The Million Dollar Orange Juice

The Million Dollar Orange Juice

After teaching the class for several days, we came upon our first rainy day. This meant that that I could not lead the children to the rooftop to work on the organic garden, as I previously had.

I arrived at the school several minutes early that day, and immediately saw some girls that were in my class. I told them, “We can’t grow things in this weather! And where are your umbrellas? There could be radiation in the rain!”

One of the first-graders with a ponytail replied, “Oh, I hate rainy days! My mom always tells me to take an umbrella and never lets me to get wet! I wish I could just feel the raindrops.”

A girl in an orange sweater with short hair said, “But I don’t like getting caught in the rain.”

Ponytail girl then said, “I want to go to the farm!”

Then came another child, saying, “Teacher, the vegetables we grew last time were all picked!”

The class started. I taught the students about the concept of trade by introducing them to a project called The Million Dollar Orange Juice Project. I divided them into three groups, with six in each group. I divided them according to their seats, so there were two groups of girls and one group of boys.

On the chalkboard, I drew the procedure of the project for the students, and explained the names and details of every single step. The steps went roughly like this: farmers grow the orange trees, then all the ingredients are sent to factories where they are prepared, packaged, labeled, then delivered to supermarkets and convenience shops. There, they are bought by customers and finally make their way into the home.

After completing the tutorial, the team work began. There was supposed to be a leader in each group to decide the position, job, and salary of each member. Everyone wanted to be the leader, so I told the students to use paper-scissor-stone to decide. All at once, the classroom was filled with the sound of “PAPER SCISSOR STONE”.

When leaders were decided, they began distributing the work. Some students wanted to be farmers while others wanted to be drivers. They all demanded several billion dollars for salary, but I forced them to have less than one hundred. That caused one of the groups to give 99.99 dollars to every member.

The boys’ team never ceased discussion and all their ideas were quite creative. They did not strictly follow the positions I suggested, but instead made their own. Someone said, “I will be the juice taster so that I can drink all juice!” and another said, “I will be the spy from the other factory and assassinate you guys.” Later, their teacher came and told them that assassination is illegal and assassins should be arrested.

Their employee list included tasters, spies, etc.

And the spy had a salary. The leader did not.

Next I let each group leader announce their arrangements. One of the girls was soft-spoken and the boys began complaining. That was when I was forced to use a method that I despised, saying, “After she finishes, I’ll pick someone to repeat what she just said.”

The world became quite again.

It was a trade fair that did not quite resemble serious business.

Echoie Ma

(Translated by WFLMS Crunchy Zoo Language Club)