The Rock Project
The first day is the most crucial because
it defines what the students expect from the class; what they hope to learn from
the class. Something wonderful about
Mexican culture is that even a small spark of hope can ignite a fire within. As we were preparing our main activity, we
could not have imagined the fruits of the students’ newfound faith and confidence
in themselves. After starting the class
with a rousing hymn and a prayer, we introduced ourselves briefly and then had
the students jump right into what we call “The Rock Project.”
The Egg Project in Mexico City
The Rock Project is a derivation of a
project we have done in Mexico City where we gave each student an egg and sent
them out to exchange it for something bigger or better. By the end of the day, the students had
brought back various items. One student
traded his egg up to a hen. How
symbolic! At the beginning of the day,
this student had something he could eat for the day. After a few transactions he had something that
would provide him with food for days and days.
Group Assignments
This time, we divided up the students into
nine groups of four. Each group
contained at least one current business owner who has employees, one who is
self employed, and one who is not currently a business owner. They were allowed to choose their specific
assignations (Director, Treasurer, Secretary, etc.). We then handed each group one white rock that
we had picked up from the trash in the parking lot. We told the students that there were only two
rules with this project: (1) You cannot invest your own money or buy your rock
from yourself, and (2) You must be honest.
We told them the end goal was to bring back as much cash as possible by
the end of the three hours we gave them.
Everyone was surprised! They
asked, “How
can we turn this rock into cash? Who
wants to buy a rock?” But as they
started to think, grins appeared on their faces and we knew that spark was
starting what would eventually become a burning flame of excitement.
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