Today is my first class.
After talking with Wisaith, I had to go to each gang leader to convince them to come to my class peacefully. Fortunate for me, with Smasi behind my back, they stopped seeing me as a worthless being and actually listened to what I had to say.
- This is a win-win situation for all of us.
- You all have more time off, and you get to learn something for free.
- What do I get out of this? Teaching experience. I want to be a teacher when I get out.
- What subject? Don't worry, it won't be something useless like math or chemistry. This is going to be something you can use in your life.
Those were some of the things we discussed.
Since this prison was not designed with a school in mind, the headmaster let us use the kitchen as a classroom since it is big enough to hold many people, with tables and chairs already in place.
Standing outside the door, I could felt my heart pumping nonstop. "You can do this. You just have to teach them. That's all. You just have to teach..."
And without letting myself chicken out, I pushed the door and pull the whiteboard with me to the middle of the room. Looking out, it was breathtaking but also kind of funny at the same time. Rows of students made up of criminals who always carry such scary faces with bodies carrying muscles that can win a buffalo in a wrestling match. But here they have to sit neatly because there were guards behind them and the headmaster watching us from his office above. I looked up and bowed, he raised his hand back to me.
After the formal greetings, I looked back at my class. "These are my students," I thought to myself, feeling proud that I could teach some of the baddest guys in town but also kind of freaked out at the same time.
"Hi everyone. Thank you for coming to this class peacefully. This is my first time ever teaching, so please forgive me and don't mind speaking up if I make a mistake," I stopped for a few seconds to look at their reaction. Not seeing anything out of place, I continued, "Today topics are: What is money, supply and demand, and the power of influence," I stopped before my voice was about to crack from being nervous
After a deep breath, I got back my confidence. "Now please spend a few seconds to ask yourself, 'What is money?'... Alright. Looking at some of you, I could see that you haven't think out this before, so this topic is gonna be helpful to most of us." I turned to the whiteboard and wrote, "Money is a scam." I then turned and looked at their reaction.
"By money here I mean today's money such as the dollar. I saw some of you are in disbelieve. You must think, 'this guy doesn't know what he's talking about.' But let me explain and in the end, you will have to rethink why you committed crimes in the first place," I opened a water bottle and took a sip to build up their attention and curiosity.
"Money, is a manmade thing. So why do we need money? Because a farmer can't always trade rice for meat from the hunter because that day, he may have too much rice already. This is an issue that society has to find something that is rare and everyone believes it to have value so that it can be the middle man between transactions. That's money. The farmer now can always trade his money for meat and the farmer can use that money to buy vegetables. The first recorded of money were rare seashells and feathers because they were hard to find, and they are beautiful, therefore have some sort of value." I could hear whispers between students. The class was heating up.
"But that was just one country's currency. Through the course of history, each country had its own currency. That makes it hard for nations to make trades because their currencies have different values. To solve these issues, they chose a standard currency as the middle man, and that was gold. Do you guys understand so far," I paused to make sure no one's left behind?
"Why was gold chose to be the currency?" from below, a student asked, and that caused everyone to look at him.
"Great question!" I let out a loud voice to get to rescue him. "It's because gold was and is: rare because they are hard to mind, valuable because they are seen to be luxury and could be used as jewelry, and finally, the royalties in all countries, despite European, Asian or African, they all like gold," I explained to him.
"So how did those countries transit from their currencies to gold?" a familiar voice spoke. I turned and smiled inside when I recognized Smasi.
"OOH!" a voiced-out response from his gang members and other prisoners.
"It's simple. They each set a ratio for exchange. For example, a nation can set its currency to be ten feathers equal to one ounce of gold. With this, that nation can keep its already existing currency and can trade easily with the rest of the world by converting their currency to gold when trading." Looking down, I saw some heads nodding.
"And that is a great segway to the next question. Why money, specifically the dollar, is a scam?"