So, I was telling Andrew about how crazy The Blake School (1900) is. I was telling him how my friend and I managed to freak out my friend's girlfriend when we were telling her about a little Blake tradition called Business Day. I will do my best to explain how crazy the concept of Business Day is but I highly doubt I can explain it as funnily as R2 did during his senior speech at Blake.In 8th grade, Blake students go through a rite of passage called Business Day. You and a group of two or three people spend first semester preparing to sell goods and services to parents, classmates and teachers during a day in January. Sounds simple, maybe people have lemonade stands, right? Wrong.
First off, the social studies faculty really should provide a disclaimer that warns students not to be partners with their friends. Every year there are several friendships that fall victim to Business Day. Business and friendship don't work. Especially when you are angst-y, emotionally immature 13 and 14-year-olds. The only reason I am still friends with J., one of my Business Day partners, is because I had never even talked to him before he invited me to join his group.
Anyway, they have slightly changed the rules but you could pretty much do anything you wanted for Business Day. Some people sold boxers, others sold cookies, and some people ran casinos. The rule with casinos was that you had to get something for your money, so losers would be send off with a can of pop. We sold polar fleece mittens, headbands and neckwarmers.
Anyway, after groups were formed, your group could bid to be in charge of utilities. In addition to your main business, your classmates then would have to come to you in order to buy electricity or advertising.
In order to raise funds for your business, you have to sell bonds to your classmates. This was done in order to prevent someone's parents (theoretically) from bankrolling a crazy expensive company. The thing is, that you can set your interest rate as high as you'd like. So on the bus, everyone would try to get 6th and 7th graders to give them money by getting into an interest rate bidding war.
Then Business Day happens and the clothing companies usually sell the most. We were the highest grossing company at Business Day. If you make a profit, you get to keep the money. However, the flip side of that is that, if you lost money, you had to pay out of pocket. Poor R2 did radio controlled racing and one of his teammates was supposed to make sure that the cars were not the same frequency. The key word is "supposed". R2's group ended up losing $200.
And actually, you don't get to keep all the money because the teachers levy a tax on your business after Business Day and used the tax money to buy things for the school like printers.
Business Day was fun and a good learning experience but I STILL cannot believe that Blake actually allowed 8th graders to raise capital from their classmates and run a business (sometimes into the ground) and to operate casinos. I don't think you can run casinos anymore but that still...
Andrew insisted that business day would make a great post, so here it is.
Fin.
