A Choco-Pie Experiment

So I had this amazing idea. What if I gave each of my students a choco-pie and instructed them to give the pie to a stranger? For their interview, they would need to tell me who they gave it to... how that person responded... and how they themselves felt about it.

I thought it was a great idea. Some of my students didn't. Mostly, I think they were just being chicken.

I got some interesting responses as usual. (By the way, I gave each student two choco-pies. One for them. One to give away. This was to hopefully prevent them from eating the choco-pie and then making up a story about someone they "gave" it to.)

Jane gave her choco-pie to a boy at one of her other schools. He mumbled thanks and took off. She was so disapointed with his response that she bought some chocolate and tried again with someone new. This time she chose a girl at the school. The girl said thank you many times. Jane thinks they might become friends.

Annie couldn't find anyone she didn't know. I'm sure all of Korea knows Annie. However, she ran into her old third grade teacher... who suggested she give the choco-pie to one of the security guards where she lives. According to Annie, the guard said thank you repeatedly and shook her hand forever.

Some students gave the choco-pies to their siblings' friends. Other students picked random people or children on the street. One student had to explain to a mom that the choco-pie wasn't poisoned, it was a homework assignment. The mom said "Oh, what a fun assignment. Who is your teacher?" and gave the choco-pie to her son. The mom probably wrote my name down in her black book... "DON'T send junior to school with Ryan Teacher... he gives FUN assignments."

Many of the students said they were nervous, but enjoyed the strange assignment from the crazy Ryan Teacher.

If you read the Korean, it actually says "cho-ko-pa-ee".

A wiseman once said, "Two choco-pies are better than one."