I chaperoned at Junior Achievement's Biztown yesterday - a place where middle school students run a town for a day while learning about finance, economics, and personal banking. We were assigned to work in the Wells Fargo office where students could come in and sign up for an investment portfolio. I had serious doubts about the attraction of an investment portfolio to an 11-year old kid, especially when we were competing against slime balls from Monsanto and popcorn from the Smokehouse Restaurant, but our offer of a free gift with each new account (a whistle key chain) pulled them in. We were extremely successful (3rd most profitable company for the day), but at the expense of everyone's sanity (I think in hindsight, the Biztown folks realized that whistles weren't the best giveaway).
