The best way to explain complex concepts is through simple terms, and what better way to explain the concept of bullying to a bunch of children than to use an item they all already know: an apple.
Or in this case two apples.
In a now-viral Facebook post by page Relax Kids Tamworth, one teacher details how she taught her class the very important lesson on bullying.
She started by introducing the class two identical apples, but what the class didn’t know was that she had repeatedly dropped one apples on the floor.
“I picked up the apple I’d dropped on the floor and started to tell the children how I disliked this apple, that I thought it was disgusting, it was a horrible color and the stem was just too short,” she says.
“I told them that because I didn’t like it, I didn’t want them to like it either, so they should call it names too.”
Some children looked at her as though she was crazy, but they passed the apple around and one by one they started calling it names:
“You’re a smelly apple,” “I don’t even know why you exist,” “you’ve probably got worms inside you.”
Then they passed around the other apple, and this time said kind words to it:
“You’re a lovely apple,” “your skin is beautiful,” “what a beautiful color you are.”
“I then held up both apples, and again, we talked about the similarities and differences, there was no change, both apples still looked the same.
“I then cut the apples open.
“The apple we’d been kind to was clear, fresh and juicy inside. The apple we’d said unkind words to was bruised and all mushy inside.”
She said it was like a lightbulb moment for her class, and when they saw what was the apple’s inside looked like—the bruises, the mush and the broken bits—right away they understood that happens inside a person when they are mistreated with words and actions.
Bullied people don’t say it out loud, and on the outside they may even look like the rest of us. Without cutting into the apple, they wouldn’t know that its inside looked like.
The teacher said that she decided to teach this lesson to her children because recently she herself suffered someone’s unkind words. She looked all right on the outside, but inside she was hurting.
“Unlike an apple, we have the ability to stop this from happening,” the teacher says in the Facebook post. “We can teach children that it’s not ok to say unkind things to each other and discuss how it makes others feel.
“We can teach our children to stand up for each other and to stop any form of bullying, just as one little girl did today when she refused to say unkind words to the apple.”
READ: Helping Schools Keep Your Child Safe
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