So the school started this trend of "Spirit Sticks," a small custom embroidered label with some sort of design or motto that could be hung onto a key chain. In the beginning of the school year, when a student behaved well in the cafeteria or lineup after recess, a spirit stick was rewarded. Usually only one spirit stick was awarded per day per grade to one student. Thus began a competition, a healthy one, but a competition nonetheless, of who can be the best.
Pretty soon, obtaining a spirit stick started to be the "cool" thing at school. Its scarcity certainly made it that much more attractive to the kids. My kids and their peers totally ate this reward system up. Everyday they came home to report who the winner of today's spirit sticks was. They constantly compared with one another the quantity and the designs they have earned. They also congratulated each other on how "awesome" each other are for getting a new spirit stick.
But soon enough, the PTA started to sell it for $2.50 per. The designs also got more varied. All proceeds went nowhere but back to teachers to purchase more spirit sticks for their own classrooms for behavioral rewards. (What ever happened to the plain o' stickers?)
As soon as the spirit sticks became salable, they stopped being a positive reward. It began to dawn on the kids that efforts didn't matter anymore. Money did.
With my kids, it was no exception. They started to beg for money to purchase these much coveted spirit sticks. The answer they got was a firm NO. It isn't that we can't shell out $2.50, but what is the point really? The value of a spirit stick is worth much more when it was earned (behaving well, accolades of obtaining one, retrospection of how one obtained one, yielding desire for wanting to behave well next time) than merely purchased. They are told that with $2.50 we can buy a whole liter of juice, and that $2.50 is equal to one day's wage in India for over 938 million people. If they want it, they can make it themselves.
So then something interesting happened after that firm "no." A. started to make spirit sticks out of paper. He used regular paper, markers and pens to design and figured out to poke holes with a pencil at one end to make them "spirit sticks." This began his journey of product development! He then figured out to use a hole punch to make better holes instead of just poking with pencils. He tried putting his made-spirit sticks on the key chain and found out that the paper ones are too fragile. He then used hard card stock paper to make them tougher. After that he learned to use scotch tape to make them waterproof. Then he even made different shapes and sizes to add variety, even 3-D kinds.
In addition to structural and functional design improvements, he even created different themes, too: Holidays (Halloween, Christmas, Valentines), Person's Names, Sports (golf, soccer, basketball, volleyball), College Alma Mater, Insects, Math (numbers, equations), Transformers (Optimus Prime, Jazz), Months, Musical Instruments (cello, piano, music notes), Country/State Flags, Dogma (terrific, caught doing good, you did it, respect, love), Space (rocket, planets), Weapons, Masks, School Supplies (crayons, ABC's), Colors, Birthdays, Book (different titles). He even made pink ones just for girls!
It was just marvelous about how creativity and thinking could flow like this when you simply "close" a door and stand at the sideline looking on. A. took his creation to school and showed them to his classmates, and they were an instant HOOT. Everybody loved A's spirit sticks, and everybody wanted them! His hand-made spirit sticks were so popular that he was actually getting custom orders from his classmates! No joke.
Then something even more incredible happened. A. started to make trades: He'd make 5-10 custom made spirit sticks and traded for a "real" spirit sticks. He became a little businessman overnight with backup orders!
Somewhere along the line, the school had a 5th grade business fair where the 5th graders handmade things and had the entire school visits the fair and make actual purchase for the merchandise. It was a great opportunity to demonstrate that he is able to make a fair trade with his products with actual money. The concept of supply and demand and value of product were introduced. Here is where A & G setting up shops and play merchant at home.
Without just getting $2.50, A. certainly got so much more priceless things out of this.
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