Are You Smarter Than A Fourth Grader?

"The price of gasoline dropped nationwide by an average of nearly four cents over the last two weeks, to $1.58 per gallon of self-serve regular, a survey of nearly 7,000 gas stations concluded Sunday."
Test yourself. Before I tell you when this survey was taken, you take a shot at what year this survey was taken. I'll wait here while you ponder this.
Did you guess? Not yet? Did you open up another browser window and ask Al Gore's Internet to give you the answer? It's okay if you did, since that's how I found this report from CNN dated 2003. I wouldn't have imagined that a gallon of gasoline would double in price over four years. Four years before that, the price hovered at $1.20.
A lot has happened in eight years. Even more has happened in the past four. It causes me to reflect on the microcosm of my classroom. Every day, the kids in my class get paid one dollar (classroom currency) for showing up on time, and another for bringing in their homework. Students who don't miss a day and have their homework can bank three hundred and sixty dollars over the course of a school year. What can they use their money for, if they don't want to simply save it? They can buy pencils and erasers for a dollar apiece, but every year the big money maker for Mister Caven is water and trips to the bathroom. At the beginning of the year, "comfort stops" cost the same as a pencil or eraser. As soon as the kids have a few dollars in their pockets, or desks, they feel the urge to spend it. By mid-September, as the demand for trips to the boys' and girls' room increase, so does the price: simple supply and demand. The idea is to try and discourage kids from leaving class for "emergencies" that could have been prevented by taking care of business during recess. By the end of this year, water cost fifteen dollars, and trips to the bathroom were twenty. There were those students who made the connection, and started to rein themselves in, but still others who insisted on living close to the edge. A few kids in my class ended the year owing me money.
What does that mean? First of all, it meant that they weren't eligible for the class store, where we sold giant paper clips, kaleidoscopes, CDs of "Multiplication Rock" and other treasures for ten year olds. It also meant that they spent a year without getting the point. In his State of the Union address in 2006, Pinhead said, "Here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil." That was way back when gasoline was lurching past two dollars a gallon. As a nation, are we limiting our "comfort stops"? Not yet. We're just relieved that we don't have to pay seven dollars a gallon like they do in England. The smart kids in my class figure out early that a trip to the drinking fountain costs fifteen dollars, and then usually ends up creating a twenty dollar trip to the bathroom. They'll wait for recess, when it's free.