I remember when I was a kid being a little bit jealous of those children who came around, even before dark, to collect for UNICEF-- it seemed like they got double trick-or-treating time, and where did they get those cool paper banks that jingled so solidly with all that change? I still can't answer that question, and even today I myself have never stood on any threshold chanting trickortreatforunicef!
The same cannot be said for my homeroom students. Each year our school sponsors the ToTfU campaign, and so they can be the lucky ones who go to door to door for this good cause, if they choose. Of course, given my own history with the program, I'm always a little surprised by the lack of enthusiasm, and the first time I heard one kid telling another that they could just keep the money, I was genuinely appalled.
I have a sweet bunch of kids this year, (don't get me wrong-- they're not so nice that they skipped the petty larceny angle altogether, but they had the decency to blush a little when I reprimanded them for considering such fraud) and they were all pretty excited about the whole UNICEF gig as I handed out the bright orange boxes. Even so, a few were a little unsure of how to approach their public.
"What do we say?" someone asked.
"What do you say?" I repeated incredulously. "Why, just those five magic words... trickortreatforunicef!"
"But what if people say no?" somebody else asked. "What if they just say, Not today, honey?"
"I guess you should tell them thanks anyway," I suggested.
"And Happy Halloween!" said someone else. "Don't forget that."
They seemed satisfied with that advice.
I used to do this too--haven't seen a Unicef box for years.
ReplyDeleteBTW, did you see the column by Marion Brady in today's Post about standardized testing? Good read. (It's in Valerie Strauss' column.) I thought of you.