Brief Encounter

 

 

Opportunities for Embracing Uncertainty

There is inherent uncertainty in this activity in deciding who to gift to as well as what to make, and under a pressure of time. The students may experience different feelings and have different perspectives that they must navigate together, whilst considering their role in fostering social relationships. There are multiple ways that they might choose to do this. The questions probe the students to deliberate the value of gifts and gifting, and the tensions of doing so where gifts maybe disliked or unwanted, for example, including their role in enhancing social trust through practices of exchange and building and maintaining social networks.

Opportunities for All Students

The students will need to gift the piece of jewellery that they make, this might be made easier by gifting within small groups. This activity could be done by working at the individual level, rather than the group level, with each student deciding on an individual to give to. This version runs the risk of exclusion (akin to being picked last by a team captain for a sports game) and would therefore need more care, but the exclusion itself can become a useful provocation for discussion of social justice issues.

Opportunities for Creativity

There are many ways in which the students might make a gift, and the activity can be simple and brief, or longer and more creative. Possible materials might include:

• String, ribbon, cord, or similar
• Something to string, beads, shells, pasta, wooden or cardboard discs
• Pens for decorating and/or other decorative materials
• Natural materials: wooden beads or elder wood cut into pieces using metal tent pegs or stiff sticks to push the soft centres out.

Opportunities for Linking to Climate Justice

Part of the activity is to experience and explore the possible role of gifting in enhancing social relationships. Who the student chooses to gift to is significant, as is whether the gift is returned in exchange between two people or whether the group comes to some kind of arrangement as to who gives to whom, for example, giving to the person on the right. You could highlight this need or allow them to work it out and reflect on how they arrived at a decision and how it worked out afterwards.

Sensory Encounter

 

Opportunities for Embracing Uncertainty

This Sensory Encounter extends beyond the Brief Encounter to include the possibility for gifts beyond those that are handmade. There are numerous uncertainties, including the nature of the gift, and how it is wrapped, which gift to select from the pile (judging only by its shape and size), whether participants will receive a gift, and how to respond when receiving or not receiving a gift. In addition, the students will experience a range of different feelings and thoughts in relation to the giving and receiving of gifts, which they are encouraged to articulate and explore. The discussion could be deepened by asking the philosophical questions, such as: can a gift ever be wholly altruistic? Additional probes might include asking why it is customary for many people to remove the price from bought gifts, and to express the idea that ‘It’s the thought that counts’ rather than the value of their present.

Opportunities for All Students

Students will each require a gift for this game, and will need to decide the rules of what counts as a gift for the purposes of their game. Depending on the particular context and circumstances, the role of the teacher may be more or less directive in setting these parameters. Rules might focus on whether or not to include the following: a budget; second-hand or things bought from a charity shop; handmade things (considering dietary needs for any foods); ‘pre-loved’ things they have but no longer use or want; something gifted to them but unused; something from nature (e.g. an unusual shell); or something else. For some players, a more accessible version of the game might be to play ‘pass-the-parcel’, but without the teacher intervening to ensure that every child gets a gift. The children themselves can discuss whether anything should be done to make it fair; for example, whether there is only one gift, or enough for everyone; and the nature of the gift.

Opportunities for Creativity

Students have to be think creatively in deciding the parameters of their gifts, the wrapping and the rules of the game. They may also get involved in making gifts or the wrapping.

Opportunities for Linking to Climate Justice

This activity opens up the possibility to begin to think about ‘green gifting’, which is where gifts have a lower environmental impact and support broader social justice practices, an idea picked up further in the following Deliberative Encounter. This extends their thinking to whether the game is fair for the planet and fair socially, rather than simply for them as individuals. You might discuss with the students whether and how the gift wrapping might meet the criteria of ‘green gifting’. This could include, for example, using a bag or piece of material, or something recycled or recyclable. They might need to identify what more they need to know about any given material to decide whether it is ‘green’, such as whether it is recyclable or the employment practices of the producer. You could extend the discussion by also exploring how much money people spend on gifting during festivals relevant to their group. For example, here are figures on how much is spent at Christmas in the UK: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/explainers/how-much-do-we-spend-at-christmas, and how people fund this expenditure, often through debt: https://yougov.co.uk/consumer/articles/39878-how-much-are-people-spending-christmas-2021?redirect_from=%2Ftopics%2Fconsumer%2Farticles-reports%2F2021%2F12%2F09%2Fhow-much-are-people-spending-christmas-2021

Students working at a more advanced level might benefit from engaging with the issues discussed in these two films on a gift economy. The first includes a brief historical view of different examples of gifting and argues for the social benefits of such exchange:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaxjxICgahc&t=228s.

