Civic Mirror Applies to the Real World

Civic Mirror is such a great teacher because it imitates real life and in doing so gives students the ability to make choices imitating those in real life.

I am but a humble student so fair warning: this is just some of my take away. I learned how to play the game, and now I am trying to process how to translate that to my life outside the classroom. In my eyes, this is how the game represents the intricate web of choices people can make and why.

People have needs to live.
The game represents those needs with units that players need to keep their family members alive.
For example: school is represented with Education units you can buy and "consume", Food with food units that look like apples. Insurance, Healthcare, Medicine, Police and Security, Electricity, and Art and unnecessary fun stuff are all represented by units. Consuming those units give you points. Home and Shelter are represented by hexes. You can own it and live there, or rent a place from someone else.

There is a Government to protect the group of citizens in the country
Students vote on representatives in Congress and a President, who chooses one National Judge. Their powers and the operation of the government all follow a simplified version of the US Constitution.

People are invested in their success in life.
In the classroom grades are given for (hopefully) participation (but possibly success with Hidden Agenda goals- read on)

People have a perspective; people want the world to be better and they normally have their own idea of how to get there, which motivates them.
Students are assigned a Hidden Agenda, a secret set of goals to reach by influencing fellow citizens and the game.

Stuff is owned by people, and sold to other people. 
Units can be sent to other players through the game's trading system.

There is a system to keep order; the government creates laws and enforces them. There are punishments for people who don't follow rules.
The "Summer Season" allows people to accuse fellow students of wrongdoing. In "Fall Season" the National Judge presides over a case and three student jurors decide if the accused is guilty. Lawyers can be hired and arguments are made. The judge decides the punishment if the crime was committed.

Cool Card Trick

When I went to Tech Trek I learned this cool card trick that works every time. I am still trying to understand the mathematics of it. All you need is a 52 card deck. The value of the cards goes A=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J=11, Q=12, K=13.

In the end, there will be three piles in front of you, two with their top cards face up and one with its top card face down. You will count the number of cards in your hand and know the value of the remaining face-down-top-card.

Setting up the piles:

1. To start a pile you put the top card of your shuffled, 52 card deck down on the table, face up. You count the value of this card, then place down cards until you get to 13. 
1. For example, if you pull an 8 of Spades, then you count that as 8. Then you would place 5 more cards down face up, regardless of their value. Then you flip the pile over so you can no longer see any value or suit. 
2. Here's another pile: Say you start with the 4 of Hearts. You count that as 4, then place down 9 more cards face up, regardless of value. 
2.  You continue creating piles until you can't. For example, say you have one card left in your hand. If it's a King, you count it as 13, and make a one card pile. If it's not a King, you keep it in your hand. Or say you have 3 cards remaining in your hand. You pull the top and it's a 5. You don't have enough cards to complete the pile, so you hold the 3 cards.

The Beauty of It:

1. Now that you have your 4+ piles, you select three. 
2. Then you pull away the rest and reincorporate them into the deck you hold in your hand of the remaining cards. 
3. You count out 10 cards and put them into a discard pile. 
4. Then you flip over the top card of one of the piles. You discard the amount of cards of the value of the top card you just revealed. 
5. You do the same with another pile; Flip over the top card and discard the corresponding number of cards.
6. Now, if you count the number of cards in your hand, that will be the value of your remaining face down top card!

Civic Mirror Advice

This past year in school, my class ran through a simulation called Civic Mirror. It was one of my favorite school experiences and I got pretty involved.

Each student is randomly assigned a Hidden Agenda. In the US they are Liberal, Conservative, Fascist, Capitalist, Socialist, and Environmentalist. The Hidden Agendas represent motives/mindsets of real world people with a set of goals that you try to reach. For example I was Liberal. My goals were to keep income and property taxes above 0%, make sure the government owned from 20-40% of the hexes that produced units/ living places, make sure the government owned all the hexes that produced units people would die without (or that everyone in the country got the units they needed to stay alive), and that an election had occurred in the last year. So as a liberal I was protecting taxes, maintaining a healthy balance in government vs private owned businesses, making sure everyone fulfilled their essential needs, and ensured democracy was protected.

