What About That Wrapper? Using Consumption Diaries in Green Education

Date: April 2010. Setting: classroom of elementary school in Amsterdam. Participants: Four children aged 8, five parents, one teacher (as an observer). FOCUS GROUP MODERATOR (FGM)

Today we are going to talk about consumption – that is what we eat, drink and use, and what we throw away. I hasten to say I know as much as you do about consumption, and probably less [ … ] I have your consumption diaries in front of me … First, I want to ask the kids: what is consumption?

ANGELA

It’s that diary … that we had to like … make. Right?

JAN

It’s what we eat and drink.

FMG [TO THE OTHER TWO CHILDREN]

What do you think?

ANNEKE

Same as [Angela].

DIRK

Consumption is when you consume things.

DIRK’S FATHER

[Laughs] And what is consume?

DIRK

[shyly] Eating stuff …

JAN [EXCITEDLY]

That’s what I said!

FMG [READING FROM JAN’S DIARY]

‘Mum wants me to have sandwiches for breakfast. So I have to have at least one before going to school’. So, can you say you ‘consume a sandwich?’

JAN [READILY]

Yeah!

FMG

What about drinks, is that also consumption?

[ALL CHILDREN NOD, THEIR PARENTS LOOK ENCOURAGING. JAN SLYLY PRODUCES A WRAPPED SANDWICH FROM HIS SCHOOL BAG AND BITES INTO IT; HIS MOTHER SHAKES HER HEAD DISAPPROVINGLY, AUDIBLY REMINDING HIM THAT HE ‘SHOULDN’T EAT IN CLASS’].

FMG

So, Jan has a sandwich! What shall we call it?

DIRK’S FATHER

Consumption item?

[EVERYBODY NODS ENTHUSIASTICALLY]

JAN’S MOTHER

For all it takes me to convince him to eat it in the morning …

[General enlivened discussion on the part of parents about the difficulty of feeding their children in the morning, till FMG’s interruption]:

FMG

What about that wrapper? [ … ] The sandwich wrapper?

[Confused whispering, shrugging on the part of the children, careful consideration and suspicious glances from the parents]

FMG

Is this a consumption item?

DIRK’S FATHER

Yes.

FMG

Let’s ask the children first. What do you think?

ANGELA

Mmmm … I don’t know.

JAN

You cannot eat it!

FMG

So, it’s not a consumption item? What do you think, Anneke?

ANNEKE

I think … I think it is …

ANNEKE’S MOTHER [DEFENSIVELY]

Are you going to say now that this is bad?

FMG

Why? Why do you say that – that it is bad?

[General uncomfortable silence. Anneke looks perplexed, Jan, Dirk and Angela look at their parents, Anneke’s mother turns pink, Jan’s and Dirk’s fathers look from FMG to Anneke’s mother, the observant teacher reaches out for her notepad and taps it with her pen, Angela’s mother smiles soothingly into space].

(Recorded, transcribed and translated from Dutch by the author)