Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 17, 1994 TAG: 9404190013
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Elizabeth Strother editorial writer
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Married? Yes. Children? Two. Have you finished high school? Yes. College? Yes. Have you delayed having a child till after you completed your education? Yes.
For the final question - "How much money would you like to save each month?" - he had replied, "$36 million."
I chuckled knowingly, said something like "sorry, no way," and looked at my "client" to share a little laugh with me.
Instead, he bounced in his seat and asked innocently, "Please?" As I shook my head, he scrunched up his face, jumped up and whipped his body from side to side, arms flapping. "Please, please, pleeeeease?" he begged.
I laughed and, feeling like a meanie mom who wouldn't let the kid have a Coke for breakfast, turned to the next page in his booklet and showed him where to fill in the amount he could expect to bring home each month - before taxes - as an entry-level teacher: $1,750.
This cute little fella couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 years old, after all. Too young to give up that dream of millions piling up somehow. Too young, really, for reality.
I sent him on his way to the next station, the B&C Bank, where he'd find out how much he had to deduct to pay for the loans that had paid for his college education, plus anything he wanted to set aside as savings. He'd definitely have to rethink that $36 million there.
This kid was in The Reality Store. No winsome pleas were going to change the numbers.
This was just a game for him, and a fun one, apparently - this was the second or third time I had seen him and many of the other youngsters. It had a serious purpose, though.
The Alexandria chapter of Business and Professional Women set up The Reality Store last weekend to give youths a fairly painless free sample of life, to let them make choices and get a glimmering of their consequences. I was there because my social-worker sister, Barbara, had organized the program for the second year in a row, and I wanted to see how it worked.
The Reality Store's targeted customer was older than my little dream child. It was most useful to youngsters 13, 14, 15, old enough to make choices that will affect their lives, but too young to understand fully the impact they will have.
Planning to have a baby before finishing high school and still become a lawyer?
A trip through The Reality Store should open anyone's eyes, with stops not only at the bank, but also at the tax table, the housing table, the utilities table, the clothing table, the food table, the child-care table, the transportation table ... all stops where the bills come due, and the balance dwindles from that monthly salary.
It was telling that a lot of youngsters started back at my table, the salary table, a second time to choose a new job and reduce their family size. The little ones were just playing ("How much you get?" they'd ask, pressing in on each other, grabbing at booklets to get a look at the salary line at the start of the exercise. "I got more than you!")
But some kids, just a little older, were obviously facing tough choices - and for some, The Reality Store was a little shop of horrors.
One little girl stepped up and told me confidently she was going to be an actress. Hmm .... Actress was not even on the list of professions and starting salaries provided to me by the store. This was supposed to be reality, after all.
I explained as gently as I could that only a handful of people in the whole country become actors who make a lot of money. Most have to work at something else while they try to establish themselves, and most never get that big break that shoots them to stardom.
But if she really wanted to be an actress, we could figure, generously, that she might make $15,000.
She looked stunned, then her eyes filled with tears and she turned to her dad, standing behind her. She said nothing, but demanded silently that he change this, and it was left to the poor fellow to explain some of the harsh realities of life.
"Great," I thought, "welcome to The Crushed-Dream Store," and her dismay made me feel a little like crying myself. I went ahead and helped her sister who, luckily, had a more routine career in mind. When I turned back to the actress, she had decided to be a doctor.
A lot of kids came through the store a second time and picked "doctor" after they saw how quickly lesser salaries were eaten up. Some of the store workers worried that, for many of these kids, that was about as realistic an expectation as actress - or any of the other glamour jobs mentioned that day: singer, artist, basketball player. (``What if you don't make the team? Pick a job to fall back on." "Football player.")
Who's to say, though? Success as a singer, an actress, a professional athlete takes both extraordinary talent and luck, plus the grit to survive thin times. Becoming a doctor takes a lot of ability, too - but there are a lot more doctors than movie stars. Those who are smart enough and work hard enough will succeed.
The hope is that the youngsters who discovered that being a doctor or lawyer would provide the lifestyle they want will make decisions now that won't close those doors to them forever. And there were some signs that they were getting the message about just how much it costs to live.
What did you like least about The Reality Store? they were asked on an evaluation form at the end of the process. "Taxes," was the most common reply. What did you learn? "That you have to pick a good job to pay for stuff." "How to support my family." "Life is hard."
And my favorite: "I learned that you can't marry a teacher."
by CNB