This second film focuses on the gift economy and mutual exchange:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S1egXWYwXo&t=13s (you might want to start the video at 55 seconds in).

Questions to discuss following these films might include: How do you feel about the idea of a gift economy? Are there any examples of a gift economy in your community? What (other) possibilities are there for a gift economy in the community where you live? What might make it difficult? What might make it work? In what ways might it not be fair? This activity links well to Topic 13: ‘The Commons’, particularly the Beyond the Classroom Encounter section.

 

Deliberative Encounter

 

Opportunities for Embracing Uncertainty

There will be a lot that students do not know and much that it is difficult or impossible to establish definitively.

Opportunities for All Students

For some students, it may be important to start with your own demonstration of a life cycle analysis, using the examples such as the Teksa dog, Nike trainers, chocolates, or a piece of clothing. For some students, you might ask simpler questions to stimulate their curiosity about where things come from and how they are made, including about their own toys and the things they would like to be gifted.

Opportunities for Creativity

Some students might enjoy creating a literal, fantastical or ‘nonsense’ story around how something was made, which could include where it came from and where it might go onto in the future. This story might be generated through play or make believe using different objects, which could be constructed into a final story, perhaps with the support of the teacher.

Opportunities for Linking to Climate Justice

This activity invites the students to do their own version of a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), which is a process of assessing the history and the future of a product or service. This means thinking about where a gift might have come from, the materials used in its production, how it has been transported (including the different components that make up the gift), and the employment conditions of those people involved in its making. The activity encourages students to deliberate whether a gift might be socially fair for those involved in its production, and if it is fair for the planet through considering its environmental impact. An extension of the activity can include students considering what gifts their parents/grandparents’ generation might have included, had they been asked to do this activity at the same age. The students could question older friends and relatives to find out more about the gifts they received as well as their gifting practices. This might surface differences in both the social and environmental impact of gifts over time. Students might also be asked to consider how some in the world can afford to buy, and receive, more gifts than others, and how this might contribute to climate injustice: where those who are the materially richer create environmental damage that is experienced most by those who are poorer.

Some issues that could be discussed in more detail, and researched further, are the use of microplastics in many products including toiletries and beauty products; cobalt mineral used in batteries that are mined by children; poor working conditions for employees in some contexts; and the transport miles of products that come from far away.

 

Beyond the Classroom Encounter

Opportunities for Embracing Uncertainty

There is a lot of uncertainty here in how the students work with others in their household to agree a process of gift exchange that will inevitably involve a degree of negotiation, and unknown outcomes. Students and others may have to encounter a mix of feelings, including possible difficult feelings, about what it is that they want for themselves and for others, and an awareness of the societal and planetary implications. It requires them to stay with the demanding question: Is what I desire indeed desirable for myself, others and the planet?

Opportunities for All Students

This activity can be easily adapted to involve all students. It offers an opportunity for intergenerational discussion and undertaking of tasks together, whether deciding what is important, making things, and reflecting together. For example, it may surface questions about whether there needs to be a shared value for the exercise to work or whether people can negotiate a compromise.

Opportunities for Creativity

This activity could be supported by reading existing stories where gifts are not objects, such as This is a Gift to You by Emily Winfield Martin that emphasises the greatest gift as time spent together; The Snowman by Raymond Briggs, in which the snowman is himself a gift to the boy; The Magic Paintbrush by Julia Donaldson, based on a traditional Chinese story that plays with the idea of what constitutes a gift, and emphasises gifting to the poor rather than the powerful.

Opportunities for Linking to Climate Justice

The different types of gifts can vary widely, and the students prompted to think about the social and planetary justice issues of gift giving. This might include asking some provocative philosophical questions, such as: ‘Is a pet’s poo a gift to the environment?’ ‘Is a charity donation in someone’s name a gift to that person or only to the beneficiaries of the charity?’ ‘What gifts do my pets value and how do I know?’ (and this article might give you some background information on the latter: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/opinion/pets-uk-ownership-cats-dogs-carbon-environmental-impact-b1249610.html). It also offers the opportunity for intergenerational discussions about how things used to be done previously or in other cultural contexts of previous generations, including what has changed and to what effect.

Kathleen Theresa Bailey, Perpetua Kirby, and Rebecca Webb