Balloon Phobia
Among the fears I've faced in Taiwan, walking inches from the drop off of a cliff and driving a scooter on a busy road on Saturday evening being the scariest, I can confidently say I've conquered my fear of balloon-popping. I wasn't an incapacitating fear, but certainly not anything I enjoyed. But my kindergarten class has helped me change all that. In fact, we played a game on Friday, designed to (ideally) teach sharing that involved popping balloons.
Each student got a balloon, and had to keep it in the air without letting it touch the ground. When it hit the ground, I popped it, and the student would then ask his/her friend if they could play together. Everyone gets to play, and in a perfect world, everyone in the end is playing with one balloon, sharing happily.
The game gets underway and about two seconds in I was forced to pop the first balloon. Teacher Marie, who must not have understood the rules, screamed. It turns out her fear is slightly worse than mine. She shook until I popped the next one, and when I looked again, it was just in time to see her scuttling out of the room as fast as I've ever seen her move. Her cover was clever, "I'll just get the kids' lunch now...yeah that's it" but it was pretty obvious she was scared. We laughed about it later.
The kids on ther other hand had a pretty good time. There were some kids in the corner with their balloons near their heads, hands covering their ears, but there was a lot of sharing and frolicking...until the balloons became more scarce. Then there was "No! Wo de! (Mine in Chinese)" and crying. Right around the time "faux-hawk" Thomas burst into sobs at the thought of losing his balloon, we stopped the game. We sat down and explained the game again, why we played it, why it was good to share, and why if I popped your balloon it wasn't a punishment, it only meant you got to play with your friends. I even got to say such ridiculously cheesy things as "When we share, everyone is a winner" That one shocks me even now. I'm pretty sure I flinched when I said it...
But lessons were learned, among them a few about human nature and ownership and why communism can never work in real life. Eventually someone will start crying, and the hand of authority will come along and crush his dream of balloon-ownership.
Each student got a balloon, and had to keep it in the air without letting it touch the ground. When it hit the ground, I popped it, and the student would then ask his/her friend if they could play together. Everyone gets to play, and in a perfect world, everyone in the end is playing with one balloon, sharing happily.
The game gets underway and about two seconds in I was forced to pop the first balloon. Teacher Marie, who must not have understood the rules, screamed. It turns out her fear is slightly worse than mine. She shook until I popped the next one, and when I looked again, it was just in time to see her scuttling out of the room as fast as I've ever seen her move. Her cover was clever, "I'll just get the kids' lunch now...yeah that's it" but it was pretty obvious she was scared. We laughed about it later.
The kids on ther other hand had a pretty good time. There were some kids in the corner with their balloons near their heads, hands covering their ears, but there was a lot of sharing and frolicking...until the balloons became more scarce. Then there was "No! Wo de! (Mine in Chinese)" and crying. Right around the time "faux-hawk" Thomas burst into sobs at the thought of losing his balloon, we stopped the game. We sat down and explained the game again, why we played it, why it was good to share, and why if I popped your balloon it wasn't a punishment, it only meant you got to play with your friends. I even got to say such ridiculously cheesy things as "When we share, everyone is a winner" That one shocks me even now. I'm pretty sure I flinched when I said it...
But lessons were learned, among them a few about human nature and ownership and why communism can never work in real life. Eventually someone will start crying, and the hand of authority will come along and crush his dream of balloon-ownership.
posted by CJ at 9:17 PM
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