Sixth-graders left the Middle School of the Kennebunks last week for a taste of “the real world.”

Thanks to a grant from the Education Foundation of the Kennebunks and Arundel, as well as generous parents, students took on the business, municipal and consumer roles of a typical working city. Enterprise City, located in Dover, N.H., is a life-size model indoor city and a popular field trip for regional schools.
“It’s a ‘big kid’ version of playing house,” said student Sarah Mackinnon, as quoted by senior news reporter Olivia Aiken of the Broadacast Center on Thursday, March 22.

Prior to the visit, students spent days preparing for their roles.
“Before going to Enterprise City in Dover, N.H., they learn to write a resume, fill out a job application, attend a job interview, elect a mayor and judge, write laws, learn to write a check and keep a check register,” said MSK social studies teacher RuthEllen Cialfi. “Students also learn to apply the concepts of supply and demand along with bank loans, interest, and using payroll, complete with taxes and health insurance.

“Enterprise City is an awesome hands-on experience for students to apply their new skills and knowledge about economics in a real world simulation,” said Cialfi. “It is an integrated learning that requires math, language arts and social studies concepts.”
Of course the day was not all work and no “play” for students and staff. On their breaks from their jobs, students took their hard-earned cash and stimulated the economy, buying local at the snack shack, complete with popcorn and punch. Students could buy play time on a street hockey rink, for example, buy an ad in the Enterprise Daily newspaper, or buy a “shout out” on the local radio station.

— By Laura Snyder Smith