One Bad Apple
Making a difference
by Brian Radcliffe
Suitable for Whole School (Sec)
Aims
To explore the influence that we can have over others.
Preparation and materials
- You will need a ripe apple.
Assembly
- Ask the students, ‘Do you have an apple tree in your garden? Do you pass one on your way to school?’
We’re getting close to the time when apples are ready to be picked. If we pick them too soon, they’re sour and hard. We need them to be ripe: sweet; firm, but not hard; glossy; and with that distinctive flavour.
Show the apple to the students and take a bite. - Ask the students, ‘What causes an apple to ripen?’
Explain that it’s due to a gas called ethylene. Each apple releases this gas, which then enables the apples around it to ripen. The effect is mutual. Incidentally, bananas release even more ethylene than apples, so apples and bananas that are mixed in a fruit bowl will benefit each other. - There is an obvious message here for all of us as to how our demeanour can induce the best habits and actions in one another. However, we’re not going to develop that message just yet. Let’s save it until later.
- The ripening process is vital for every apple on the tree. However, if it is allowed to develop for too long, the ethylene causes the apple to overripen, so that it goes soft and turns brown and wrinkled. If a wasp or another insect has laid an egg inside the apple, the ripening process works with the newborn insect to turn the apple rotten from the inside out. If the rotten apple is left in isolation on the tree, it falls to the ground and eventually turns into manure, which benefits next season’s crop. However, if the bad apple is stored with ripening apples, the effect can be very different.
- Ask the students, ‘Have you ever heard the phrase “one bad apple spoils the barrel”?’
Before the invention of the refrigerator, apples were stored in big wooden barrels to ripen slowly and be enjoyed all through the winter. Each apple needed to be carefully examined before it was put in the barrel because one defective apple could affect the whole barrel. The overripened or rotten inside of one apple would gradually spread through the entire confined space of the sealed barrel. When the barrel was opened, all of the apples would probably have turned to mush. What a waste!
Time for reflection
Ask the students the following questions.
- If you were an apple, what kind of apple would you be?
- What kind of ethylene do you spread into your family, your friendship groups and this school?
Pause to allow time for thought.
If we are encouraging, patient, kind, imaginative and forward-looking, we can have a positive ripening effect on every group to which we belong. Other people will become better people because of who we are. Confidence breeds confidence. Patience is returned. Imagination sparks new ideas in others.
However, what if we become a bad apple?
On the one hand, the best character traits can become damaging if they are exaggerated. Confidence can slip into arrogance, and we can find ourselves assuming that we are better than others. Patience can mean that we’re tempted to put off dealing with important issues until too late. Encouragement is great, but not when it begins to feel like pressure. Being forward-looking can result in us getting too far ahead of everyone else. They never catch up: we’re isolated and they’re discouraged. Rather than the ethylene of our character ripening others, they become overripe and damaged.
On the other hand, what if we have a little bug growing inside us, something hidden? I’m talking about a little jealousy, a prejudice, a desire for revenge for some previous hurt. If something like this isn’t addressed, it’s quite likely to burst out at some inconvenient time. We become the one bad apple that spoils the barrel.
When harvesting apples, the remedy for avoiding rot is to throw away the bad apples. However, that’s not how we operate here in school. Thankfully, we live in a society where the bad apple can be made good, but not by those around us. The responsibility lies totally with us. Christians believe, as do many other religions, in the transformation of people. We do not have to stay as we are. However, we must recognize that we may have elements of the bad apple in ourselves. Admitting our faults and failings is the start of a healthy ripening process in which our faith can play a significant part.
Ask the students again: ‘If you were an apple, what kind of apple would you be? Good or bad?’
Pause to allow time for thought.
Song/music
‘Getting on with life’ by Philippa Hanna, available at: https://youtu.be/IOv5yhxJ1I0 (4.14 minutes long)
Extension activities
- Buy an apple.
- Hold it and feel the smoothness.
- Look at it and ensure that there are no blemishes on the skin or entry points for bugs.
- Smell the skin and imagine the ethylene.
- Taste and enjoy the apple. As you do this, think about the ethylene that you share with those around you.
Plan three positive ways in which you can help others to ripen today. Go into the remainder of the school day and do it.
