth and development, and will be welcoming and celebrating the first educators to use this cutting-edge program by giving them Civic Mirror Pioneer status. To date, nearly 50 educators – from the middle school to the undergraduate levels – have used the program with much success. And once we reach our target number (of schools and educators using the program), we will move into our next phase of growth and development … which is wide-scale implementation of The Civic Mirror.  So get in while the getting’s good!

If you’re an educator and want to spice-up one of your courses that relate to The Civic Mirror’s themes, contact us to get started. Give us your name, where and what you teach, and simply say, “I’m in, I want to join The Civic Mirror Pioneers!” Then we’ll reply and get you started with either the full program or the Civic Mirror Free Trial (your choice)helping you turn your classroom into a country and your students into citizens.

If you’re a student in a course related to law, government, economics, and/or citizenship and would like to kick it up a notch or two, show your instructor this website … and maybe this video too!

If you’re a parent, a friend of an educator, or just someone interested in citizenship education and preparing this next generation for the realities of the real world, help us out and spread the word. We appreciate any and all word of mouth!

The Civic Mirror’s great already, but just wait … It’s only going to get better!

Sincerely,

Regan Ross.
Creator of The Civic Mirror, and Founder of Action-Ed.

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