Third Grade Students Learn About

The Efforts Of Tolerance

By Eliza Hallabeck

The big sister of a third grader in Susan Ruddock’s Head O’ Meadow class visited the Boggs Hill Road school to share a message with the students about racial healing.

“Does anyone know what that means?” asked Alessandra Delia, a Newtown High School senior in NHS teacher Amy Repay’s Conversations on Race course.

The third graders responded with answers that ranged from “The human race?” to “The color of your skin… or something.”

Alessandra listed different races for the students, and explained people can come from many areas of the world. As a project for the Conversations on Race course, Alessandra walked the third grade students through an exercise to teach them about bullying, discrimination, respect, and understanding.

For the exercise, Alessandra handed out lollipops to a portion of the students in the class after separating the students by the color of their shirts. She treated the students with lollipops better than she treated the others.

“We’re out of the picture,” said one student, responding about how it felt to be treated poorly.

Then Alessandra switched the roles, asking the students who had lollipops to give them back. After going through the exercise again, the students responded saying it did not make them feel good.

“That is how it feels to be in a minority,” Alessandra told the students, adding, “You couldn’t help who you are. You just decided to put that shirt on this morning. You didn’t think it would stop you from getting something later today. That’s how it feels to be another race.”

After coming back to the full group, students said respect means “if someone is being mean to someone, you stand up to them,” “you obey your parents” and “don’t tease people just because they put different things on their food.”

Alessandra finished the lesson by saying, “In order to create racial healing, each of us will have to make an effort.”