MicroSociety

The children run a town of their own

Real jobs, their own money, an election every year and a courtroom they run themselves.

How it works

MicroSociety is not an after-school club or a one-off project week. It is the way the school is organized. For part of every day the building turns into a small town, and the children hold the jobs in it.

The point is not to play at grown-up life. It is that reading, arithmetic and writing stop being abstract the moment a child needs them to run a till, count a float, argue a case or get a story into print.

What it teaches

Arithmetic that has to balance: A till that is short at the end of the day is a real problem, not a wrong answer in a book.
Writing someone has to follow: A rule that can be read two ways gets argued over. Children find that out the hard way, once.
Speaking to persuade: You cannot win an election, or a case, without making somebody else see it your way.
Handling money: Earning it, banking it, saving it and deciding what it is worth spending on.

Six rooms, six jobs

Every one of these is run by our own children, from Kindergarten right through to eighth grade.

The Marketplace

Run by the kids who start the businesses

Children work out what to sell, what to charge, and how to keep customers happy. The ones whose businesses take off have to hire — which means interviewing the classmates who applied.

The Bank

Run by the kid tellers and bookkeepers

This is where children put their wages and keep their savings. Anyone hoping to start a business comes through this door first.

Town Hall

Run by the kids who won the election

Children campaign for the job, their classmates vote, and whoever wins helps write the rules everybody then has to live by.

The Courtroom

Run by the kid judges and their helpers

Both sides get to explain themselves and a decision gets made. Children learn that a rule only counts if there is somewhere to take it.

The Newsroom

Run by the kid reporters and editors

The school paper. Children cover the elections, review the new businesses, and ask the awkward questions in print.

The Stage

Run by the kids who put the shows on

Dance, music and theater with our community partner SoBRO — plus the projects for the neighborhood that the children vote to pay for.

For P.S. 3 staff

These six rooms are our best guess — please correct them

We have described the MicroSociety model as it is generally run, because that is what is published. P.S. 3's own version will have its own names, its own businesses and its own calendar, and those details are what will make this page ring true to a family who knows the school. This is the single most valuable correction staff can make to the whole site.

What the school currency is actually called, and what a wage is worth
The real names of the children's businesses, and what they sell
What the student government is called, and what the elected roles are
When elections are held, and how campaigning works
Whether there really is a student court, and what it is called
The name of the school newspaper, if there is one
Which grades take part, and how often sessions run each week
Photographs of a MicroSociety session in progress
Anything we have described here that is simply wrong

Send this to your NexSav contact, or to Brenda Velez in the main office at bvelez@schools.nyc.gov, and this panel will be replaced with the real thing.