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?
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