As I leaned against the railing separating the soccer game from the rest of the courtyard, I gazed across the patio and commented to Rosalba, the teacher next to me, “There’s not too much garbage today.” I was awestruck – I didn’t see more than a couple scraps scattered around of shiny wrappings from cookies and chips and clear plastic wrappings from suckers. This was even the case in the usual garbage pit (an area between one barrier that runs around the patio area where some students play soccer and another barrier that runs parallel but sits about three feet apart). Before becoming too satisfied, I have to now reach beyond this baseline of contentment with the students’ recess-time garbage pick-up behavior. The newly added dimension requires that for a student to receive a Kiss, he will have to pick up two pieces of trash. Then, if he wants another Kiss, he has to pick up three pieces of garbage and so on. Yesterday, José Pablo left recess with his pockets full with 5 chocolate Kisses – he picked up garbage FIVE times, the last time gathering SIX pieces of trash.
In addition to requiring MORE effort for MORE chocolate, the students also have to ask for the chocolate politely and in ENGLISH! I quickly grew tired of hands in my face, or a couple young voices demanding, “My chocolate.” I prompted them with “por . . . ” as in Spanish the word “please” is “por favor”. However, “por” also means “for” so when I began with “por . . .” (for) students often finished the thought with, “picking up the garbage.” Rather than having them continue to rack their brains, I have this little sign on the Ziploc bag full of chocolate Kisses that says, “May I have a chocolate please?” – probably a better idea than having them ask me, “May I have a ‘Kiss’ please?”