I am a bit of a geek, nerd, dork, so it wasn't hard for me to get involved in CM. I would wake up looking forward to it. Honest. Being so enthusiastic helped me succeed, I think. I participated and spent time outside of class with it. If you aren't enthusiastic, here's some advice:

1. Participate- the easiest way is by being elected or appointed to a public position, but you can also start a charity, bank, or news service, etc.
      I was elected to the government and it kept me busy. I put a lot of time into the position and that in turn gave me a lot of power. If you do become part of the government and you know you'll be able to do more than two- four years you should start small. Rising from House Rep, to Senate, to Pres. is more impressive than Pres. to private citizen/ a less dominant position in the government (obviously all branches should be equal, but President can be more prestigious than Justice or Senate President, especially in a middle school- high school classroom).  The government positions should be paid, so just voting on legislation will 1) earn money, 2) score you HA points, and 3) earn you participation points for your actual grade.
2. Read your manual and Constitution. Knowing what's up and what you can and can't do on your own, without waiting for the teacher or other students to reprimand you, gives you a headstart.
      Because I read the simplified version of the US Constitution, I also learned a lot about the rights in the US and the powers of each branch. For example, (I didn't end up using it in the game) but if laws regarding taxes were brought up in the Senate and you don't like the law, you can try to overturn it in Court because it was passed unconstitutionally- only the House can initiate bills regarding revenue. I had a lot of fun overturning/ repealing laws in my first year because they weren't Constitutionally passed. When I started as Senate President the next year I was more prepared and able to pass some great bills (for me and my HA, but also to improve the overall well being of my society/ country in the game).

If you are enthusiastic:
I crunched the numbers and came up with some cold statistics to present in my debates. It helps to know how many units are available in each type, total, so you can calculate how to help the most people. For example, our class needed x Education units, y Health, and z Food. Because you start with <x Edu., >y Heath, and =z Food, the least fortunate (in connections or money) would not be able to get Education units. I brought this to my classmates attention and passed a law limiting the amount of money you pay for a unit and making distribution more equal. Another issue is the environment. If you develop too many Wilderness Hexes (look like trees) people will start to die. But if our class didn't develop an Education hex eventually, people would suffer from not being able to get units. So I crunched some more numbers, and found that our community could spare a few houses, so we developed the houses into other hexes.

Ambitious Summer Reading List

If you are looking for an ambitious reading list to fill your summer, here are 23+ works. Credit to  China Rich Girlfriend  for the highlighted books... you can find all the CRA recommended reads here: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/06/crazy-rich-girlfriend-kevin-kwan-excerpt or with the search "China Rich Girlfriend reading list".

(Crossing my fingers I'll finish it. I pledge to finish at least half the books on this list.)



Dune by Frank Herbert
Midnight Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier
Little Manila is in the Heart by Dawn Bohulano Mabalon
America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan
Snobs by Julian Fellowes 
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee
People Like Us by Dominick Dunne
The Power of Style by Annette Tapert and Diana Edkins (this is out of print)
Pride and Avarice by Nicholas Coleridge
D.V. by Diana Vreeland
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur by Gayatri Devi
Jane Austen—complete works beginning with Pride and Prejudice
Edith Wharton—The Custom of the Country, The Age of Innocence, The Buccaneers, The House of Mirth
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Anthony Trollope—all the books in the Palliser series, beginning with Can You Forgive Her? 
In Search of Lost Time- Proust
The Heavens- Sandra Newman
“Calligrammes”- Apollinaire
“Les Fluers de Mal”- Charles Baudelaire
Le Pere Goriot- Honore de Balzac
The Phantom Tollbooth- Norton Juster
To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
America is not the heart- Elaine Castillo
Hollywood Costume: Glamour! Glitter! Romance!- Diana Vreeland
Social Creature- Tara Isabella Burton
Among Others- Jo Walton
Les Miserables- Victor Hugo

For Spanish learners:
(Crossing my toes I read these in Spanish:)

La Vida Imaginaria- Mara Torres
La Casa de los Espiritus- Isabel Allende
Como Para Agua Chocolate- Laura Esquivel


Any more suggestions?

Civic Mirror:

Better than Chocolate Ice Cream, maybe not as good as Night Swimming, but one of my Favorite Experiences

This past school year, my Social Studies class ran through a simulation called Civic Mirror. Being me, a bit of a dork, geek, nerd, teacher's pet, etc., I became obsessed. I learned a lot about the US, fellow students, and making choices, and I thought a lot about political and moral questions raised from those decisions. I put a lot of time into this 'game' and would wake up looking forward to the class. In order to keep myself off my phone and away from the TV this summer, I am going to write about my Civic Mirror experience for future Civic Mirror participants. I wish this game was part of the National Standards:)

What it is in a nutshell:

Civic Mirror is this "game" that tries to imitate the students' real country in the Constitution and structure of the government. The physical world is represented by hexes (the land/ buildings) and units (products) that are produced by the hexes (like how factories produce goods). We got to buy or trade units with simulated money, create laws, and sue each other.