On Tuesday, April 9th, the Montessori Students participated in a bartering simulation organized by social studies teacher Stefan Vest. In the simulation students were allowed to bring in items they no longer used or needed and trade them with other students and teachers. The school was arranged like an old time flea market. The students were only allowed to trade goods or services, with no exchange of money. This got really hectic. There were items that everyone wanted, so the value would go way up.
Also, if a student wanted to acquire an item and the seller wasn’t interested in their item for trade, they would have to obtain a different item first. Then they would go back to the original seller and see if they wanted to trade for the new item. This is what most of the students were doing during the simulation.
One lesson that this simulation taught was that if you are very persuasive, you can achieve a lot in batering. For example, Mr. Vest stared out with ordinary junk and ended up with quality items. Overall, this was a very fun learning experience for the students of the Montessori Middle School.
Cypress, Eighth Grade Student
