Ethos Education

Wonka: Can we imagine a world of fairness?

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Learning Objectives:      

  • Consider the complexity and unfairness in global supply chains, particularly with reference to the chocolate trade.
  • Understand the Bible’s teaching on wealth and poverty, particularly with regard to the fair treatment of workers.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Learn about the global trade in cocoa beans, cocoa butter and chocolate.
  • Analyse the work of the Fairtrade Foundation in making trade more equitable, particularly for cocoa farmers.
  • Consider the idea that poverty and inequality can be challenged through dreams and hard work through discussion of a clip from Wonka.
  • Reflect on the Old Testament account of Ruth and Boaz in order to find a biblical example of generosity towards the poor.
  • Consider an example of how a Christian development charity (Tearfund) works in partnership with local churches to help cocoa farmers to improve growing conditions.
  • Consolidate learning by making an advert for a fair-trade brand of chocolate.

Supporting Values Education:

  • The value of tolerance and respect for others holds that all humans are of equal worth, and underpins the concept of protection of the most vulnerable in society. This lesson encourages students to consider the impact of fair trade on the lives of more vulnerable members of society and encourages students to adopt a thoughtful perspective on their habits of consumption.

STARTER:

Give students a copy of the Sweet Taste of Success handout. In this, students must match questions and answers about chocolate. The answers are as follows:

Which country consumes the most chocolate in the world?

Switzerland – the average person consumes approximately 8.8 kg of chocolate every year, which is approximately 22lb (source: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/which-country-eats-the-most-chocolate)

When was the first chocolate bar made?

In 1847 by cacao refinery owner Joseph Fry. He combined cocoa powder, cocoa butter, and raw sugar to form a solid (source: https://www.harryanddavid.com/blog/chocolate-facts-and-origins)

Where is most of the world’s chocolate grown?

2.5 million farms in Ghana and the Ivory Coast produce more than 60% of all cocoa worldwide (source: https://tonyschocolonely.com/uk/en/our-mission)

How many cacao beans does it take to make a pound (500g) of chocolate?

400 cacao beans (source: https://www.simplychocolate.com/learn-about-chocolate)

What are the three main ingredients in white chocolate?

Cocoa butter, vanilla, sugar (source: https://www.simplychocolate.com/learn-about-chocolate)

How much money does the average cocoa farmer in the Ivory Coast earn?

78 euro cents a day (source: https://tonyschocolonely.com/uk/en/our-mission)

How many children in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, work in the chocolate industry?

1.56 million children work under illegal conditions because the harvest doesn’t give their parents enough income (source: https://tonyschocolonely.com/uk/en/our-mission)

When were chocolate chip cookies invented?

Chocolate chip cookies were discovered totally by accident in 1938, by a woman named Ruth Wakefield who was trying to make chocolate cookies (source: https://www.simplychocolate.com/learn-about-chocolate)

Who was the world’s first chocoholic?

The Aztec emperor Montezuma is said to have consumed fifty cups of cacao drink daily. He lived to the age of 54 when life expectancy was only 40, so it must have done him some good! (source: https://www.harryanddavid.com/blog/chocolate-facts-and-origins)

What is the most popular chocolate bar in the UK in 2024?

Mars Bar (source: https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24142081.uks-popular-chocolate-bar-2024-revealed)

When everyone has completed the handout, run through the answers together. Ask the class the following questions:

Did you learn anything that you didn’t know?

Were there any facts that surprised you?

What did you think about the fact that there are children in Ghana and the Ivory Coast who harvest cocoa beans?

If you are teaching this topic over a number of lessons, and have the resources available, you could use the Christian Aid Chocolate Trade Game to explore how chocolate makes its way from bean to bar, and to discover how the chocolate trade can be exploitative to farmers. The game takes around one hour to play, and includes a debrief time. Link to the game is in the resource list.

If you don’t use the Chocolate Trade Game, then show the Unwrapping the Bar video clip from the Fairtrade Foundation: https://vimeo.com/317259115 (eight mins).

Once you have watched the clip discuss the following questions:

What factors impact the price of cocoa? (weather and climate change; lack of control in the supply chain; price fluctuations in the global markets).

What difference does it make for chocolate producers to be given a fair price for their crops? (the price can’t drop below the fair trade minimum, farmers are given a fair trade premium).

What sort of investments are made with the fair trade premium? (education, clean water, trucks, creating a cooperative to increase production).

Do students think that a living income ($2.50/£2 per day) is a basic human right? Why/why not?

Explain that in today’s lesson, students will think about chocolate, and about generosity. They will look at a Bible story and learn about greed and generosity.

MAIN ACTIVITIES:

Tell students that they are going to watch a clip from Wonka. Ask them to listen carefully for a phrase that describes how poor people are sometimes treated by rich people.

Introduce the clip from Wonka (Warner Bros, 2023) certificate PG, click here to buy the DVD online.

