Brain Drain is a lunchroom CEO. He has developed a cafeteria-based "business" that sounds more like a (food) pyramid scheme. It works like this:
The lunchroom at his school has a "share table." Kids can put any part of their lunch that they are not going to eat on the share table. (I don't know how they handle allergenic foods like peanut butter, but that is neither here nor there in regard to this blog). Others are welcome to take something that looks good from the table. This was established to cut down on all the lunch trading that went on last year. The share table also ensures that kids who do not have enough lunch can get enough to eat, while cutting down on the amount of food that is thrown away.
Brain Drain has learned to work the system to his greatest advantage.
After gathering his hot lunch tray, he surreptitiously peruses the selection on the share table, picking out the foods that may have value on the black market. He keeps a list of his classmates' likes and dislikes in his pocket to aid his selection. After beefing up his inventory, he goes to work trading, sometimes trading five and six times, until he has a lunch comprised almost entirely of sugar. For example, today he found an extra chocolate milk on the share table. He traded this to Mohamed, who doesn't get milk at home, but really likes chocolate milk. Mohamed forked over an extra chicken patty, which Brain Drain traded to Tyco for a bag of Cheetos. These are a hot commodity, so Brain Drain was able to score TWO chocolate puddings for one bag of Cheetos. In order to secure a second pudding, Brain Drain's final victim had to trade his sandwich and a Starburst, and so goes the ripple effect throughout the cafeteria.
My first thought upon hearing about this scheme was, "Wow. No wonder the kid's so wired when he gets home." But then I thought it over, and I realized that this wired quality is the cause of the scheme, and not the effect of eating too much sugar.
Brain Drain is competitive. He has been since he was tiny. When he was four, he had to race my car down the block every time I left his house. He got very upset if I beat him, so after a long day running myself ragged with him and his little brother, I was forced to drive two miles an hour down his long block, when all I wanted to do was high tail it home.
He is also aggressive. When he wants to know something, he wants to know the answer NOW. This means he WILL NOT look anything up, as he knows his grown ups know the answer. He finds it much more efficient to needle us until we blow up and yell the answer. And he never gets tired, and he never gives up.
There are times that these qualities are put to very positive use. The soccer field is one. Quiz bowls, relay races, and the board game Risk are all perfect activities for him. In school, though, there isn't much room for his talents. His food pyramid scheme is his way of adapting his environment. He is shocked that none of his classmates has ever caught on to the treasure trove potential of the share table. I personally think it is a brilliant plan.
But still, I wonder if there might be some sort of ethical violation happening here? While I want to tell him what a creative use of resources his scheme is, I also want to point out that there are students in his school (an inner city, low-socioeconomic status school) who need the lunch items left on the table, and that his business leaves them out, as they probably have nothing to trade for the big ticket items. If Brain Drain weren't pillaging the share table, they would be available free of charge. Can you all see the parallels to the economy at large?
Brain Drain will be a fantastic entrepreneur someday. He has the drive, the will, the brains, and the creativity to really make some money. I worry that those same qualities allow him to overlook those who may not have the same resources he has, both intellectual and financial. My question for the reader is, how do I use this example to help him grow into an ethical businessperson without stifling the creativity that led him to develop the scheme?
This blog is part of a series. Read 'em and rate 'em!
Of course Wee Tiny Environmentalism was my favorite, but this was indeed an entertaining blurb. I like the idea that this share table results in most of the children really digging what they surface with. That'd eliminate all my waste! Shit.
"I understand that this car is pretty expensive but it has more to it than any Ferrari can give to our earth and people." -- crystalcraze13, a ProU blogger
I found this interesting. He sounds smarter than most children his age. I see your point on letting lower income kids get the food. But I really do not know how that problem could even be solved.
http://www.progressiveu.org/032913-lupus-uncureable-wait-what
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He will make a great businessman. Unfortunately, to get anywhere in corporate America, you need to be able to focus on getting ahead and ignoring those who will suffer for decisions.
There have to be exceptions. Anyone have any ideas?
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Well, if he were to give the food away to the kids who have none, he might not have enough to trade for his full sugar diet. Unless, maybe, he were to bring a bagful of unpopular food from home and put it all on the share table.
Big businesses can take more time and money and invest that into making their employees happy and healthy, but unfortunately, that costs them too much money so many companies don't bother. They use their employees until they are no longer useful and then they lose their jobs. Or the company moves overseas and leaves many out of work.
The only real solution in either case is to actively think of those who can be hurt and actively work toward not hurting them, or even just making up for it. Donating food to the students who can't afford enough to eat for lunch will be a way for him to kind of make up for taking from the share table. Maybe even make up a rule that for everything he takes from share table, he has to put two things on it.
I like that last idea. I'll talk to his mom about it.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
This was the first blog in the series that I read and I quickly went through and read the rest. I wouldn't even stop to comment on each because I wanted to get on to the next one!
You are doing amazing things and so many people don't bother which makes it mean even more!
I try with the boys and now with their sister too when i get them but unfortunately I am constantly having to undo their mother's actions and lessons.
My oldest (My Thinker) wanted more candy, and I told him that he didn't need any more treats at the time. He thought about it and said " yeah, I don't need any more candy. I don't want to get fat like you" Of course, the blatant insult wasn't meant but simply repeated. So we talked of course. He's almost 5 and already worried about his weight because of lessons learned when she's not paying them attention.
If I could, I'd keep those kids but... like marriage to their mother... it's not something that is open to me... Since our break up we stayed close and pretty much kept a friendship for the kids. I just hope I can have as much of a positive influence on them as you have on your charges.
The table sounds kind of similar to something that my district's elementary school does (or did while I was there): if you went up to one of the assistant principals, and told them that you didn't have a lunch, you'd get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with a milk. These sandwiches were tasty as heck, and they had serious trade value. I almost always got one for lunch, and usually kids would offer to trade them for puddings or Cheetos... Or even a milkshake. Kids who needed them would be out-asked by the kids who got them just for trade... Because they only made 30 or so sandwiches per day, 10 a grade (the different grades have different lunches, 6th first, 7th second, and 8th last). It was not fair at ALL.
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http://progressiveu.org/170636-i-agree-marriage-should-be-kept-sacred
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that the school allows the share table to exist, considering food allergies as you stated...however, what a great way to cut back on waste and potentially feed hungry kids.
I think the most important way to teach Brain Drain about giving others opportunities to the food is to do something you probably already do with him; talk with him about it. I made amazing strides with a kid I nannied for a while who really had no concept of the needs of others; both because he has Asperger's Disorder, and because his family is extremely well-off, so he never wanted for anything. To teach him a little about poverty and what others might feel/need; we talked a lot about homelessness, poverty, my own finances and how our economy works. I am convinced that these talks went a long way toward increasing his awareness of the needs of others. I saw his compassion increase tremendously and his maturity grew as well.
Love ya,
Carrot
We talk about that sort of thing fairly often and his family goes to a church that is very social justice oriented, so he is aware of poverty and inequity. It seems, though, that he keeps those concepts compartmentalized and can't quite grasp that there are people in his life who live in poverty and deal with inequity every day. Like, he's all about working to raise money for a cause, but then that money goes to help "those people."
Do you know what I mean? (I'm having a hard time articulating my point for some reason). It's like he has an event orientation around the concepts, and can't see it as something he should work to rectify in small ways every day. I try to model that behavior, and his younger brother gets it. He just thinks very differently than i do, and I'm not getting the point across.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman