Guessing game among students.

For the 2^nd writing class I conducted, one of the break-out sessions for students to discuss each other’s papers had to be at 9am, since that was the only time that worked with everyone’s schedules.

So, I bought donuts for everyone, including these really nice maple donuts with crumbled bacon on top, that hipsters had commissioned from a long-time bakery in my new neighborhood.

To figure out the order of discussion, I have every writing class break-out session guess a number for an interesting or at least unexpected numerical question... 

For example, in past groups, I asked them how old I was when I 1^st read “Middlemarch”, how old I was when I read “David Copperfield”, what year my father was born in, etc., which is fun, though one kid thought I was 13 when I first read “Middlemarch”!  I told them it was like the old Dave Barry comment, that he was inside practicing trombone while all the other kids were outside learning how to French kiss.

Anyhow, for this group, I gestured grandiosely to the pile of donuts in front of them, and asked them to guess how much they all cost.

One (white) kid who’s from Manhattan and who is a bit intense and very competitive was way off, and guessed like $15, when the real answer was $7.40.

After I announced the rankings and he was last and I paused to transition to class, he then raised his hand, and I called on him.

“The reason I was off,” he was like, “was because I was thinking of New York prices.”