Part one of a three part series that follows the adventures of the kindergarten students of Ethan T. Hill Charter School.
It was a new school year at Ethan T. Hill K-12 Charter School. Ms. Terri, the kindergarten teacher, despite her many years of experience, felt a bit surprised by this latest crop of students. They were not your usual five-year-old’s. These children had an exceptionally deep fondness for trading things with each other.
Candy, pencils, bracelets, stickers. Before class, after class, even during class, they traded.
For the first few weeks of school, Ms. Terri didn’t mind the trading because the students behaved themselves and treated one another fairly. But in time, complaints began demanding her attention.
Mason told Charlotte she could have his modeling clay for three of her Starbursts. He ate the Starbursts but never gave her the clay. Oliver gave his bean garden seeds to Evelyn for a bead bracelet, but when the seeds wouldn’t grow, she wanted the bracelet back.
Eventually, Ms. Terri had enough. She couldn’t keep up with the complaints, and she rarely knew how to settle the disputes. She didn’t want to discourage the children’s industriousness, but something had to change.
Calling all the students together, she said, “I know how much you all love to trade with one another. But I am concerned that some of you are not old enough to trade on your own.”
She continued, “We need better rules for trading with one another. So, from this point forward, no more trading in the classroom, unless you do it through me. I will make fair rules and ensure that everyone follows them.”
At first, this seemed to solve their problems. If two students wanted to make a trade, they both went to Ms. Terri and explained what they wanted to do. If Ms. Terri decided it was a reasonable trade, she allowed it. This kept the complaints to a minimum, and when Ms. Terri had to get involved, she always knew how to settle things. Under her oversight, the trading increased so much that even students from other classrooms joined in.
Over time, though, new problems arose. One day, Ms. Terri, fed up with the gum stuck underneath the desks, announced to the class that gum in the classroom was prohibited. As a result, there would be no more trades that involved gum or gum derivatives of any kind.
Then there was the day Ms. Terri decided that trading could only take place the hour before class or the hour after. This resulted in long trading lines, which meant long waits, especially if they wanted to trade with someone from another class. In those cases, they had to wait for Ms. Terri to contact the other teacher for their approval as well. Sometimes, this could take days.
Especially egregious was Ms. Terri’s decision to allow students who were earning an A+ in her class to skip the trading lines and go straight to the front. Ms. Terri had promised a fairer trading system, but to some, this system felt less fair than ever.
The children in Ms. Terri’s kindergarten class began to wish for a better way to trade.
Then one day, an unusually bright student named Vita had an idea.
So, she gathered a group of her classmates in the library to discuss her plan.
“When we traded without Ms. Terri, we had a lot of arguments,” she said. “But I know how we can solve our arguments and go back to how things used to be.”
Vita explained, “What we need are rules we all understand. Rules that don’t change and that are the same for everyone. Anyone who wants to trade will have to follow these rules. If they don’t, their trade won’t count. If they do, we will all agree that the trade is good.”
The students sat, listening for what Vita would say next, when a shrill voice from the back broke the silence.
“Excuse me, but you can’t do that,” interrupted Gigi (widely regarded as the teacher’s pet). “You can’t do that,” she repeated unnecessarily. “It’s definitely not allowed.”
“Why not? We won’t be trading in the classroom.” Vita asked.
“Well… well… I’m sure it’s against the rules,” was all Gigi managed. “Ms. Terri will want to hear about this!” And with that, she exited briskly from the library.
Despite Gigi’s vaguely threatening tone, the group asked Vita to continue.
Her idea worked like this. First, they made a list of who owned what. They included everything they wanted to trade.
Next, each group member would receive a copy of the list. Vita explained that the trading rules had to be followed carefully. When someone wanted to trade, they would announce to the group what they were giving and to whom. For example, when Mason wanted to trade his foam glider for one of Charlotte’s Shiba Inu dolls, he would tell everyone, “Mason is giving Charlotte one foam glider.” And Charlotte would reply, “Charlotte is giving Mason one Shiba Inu doll.”
When the group heard about the trade, they all would record it on their lists. The new lists would look like this:
To complete the trade, Mason and Charlotte would exchange IOUs for the actual items traded, and the group would compare their lists with each other.
Vita explained that all the lists should match exactly, unless someone had been careless or intentionally recorded the wrong information. Active participation and careful record keeping were critical, so Vita suggested a reward and penalty system.
The students compared their lists each time a trade occurred. Then the group would randomly choose one person to receive a reward. Everyone who had produced an accurate list and compared there’s with the group was eligible to win. This would encourage people to participate.
Anyone who provided an inaccurate list, one that didn’t match the majority of lists, would be penalized by having their rewards taken away from them. This would encourage people to be careful with their record keeping.
“The IOUs will have the ultimate authority. Whoever holds them owns the item,” Vita said. “These are the terms that you must agree to if you want to trade using our new system. If we follow these rules, we will have a safe and fair trading system.”
“You said there was a reward,” said Antonio. “What is it?”
Vita explained that for the system to work, they would need to create their own money. Everyone would receive an equal share of it to start.
Payments in this money would be required as a fee to make a trade. The fee would go to the one random reward recipient.
In addition, each group member would keep a portion of their money in a secured location. It would act as their promise to be careful in their record keeping. As long as they kept accurate records, their money would remain untouched. But anyone who reported inaccurate records would lose some of their money as a penalty.
“Where would we keep this promise money?” asked Antonio. He hated to sound distrustful, but five years with older siblings had taught him the value of the old saying, “Trust, but verify.”
“That’s a good question,” said Vita. “And I have an idea.”
“Do you remember the five number combination lockbox I brought in for show and tell a few weeks ago?” They all nodded, affirming they did.
Vita explained, “We can keep the money in that. The combination lock requires five numbers. We will choose five of our group, each one will know only one number of the combination. That way, it will take all five of them to open the lockbox.”
She continued, “This doesn’t mean all five people couldn’t agree to steal money from us. But the chances all five would be dishonest are pretty small, don’t you think? It only takes one honest person to keep our money safe.”
This proposal satisfied Antonio and the others’ concerns about the safekeeping of their new money.
“One more thing,” said Vita. “I have an idea for a name for our new system.”
“I think our trading system could help bring fair trading to more than just our classroom. I think it could eventually grow enough that our entire school would want to use it!”
“So, what do you think about naming after our school’s founder, Ethan T. Hill? We could call it The Ethan Network.”
And since no one could think of anything better, the group agreed on the name.
When there were no more questions, the group fell silent, pondering the proposal. It seemed like it could work. And the benefits were pretty obvious.
They could trade without Ms. Terri, which would definitely make trading easier. They could also trade at their convenience, not just during the times she was available. Everyone would be equal under this system, no more special treatment for the smarter kids.
But what would Ms. Terri say about this? Would she allow it? Gigi had made some kind of threat. Were they breaking some rule? No one was sure.
Not everyone was in favor. Some decided they would prefer the existing system. “It’s not perfect,” they said. “But it’s what we’re used to.” And with that, a good number of them left the library and headed back to class.
But in the end, for a handful of students, the desire for a fairer trading system proved too strong, and they decided Vita’s plan was worth a try. They would make their first trades at recess the next day.
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