Back in the year 2002, I took 27 students from Wasatch Mountain Junior High to China. Such a choice could bring into question my sanity but that is another topic for another day. We spent a lot of time visiting temples, gardens and learning about accupuncture, tai chi, martial arts and Chinese food. The thing they really wanted to do though was shop. After all, we were in China! The problem was that our trip was already scheduled to the hilt. One night, however, we had a couple hours of free time. The kids begged me to take them to the market. This was a scary prospect. I was supposed to take them on a bus, across the city of Nanjing and back to our hotel. What if a kid got lost? In a major U.S. city that would be one thing but half a world away in China?
Well, we got to the market without any trouble. The kids spent a couple of hours going around to the different booths in the open air market where they bought things like knives, mah jang boards, jade statues and, of course, clothes. I bought all of my kids jade necklaces with the animal of their Chinese zodiac carved on it. We all knew that whatever price they were quoted was grossly inflated. Part of the fun was to haggle to see what kind of price they could get. The Chinese knew, however, that the Americans were flush with cash. Furthermore, these were fourteen year old kids and should be easy to exploit. Makena Walsh was a particularly savy and courageous youth. He was haggling with a vendor over some item and the vendor had reached her bottom line. Or what he wanted Makena to think his bottom line was. But Makena was not going to be had so easily. He had a few tricks in his proverbial bag. He was determined to get the best possible price. After naming a rock bottom price that the vendor refused. Makena exclaimed "That is all the money I have."
The Chinese woman said "No, you have money, I know!" Makena, with a strait face, said
"That is all I have" and started to walk away.
In a frustrated but desperate tone the Chinese woman said, "Ok, ok I sell!"Makena stopped, turned around and went back to the booth. His mistake was that when he took out his money, the woman was able to see that he actually did have more than the named price. The woman's expression grew sour and she said angrily "You, professional liar!" I guess she could still have refused to sell to him but the price was set, so Makena got the deal. I do believe in karma and a few minutes later his chicanery would come back on all of us.
Craig-
ReplyDeleteIt's been something like five or six years since I first stepped into your geography classroom in Junior High. You probably don't remember me, my name is Ali Anderson. I was just like all of your other fourteen-year-old students... obnoxious, ugly, and socially awkward. I'm afraid I was probably even more annoying as I look back and remember my junior high experiences. I recently entered the blogworld and came across your blog tonight. I read a couple of your stories, and still remember some of the "life lessons" you told our class. I hope you are doing well, and your students know what kind of guy they have as a teacher. Throughout my entire high school experience I never found an educator that I felt cared as much about his students as you did. You really made an effort to form real relationships with your students, and be a true friend instead of simply a geography teacher. As a fourteen-year-old, I really valued your advice and thought of you as an adult I could trust. Your energy and enthusiasm for learning kept me excited about school in probably the most awkward/embarrassing/dramatic phase of life. Thank you so much for the lasting impact you have had on my education.
-ali anderson