WEEK 11 - TAXES AREN'T....FAIR

This past week we participated in an activity involving M&M's (or skittles) and we got to participate in a simulation involving taxes.  During the simulations across 7 classes times 40 students per class, the most common phrase I heard:  THAT'S.  NOT.  FAIR.  Oh how beautiful that was to my ears.  We are studying various events leading up to the American Revolutionary War.  Perhaps the number one cause of the American Revolutionary War was, in fact, TAXES.  One tax after the next after the next after the next.  Those in the America's were FURIOUS.  Taxation without representation IS unfair.  Talk to your kids about the simulation and the frustration they may have felt and what it was like for them to pay taxes by way of candy.  I posed the question to them that if they had say in the taxes presented and the amounts they had to pay, would they have been okay with paying them.  Without fail, they all said yes.  Taxation with representation is a concept they could wrap their minds around and appreciate.  Taxation without representation is a concept, thankfully, they did NOT want or desire.  This simulation is one of my favorites each year because it truly dawns on students that we must be vigilant in watching our government and how they tax, what they tax and where the tax is going.