Teacher Rosie Dutton's Genius Lesson About Bullying Is Going Viral
If someone hits you in the face, you get a black eye. If someone trips you, you skin your knee. But if someone bullies you, the pain isn't always visible to an outside viewer.
That's the important lesson a U.K. teacher just taught a group of schoolchildren — using nothing but two apples. Her simple demonstration is so powerful, it's now going viral on Facebook, according to Mashable.
The genius teacher is Rosie Dutton, a relaxation and mindfulness instructor who travels around to different schools, Mashable reported. On the Facebook page for Relax Kids Tamworth, Dutton explained how the lesson played out:
"Today in one of our classes I introduced the children to two apples (the children didn't know this, but before the class I had repeatedly dropped one of the apples on the floor, you couldn't tell, both apples looked perfect)," Dutton wrote in the post, which has been shared more than 150,000 times.
"We talked about the apples and the children described how both apples looked the same; both were red, were of similar size and looked juicy enough to eat."
What happened next: Dutton took the apple she'd dropped on the floor and said mean things to it — that it was disgusting, ugly and that its stem was too short. Then she passed the apple around the room, instructing the students to do the same.
Next, Dutton passed around the apple that hadn't been dropped on the floor. With this apple, everyone in the room doled out compliments.
The big reveal: Finally, Dutton cut the apples open. The apple that had received compliments was "clear, fresh and juicy" inside, while the "bullied" apple was bruised and mushy.
"I think there was a lightbulb moment for the children immediately," Dutton wrote. "They really got it, what we saw inside that apple, the bruises, the mush and the broken bits is what is happening inside every one of us when someone mistreats us with their words or actions."
Thankfully, unlike apples, humans have the power to do something about bullying, Dutton pointed out. We can teach kids to be kind and to stand up for one another.
"More and more hurt and damage happens inside if nobody does anything to stop the bullying," she wrote. "Let's create a generation of kind, caring children."
