Wednesday, April 1, 2009
my elementary school owes me money
So, I was catching up with some elementary school friends last week and it brought back so many memories. It's funny how you will not remember something at all and then someone brings it up and you suddenly remember every detail. It's also funny how sometimes being around those people can make you think of random things.
Elementary school for us spanned from kindergarten to 6th grade. I actually remember my 6th grade graduation like it was some big deal. I also remember in 6th grade when we had our D.A.R.E. banquet, and my friend Bailey had to deliver the speech with Chicken Pox. Good times. As cool as 6th grade was, with the feeling of being the top dog and owning the school, 5th grade actually offered something which was a bigger deal to me at the time: Lunch duty and office duty...let me explain.
At Forestdale, 5th grade students were picked at random each week to be on lunch duty or office duty. The five who made lunch duty got to leave class early and help set up for lunch. We got to go into the kitchen (oooooooooh) and help serve lunch (aaaaaaaaaaah). Looking back, I don't know why I thought is was so cool, but I did.
Office duty was less fun, but I still thought it was kind of cool. Two students would get picked to cover the school secretary's lunch break, which was like 45 minutes or an hour or something. We'd answer phones, do the paging, etc.
What has since occurred to me in regards to lunch duty and office duty is that we were victims of forced child labor and for some reason, the law did not protect us. Seriously, the secretary was probably making like $15/hour while we sat there...and we got NOTHING for it!!! And I wonder how much money Forestdale saved by not hiring paid employees for lunch duty. Looking back, I'm surprised they didn't have up knitting afghans or making sneakers. I do feel like it was legalized forced child labor. I feel used.
So, I've decided that I cannot sit back and accept this; I want money from Forestdale and the city of Malden for the work I put in.
I figure that at minimum wage (I'll assume $5.25 at the time) for 20 hours of my childhood, Forestdale and the city of Malden owes me $105.00. With a modest 3% annual interest rate over the last 15 years, I estimate that to be around $163.57 that I am owed.
I will take that in cash please.
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