Tampabay: Students experience real-world lessons

"If we recycle, we have to give the money back to the community," Emily Gore tells the council members seated before her. "We were thinking about using the money to buy plants for the butterfly garden."

She surveys the members, hears no objection and moves to the next item on the agenda.

Gore -- "the mayor" to her classmates -- is a fifth-grader at Maximo Elementary School, where students are engaged in what amounts to an education experiment.

The school has a bank, post office and a town hall. Its students have jobs, start their own businesses and take home a weekly salary in the school's own currency.

Maximo is one of just 230 elementary and middle schools in the nation using a teaching tool called MicroSociety. Researchers say it works.

"It seems to be remarkably effective in most schools in terms of increasing student motivation and improving the way kids learn," says David M. Kutzik, an associate professor of sociology at Drexel University in Philadelphia. "Some kids who do not shine in the classroom become stars in MicroSociety."

Kutzik studied the FCAT scores of seven Florida schools that used the program for two years. He found that reading and math scores increased significantly after MicroSociety was added to the curriculum.

"Some of the concern of teachers was that MicroSociety would detract from academics, and the opposite is true," he said. "It enhances academics."

Maximo's 678 students spend most of their class time studying the usual reading, writing, math and science. But for 30 minutes a day, four days a week, the school becomes something entirely different.

On Tuesday and Wednesdays, students shop for goods at the Mega Book Mart, appear in Citizen's Court for moving violations and deposit their checks in the Mariners' Trust.

"You have to work to earn your money," says Sophie Gray, a fifth-grader and Maximo's vice mayor. "If you don't work, you don't earn money."

On Mondays and Fridays, they make products for their business ventures, chart their gains and losses and develop new ideas.

The Maximo program is funded by a federal grant the district received a year ago to foster voluntary desegregation. The money was earmarked for academic programs at Gulfport, Campbell Park and Maximo elementaries. Maximo's share is $1.82-million, spread over three years.

Gore, the school's mayor, says the program provides a solid lesson in civics. She has learned to greet visitors with a firm handshake and a copy of her business card.

"You have to learn to have a very good temper," says Gore, 11, who won an election for office last fall. "You get more mature in your job as mayor."

Gray, the vice mayor, says the lessons she and her peers are learning are invaluable. Though their work, Maximo students earn "friendship dollars," which they can use to buy merchandise on campus.

"If you go out into the world not knowing what to do with your money, not knowing how to fill out deposit slips, then you could end up losing money," she says.

Donte Johnson, 11, was stationed in front of the Town Hall last week keeping watch of the school's citizens.

"When people run you have to say 'walk,' " he says. "If they don't walk, you give them a ticket."

Fines range from $25 for battery -- defined as not keeping your hands to yourself -- to $35 for running. Johnson says he is careful not to abuse his power.

"I'm learning more respect," he says.

Behind the Town Hall doors, Calvin Kleinberger, the 11-year-old court clerk, is flipping through violations and sending attorneys to classrooms to get defendants.

Down Main Street, Zachariah Parkhill, 10, is depositing his $42 check from his work as an attorney. On the edge of Main, Tyler Moriarty, 8, is selling candy and toys.

Business is going well, he says. The venture has more than $5,000 in its account "because I'm selling items that children want to buy."

The students look forward to MicroSociety. More important, they look forward to school.

When they research their businesses and write business plans, nobody calls it reading and writing.

When they earn, deposit and spend money, they don't lift an eyebrow about the math involved.

Teachers have their own theories about why the program works.

"I think it's because they are given the same responsibilities that their parents are given," says Elizabeth Williams, a third grade teacher.

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