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The Tricks Of The Trade

Scott Iskowitz/The Tampa Tribune

Youn No,left picks out beads he wants in a trade for cookies with Cory Goldman Friday. Benito Middle School students learn about bartering Friday in Stephanie Schwindt class.

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By MICHELE SAGER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 2, 2008

NEW TAMPA - Digital music players, gaming consoles and televisions were on the top of many Christmas wish lists this year. At Benito Middle School, students were clamoring for a paper whale on a stick.

Eighth-graders at Benito got a firsthand lesson in supply and demand when they recently participated in a bartering market. The activity came after they read the book "The Ransom of Mercy Carter" by Caroline B. Clooney.

The book is based on the 1704 Indian raid on the English settlement of Deerfield, Mass. The subject of bartering, where people traded goods for other goods, came up in the story, but many students didn't grasp the concept.

"They didn't really understand why people wouldn't just use money," said teacher Stephanie Schwindt. So she and history teacher Candice Adams decided to create their own bartering market.

Students were told they could bring in or make any items and trade with classmates. They had to get signed permission from parents proving they were allowed to trade the items. Many students brought soda, cookies and candy.

Heather Montgomery and Abby Doupnik named their trading post Happy House of Fine Imports and offered many items purchased from a dollar bin, such as lip gloss and candy bracelets. Of course, they added their own creative products, including bracelets made from colored paper clips linked together.

The girls learned quickly what items were worth trading for and which already had saturated the market.

"Someone tried to trade a Coke, but we already had one, so we told them, 'No,' " Montgomery said.

Unique items went fast. Cory Goldman's Beluga Buddies, paper pictures of a beluga whale taped on toothpicks, were popular trades.

Youn No might have been the toughest trader in class. His Korean cookies and personally made origami were popular items, but he didn't give up the goods easily.

Goldman had to work hard to get a box of Korean cookies. Cokes and lollipops didn't entice the seller, and No wouldn't take any items he already received from other traders.

Finally, Goldman scored the cookies when he produced a box of colorful beads. Though Goldman said his greatest trade of the day was for a koala bear puppet. And what did it cost? Two candy bracelets and a Beluga Buddy, of course.

Reporter Michele Sager can be reached at (813) 865-4843 or msager@tampatrib.com.

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