A Swear Jar

Teaching Tips: The Swear Jar Keeps Language Clean & Raises Funds

Dick Moss, Editor

Foul language is offensive to many people and reflects badly on the quality of your program. It can also cost you technical fouls in a game situation.

Cindy Dwyer and Karen Hansen, former girls' flag football coaches at Sudbury Secondary School in Sudbury, Ontario, found a great way to reduce profane language among their players. They called it the Swear Jar.

The Swear Jar
The Swear Jar is a large, re-labeled pickle jar that accompanies the team manager to practices and games. Each time a player (or coach) uses profanity during a practice, they must place 25¢ in the Swear Jar. If they curse during a game, it costs them 50¢. All money goes towards purchasing new team uniforms.

The team manager maintains a ledger with the profanity “tab” for each player and keeps the coaches informed as to who owes how much.

The coaches acknowledged that some students can't afford cash for the jar, so any swearing student can work off their debt by performing pushups. Each pushup reduces their debt by 10¢.

References:
Idea from Cindy Dwyer and Karen Hansen. Ms. Dwyer and Hansen, were past students at Cambrian College in Sudbury, Ontario and coaches of the girls' flag football at Sudbury Secondary School.

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