With more and more cases of bullying making headlines every single day, trying to explain it to little kids isn’t easy, but it sure seems necessary.
And yes, all kids know that there’s good guys and bad guys in the world, but how do you get them to wrap their minds around the idea that there are people out there who are only mean to certain people some of the time in a way they can process and understand?
Good thing a pretty awesome example has come across my social media feeds the past few days, because all it takes is a blank piece of paper.
Buzzfeed reported that the “Crumpled Paper Lesson” started with a a teacher in New York who handed out a piece of paper to each student in her class, and then asked them to crumple it up and step on it and basically make it as barfy as possible without ripping it.
After that, she asked each child to unfold their sheet, smooth it out, and try to get it to look as crisp and fresh as it did before they started the exercise. Of course everyone’s sheet of paper stayed creased and crappy.
Then, the teacher asked the kids to apologize to the paper.
They did, and she pointed out that even though they said they were sorry, the creases still didn’t come out, no matter how hard they tried to fix them.
And that is exactly what happens when one child tears down another. You might not be able to see it on the outside, but all those crumples stay with them on the inside.