Thanks to the Junior Auxiliary, Mississippi Scholars andparticipating businesses, a group of Lincoln County students got abig dose of “reality” this past week.

As part of the “Reality Town” workshop last Wednesday, Thursday andFriday, ninth-graders from across Lincoln County were given theopportunity to pay bills, buy groceries and handle other everydaylife issues in a controlled environment.

An important aspect of the lesson was that their financial abilityto handle those issues was based on their grades in school. Thosestudents with better grades had more “money” at their disposalwhile those on the other end of grade scale had to figure out howto make ends meet with less.

News about the Lincoln County program has spread quickly.Brookhaven School District Superintendent Lea Barrett said shereceived a call last week from an administrator in Californiainquiring about the possibility of implementing the workshop.

Obviously, the point of the workshop is to illustrate theconnection between good grades and an education and one’s abilityto meet life’s challenges.

Classroom lectures and exercises also strive to hammer that messagehome. But a hands-on activity like the JA program hopefully makesthe lesson more “real” for the students, and one that they will beable to apply to their lives once they graduate from highschool.