Wlaf1450TOP PHOTO: A group of eighth graders playing the Adulting 101 game are pictured here trying to pick out and budget for a house.
Students participating in Adulting 101 games learn the budget expenses of a trip to the doctor. Volunteer Galia Thompson helped man the “Dogwood Medical” station for the event.
By Charlotte Underwood
LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – Around 170 eighth graders at LaFollette Middle School participated in Adulting 101 on Friday morning. Close to 30 community volunteers came together to help students through the game. According to school counselor Linda Prim, this is the second year the eighth grade students have played the game, and it’s something the school plans on continuing. Gear Up TN’s Adulting 101 game is designed to simulate real world budgeting and provide students with an “interactive experience to develop financial literacy skills.” The game is set in the fictional town of Volunteer Station, but uses salaries and prices based on real-life estimates from a mid-sized growing city in Tennessee.
Laura Broyles operated the Smoky Mountain One Stop Shop helping students budget for furniture and other items.
Students were given calculators, clip boards and assigned careers before being given the choices to buy houses, cars and go through budgeting experiences. The hour and a half long game represented a month of budgeting in which students try not to run out of money. Financial counselors were on hand to help students with budgeting problems.
Students had to factor in real world purchases such as insurance, health care, furniture, gas, utilities, grocery shopping and more. Monica Bane, representing the Green Reaper, circulated throughout the students handing out unexpected expenses such as speeding tickets and trips to the doctor.
Volunteer Jason Freeman “upselling” some students on cars and trucks at the New Wheels Dealership.
The Adulting 101 game takes approximately 90 minutes to play with students separated into two groups. While one group participated in the game, the other group listened to presentations from the high school’s culinary arts teacher as well as the high school’s welding teacher. A representative from Cove Lake State Park also gave a presentation.
Monica Bane as the Green Reaper handed out incident cards such as speeding tickets and doctors visits during the Adulting 101 game. This young man just found out he unexpectedly has “squirrels infesting his attic and he needs to pay for an exterminator.”
“It’s a great learning opportunity for the kids to see the importance of education, and they have fun doing it. It teaches real life budgeting situations and gives them a chance to see first hand how it would be to budget for a month and make decisions,” Prim said. She also said the event could not happen without the “support of the community volunteers and the faculty.” (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 03/09/2020-6AM)