This week we had our very first Values workshop. I didn’t really know what to expect going into it as we had never had the experience of a workshop prior to this. When I went in I surrounded myself with familiar faces and assumed that we would be allowed to sit with who we wanted creating a comfortable environment. However we were soon made to step out of our comfort zones and were put into groups with others from the course that we may not know so well. This allowed me to talk to new people and get to know some new faces within the course.
Our group was told that we were to be group one, at this time I didn’t think to much into what number our group had been given. It wasn’t until each group were given a large envelope of resources that I began to notice something strange. Our group had been given countless items including stationary such as pens, pencils, post it notes ect. As I looked around I seen that the other three groups had’t been given nearly as many items. As we sat on pondered over why this might be, we were told that we had to make something out of our materials that would be helpful to a student starting out at university. I soon forgot after my group began to plan and create, how little the other groups had been given t work with. It wasn’t until each group had to present their creation that I noticed the true inequality between groups. Group 4 had a mere post-it note and pen, what could you even make out of that?
When we began presenting I noticed the different ways each group were treated. My group (group1) were given the the highest amount of praise. Encouraging, positive and emotive language was used to describe what we had come up with, however, this wasn’t the case for every group. I noticed especially within group 4 very little eye contact was made during the presentation and Carrie was constantly checking her watch. It was very awkward and uncomfortable to watch. I soon came to the realisation of the meaning behind our first values workshop.
I thought it was a great way to portray inequality within society showing that not only do some people have less but how people can treat them differently because of this. This task allowed me to gain a greater understanding of this concept. Inequality can be seen through something as small as school uniform. There will always be the children who have visibly less than others but that shouldn’t mean they are treated any differently from those who seemingly have a lot. This workshop was extremely effective in addressing this issue within society and allowed me to gain the necessary knowledge needed to confront similar situations in the future.