Clip 1

  • Start time: 00.20.25
  • End time: 00.26.11
  • Clip length: 5 minutes 46 seconds

After failing to read the small print on a rental contract, Willy Wonka (Timothee Chalamet) finds himself working for a malicious laundry owner, Mrs Scrubitt (Olivia Coleman) in order to pay off his debt. On arriving in his room, Wonka is brought a tray of slop by Noodle (Calah Lane) who has worked out that Wonka cannot read. He tells her that he has focussed all his learning on the study of chocolate. He tells Noodle that he owes 10,000 sovereigns and she replies that she owes 30,000. She reveals that she was found by Mrs Scrubitt (Olivia Coleman) as a baby, and that she has been charged for the privilege of being taken in. She tells him that ‘The greedy beat the needy every time, Mr Wonka. Guess that’s just the way of the world.’ He challenges her view of the world and discovers that she has never tasted chocolate. He opens up his ‘travel factory’ and proceeds to make her a chocolate concoction containing silver linings and liquid sunlight. As he does, he tells her how his mother would save cocoa beans until his birthday when she would make him a bar of the best chocolate in the world. She told him she had the secret of how to make the best chocolate, that every good thing in the world started with a dream and that he should hold on to his. Sadly his mother died before she revealed the secret to him, and he was left with only her bar of chocolate which he still carries with him. Wonka tells Noodle that he has come to the city to share chocolate with the world. When the chocolate is ready, he gives her the delicious morsel. Noodle takes a bite and then says she wishes he hadn’t as now each day she doesn’t have chocolate will be harder.

Discuss the clip with the class. What did they think of the fact that Willy Wonka and Noodle were forced to work for Mrs Scrubitt until they paid back their debt?

Did anyone spot the phrase about how rich people treat poor people? Noodle said ‘The greedy beat the needy every time, Mr Wonka. That’s just the way of the world.’

What do students think that Noodle meant by this? (Exploitation is part of the human condition, greed can blind people to the needs of others, the world will never change). Do they agree that the greedy always win? Do they think it’s right that greedy people exploit people in need? Can they think of examples of this in the news or in their own experience?

Distribute the Don’t Be Greedy, Feed The Needy worksheet and explain that you are going to look at an event in the Bible from the Old Testament. In pairs, ask students to read the story then answer the questions. If you think that the class will struggle with the reading, you could read the story to them, or ask some more confident readers to read it out loud.

Who was the richest person in the story?

Who was the most vulnerable or weakest person in the story?

Why do you think Boaz was kind to Ruth?

And finally, do you think Boaz lost out by being kind to Ruth? Why/why not?

For each answer, students must find evidence in the passage.

Once students have completed the worksheet, discuss their answers together. Explain that Ruth and Naomi were very vulnerable in their society. As widows they had very few rights, and as a foreigner (a Moabite), Ruth could have been regarded with suspicion. To go and glean, or look for food, in Boaz’s field took courage for Ruth. Boaz showed kindness to Ruth because he was a follower of God, and he knew that God’s law taught that he should look after widows and the poor, and let them pick up grain that fell. However, he seems to be particularly generous towards Ruth and Naomi, allowing her to join the workers, making sure that she wasn’t harassed by the men and inviting her to join him at lunchtime. He was kind and generous as a result of his faith.

If anyone is interested in the rest of the story, they can read it for themselves in the Bible, but they might like to know that Ruth and Boaz end up falling in love, and everyone lives happily ever after!

Remind students of Noodle’s comment – ‘The greedy beat the needy every time, Mr Wonka. Guess that’s just the way of the world.’ – and of Wonka’s idea that every good thing in the world starts with a dream.

The story of Ruth and Boaz reminds us that not all people are greedy, and that some people want to help other people, especially when they are needy. Some people dream of changing the world for the better.

Ask students to read ‘Daniel’s story’ from Tearfund (https://www.tearfund.org/stories/2019/08/sweet-like-chocolate) – you could show this on the whiteboard, or print out copies for the class to read. Tearfund is a Christian global development charity working with partner churches and organisations. In Ivory Coast, Tearfund works with a partner called Alliance for Integral Development and Social Action (ADIAS), to train farmers like Daniel how to improve his soil quality.

Tearfund, like many Christian development charities, is motivated to help people in practical ways because they believe that God loves everyone, and wants his followers to act generously towards those who are poor.

SUMMARY AND ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING:

Recap what students have learned so far:

  • Chocolate is made from the cocoa bean, and most of the world’s chocolate comes from beans grown in West Africa.
  • The chocolate trade is often unfair to the farmers and workers but fair trade practices mean that workers are paid a good rate for their beans and can invest in their communities.
  • Poverty is caused by greed, but people who choose not be greedy can help those who have less.
  • The story of Ruth and Boaz is an example of someone taking seriously God’s instruction to take care of the needy.
  • Christian development charities like Tearfund work with poor communities across the world to make life fairer and better.

Explain that there are many brands of chocolate who only work with Fairtrade suppliers – students might want to research brands like Tony’s Chocolonely, Divine Chocolate or Green and Blacks, and they might want to look for the Fairtrade symbol on other brands, to see examples of chocolate suppliers that pay fair wages to their suppliers.

To consolidate learning, explain that, in groups, students are now tasked with creating an advert for a new bar of chocolate created by a Christian chocolatier that helps cocoa bean farmers in Ghana and Ivory Coast. The chocolate is called ‘Boaz’, and is named after the character in the Bible. In the advert they must include a strapline or phrase that sums the chocolate up, describe what the chocolate tastes like, how it helps the farmers and why the chocolatier chose the name ‘Boaz’ for their product. Students can use the Boaz Branding handout to jot down their ideas.

YOU WILL NEED:

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