OUR VIEW: Reality for real

We live in a world were the term “reality” usually means anything but. Take the popular CBS television show “Survivor.” It has little to do with reality or surviving. That’s why it’s so refreshing to pay a visit Fort Chiswell Middle School’s reality store. The store is a fun event for eighth-graders that helps to drive home important life lessons. Students pick a career and set off to make fiscal sense of the working world.
Most learn that making a living isn’t always easy. First, they find out that taxes eat up a percentage of earnings right off the top when the mysterious difference in salary and take-home pay is discovered. Later, some students learn that kids are expensive. Others find out that education equals earning power. Still, some of those, despite the higher earnings associated with the careers they picked, learn that luck plays a part. Good luck could cover up bad mistakes, but don’t count on it. Bad luck can mean a setback, sometimes devastating.
Who hasn’t been in that situation? Who doesn’t know the feeling finally getting your proverbial head above water only to have an emergency repair at the garage, a kitchen appliance stop working or a strange and inexplicable leak in the bathroom?
The reality store, which was in the gymnasium, allowed students to make house, car and medical payments, as well as figuring in expenses for groceries and child care.
Students told a reporter that it was more difficult than they had expected to pay their bills. Duane Snavely, Fort Chiswell’s career coach, said it’s important that students learn how much it costs, in reality, to make a living.
We agree. If students know what it takes to survive and what it takes to thrive, they won’t take education for granted. Wythe County has some very promising employment opportunities; however, they are not for those who haven’t taken learning seriously.
Unlike so many other things tagged with the “reality” moniker nowadays, the store actually does help to illustrate what the real world is all about.