Yesterday I overheard a few people talking while we were lining up for specials about a student and how they didn't like the way that his/her breath smelled. I was a little taken back by the comment and asked my class to sit down. Once everyone was seated, I asked them what it means to walk a mile in someone else's shoes. A few hands rose to answer the question. While it took a few minds to come together, they understood the comment. I knew my next bullying lesson had to happen soon. Today, I brought in two apples. I told the kids that the apples were the same kind of apple, about the same size, and picked from the same tree. I asked them what was the difference between the two apples. The obvious comments came to surface: the color, the stems, the size. I then asked them what the insides might look like. I wanted to see what difference they could find in the two apples. Again, the obvious was stated: number of seeds, sweetness, ripeness. I posed the big question: "Why in the world am I talking about apples with you today?" As the blank stares looked back at me, I knew this was my chance to talk to them about differences. But this message needed to be bigger than differences. You see, what they didn't know was that the apple without a stem had been dropped, bounced, rubbed, squeezed, and rolled before I even came to school. I cut the apples open. Immediately after I cut the apples open, they started to see the color difference. This is where I told them what I had done before school. I told them that I yelled at the apple, I told the apple that it smelled funny and I didn't like the way it looked. I told them I made fun of the apple for being so small. The room was so silent, I could hear a pin drop. They started to really see where this lesson was going.
I asked them again about what it meant to walk a mile in someone else's shoes. We talked about how some students do not have running water, or money to buy the best clothes. We talked about how home life for every person is different. We talked about how the outside of the apple may not be that different, but the damage is inside. When they were talking about how bad someone's breath smelled, it could be causing damage to someone on the inside. Moral of the story: Walk a mile in someone else's shoes before you make comments or judgements.
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