dmolina
Natasha 
đȘđșRead it again and again. And then again ...
Evelyn Estelle@Natasha_Jay On one hand, this is a memorable teaching tool.
On the other hand, I wonder if the teacher has the integrity to just answer "yes, this is fair" if someone kicks them in the shin for it.
Dagnabbit, Pascaline! đ„I feel sad for Steven, though. Such a situation can have a profound impact, no matter how well explained. There is always the knowing others did not stand up for you. Maybe the help afterwards, including the entire class, was enough though, things may have been fine.
Insinuations are also bad, they can wreck lives. Someone casually / intentionally dropping something can be picked up. There is always someone who believes it, and harm can start with a single person.
@pascaline @Natasha_Jay Thanks. I think this is what I failed to word properly rationally when I had the urge to kick the teacher in the shin.
You're welcome.
It is a very uncomfortable situation that needs to be absolutely well prepared. The best thing would be to ask Steven if he wanted to participate in this, explaining what could happen. But the impact of realising this actually happened may be heavy to bear for a child.
Jochen Wolters@pascaline @dragonfi @Natasha_Jay Your comment is spot-on.
The story reminds me of Jane Elliottâs âBlue eyes, brown eyesâ exercise, which, thankfully, has seen plenty of well-reasoned criticism by now. Even the most noble intentions donât justify the cost of the emotional cruelty that these children might have to bear (unless the protagonist is properly briefed on, and freely agrees to, the experiment, just like you say).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Elliott#Academic_research
Thanks!
After I posted it, I remembered that as well. It's incredible that this kind of situations existed, and still exist.
If this is done, it should be absolutely safe and well thought through.
It would also be important to tell the child that they are completely free, and supported, in their decision to cooperate or not. Both choices are fine.
But still, the other children will have so many questions as well. Empathy is not learned through fear.
@pascaline @dragonfi @Natasha_Jay âEmpathy is not learned through fear.â That is such a beautiful statement, Pascaline, that Iâve added it to my favorites quotes note. LOVE IT!
Oh â€
It just bubbled up in my head and flowed into my typing fingers, thank you đ
Halla Rempt@Natasha_Jay I got sent to the principal a couple of times because I didn't play along and kept not being silent when teacher games like this happened.
But that ended when I said, "Teach, do you really want me to go to the principal and tell him you've been feeling up the girls in your class?"
Not that I knew he had been doing that or anything, but it seemed like it could be effective. I didn't get sent out.
Not everyone plays along to create that "wonderful" teachable moment.
Levka"How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?"
xs4me2Exactly...
Merry ChristmasBorrowing this
GulfofMexico@Natasha_Jay brilliant teacher!
â Fish Id Wardrobe@CAman @Natasha_Jay do you think steve thought so? or do the ends justify the means?
Justin Macleod@Natasha_Jay 100% of the social media posts that that have brought me to tears or near it were generated this year. This joins that growing tally. We have to fix this broken world!
Christine Malec@Natasha_Jay I did, I will,
@Natasha_Jay again, as always when i see this: the writer missed an important lesson in addition to the one they learned, which is that the teacher was an unmitigated arsehole.
I'm sure the teacher would say that the ends justified the meansâŠ
myrmepropagandistThis is an interesting story, but please, if you are a teacher don't do this.
It crosses some ethical line for me even as an exercise.
But what you could do is have the principal come and take you or some students who were in on it away for obviously fake reasons maybe?
even then IDK.
I always worry with these things that my students may already be familiar with false accusations from people in power. It's a big project to make it so that school ...or at least my classroom is always safe from that kind of unfairness.
@futurebird @Natasha_Jay Thank you so much for adding your perspective as a teacher to this discussion.
Itâs so easy to instantly support and spread messages like this stories, because they do have the right intentions. We shouldnât, however, ignore the finer details of these exercises, particularly what they mean for those who are effectively forced to participate.
Michi@Natasha_Jay could be real but somehow feels like an invented story.
And as others pointed out: it's not right and also probably not effective to use violence as a lesson, even or maybe especially if the lesson should be "violence is bad". Or is it "violence is easy"?
Anyway there is a reason we try as much as possible to avoid violence of any form. Especially in education.
We have good reasons: violence is ineffective in the long run and it creates unnecessary harm.
mrkite@instenauer @Natasha_Jay Depends on when it happened. In 7th grade (in the late 80s) a person dressed up in crazy clown clothes entered the classroom, shouted something and shot the teacher with a nerf gun.
After the class settled down, we had to describe the culprit, and the whole lesson was about how unreliable eyewitnesses are.
I don't think you could do this today.