Why Kid Nation Is a Valuable Show For Kids

While many of the kids walked into the show seemingly without even having any camping experience, they are learning how to take care of what needs to be done for their survival. No one there knew now to cook before they arrived there, and here they are all learning to cook, as if they don't ... they don't eat. It may be a hard way to learn the lesson, but regardless, they'll all know how to feed themselves, should they have to someday. Not only are they opening up a can of beans and warming it, but they're also learning how to make pasta, chicken noodle soup, etc. They're also learning how to clean outhouses (I'm sure their mothers are going to appreciate this one!), clean the dishes, and unfreeze water pipes.

These kids are presented with big decisions on each show, and they need to decide as a town and by themselves what should be done. For themselves, they need to decide each show whether they want to stay or not, as they always have the option to leave the show. Yet, even though many of them have suffered through homesickness, only one child, the youngest at 8, has decided to leave. Winning challenges in certain amounts of time, the kids are given a choice of a need or a luxury, and make the decision together, even if not everyone is happy with it, such as deciding between extra outhouses or a television. They made the right decision to extend their one outhouse to five. Their most interesting decision came with the suggestion that chickens weren't only for laying eggs. To last a a number of days on their own, they would need protein. While no one wanted to kill the chickens, most of them came around in the long run to see that to eat healthy, it would have to be done, and realistically, it was no different than the chicken they were eating at home.

These kids are left with a journal that was supposedly left by the last inhabitants of Bonanza City. While their town failed, they left this book behind to show the next inhabitants how to do it the right way. The kids are split up into four different groups and are each led by a council member. At the challenges, the teams compete to find out which rung on the social ladder they can claim for the next few days. The winning team becomes the upper class, not having to work unless they have to and making $1.oo. The second place team becomes the merchants that run the store, making $0.50, the third place team becomes the cooks, in charge of that and washing the dishes, making $0.50, and the last team are the laborers, in charge of cleaning and pumping water, and only make buffalo nickels. The sides become jealous of each other, complain about the jobs the different groups are doing, etc., and it only ends up echoing real life.

They are now finding that the city council has to not only make good decisions for the whole group of kids, but they also need to help keep order in the town. The kids were staying up all night in the saloon drinking root beer, but then were finding it too hard to get up in the morning. The journal suggested setting a group curfew for Bonanza City, and while the council didn't like the idea outright, they knew it would help keep order. They weren't prepared for so many people to be against it, though, and told them that's the way it is, and they'll just have to live with it. They'd dint like it; but they did live with it.

From the journal that the council reads, the kids are also learning about history, about the original pioneers of the country somewhat, but mostly about life from the time of the gold rush. When the show is over, every one of them will know exactly what life was like for those that lived in the gold mining towns back then. Instead of panning for gold, though, the council awards one person each week with a gold star. They recipient will be the person they as a whole decided was the most helpful around Bonanza City that week. Receiving the gold star, they are told the gold star, which resembles a large paperweight, is worth its weight in gold, $20,000 for them and their parents to do whatever they want with it at the end of the show. The winner is allowed to call home and share the good news with their parents.

It's not all work for these kids; they have a lot of fun too! Sure they work a lot, and they get homesick, but they also have a tremendous amount of fun doing every single bit of it.