Throughout Tuesday’s resource workshop, we were put into five groups. Each group was given a brown envelope, which were allocated to groups one, two, three, four and five. We were asked to develop a helpful tool for a student starting out at university, however, we could only use the provisions that we were provided with. Each envelope contained various utensils such as pens, paper and post-it notes.
We were then asked to brainstorm and present our ideas to the rest of the group and afterwards, were given a short amount of time to develop these. All five groups drafted interesting tools. However, it was easy to notice that Brenda, the convenor of the workshop, was acting differently towards groups three, four and five. Not as much praise, attention and care was given to these groups. Brenda scored our tools, starting group one off with the highest and lastly group five with the lowest. Some groups were unsatisfied with the outcome and felt the task was unfair. This was due to an unequal amount of resources, time and effort placed into these groups, from Brenda.
At the end of task, Brenda asked groups one and two whether they noticed they were given much more provisions in their envelope than all the others. Unsurprisingly, we did not. This placed an uncomfortable atmosphere throughout the room. Everyone in groups one and two felt regretful that they did not notice or even ask the other groups if they needed anything. This conveys deeper ideas which are presented in the wider world, that when you have much more than everyone else, you tend to become oblivious and forget that some do not have what you do. These are thoughts which us, inspiring primary teachers, social workers and CLD practitioners must use throughout our career.
The workshop also provoked thought of equality, because groups three, four and five were given less, they were all scored less. This presents the idea that as we are in a profession where not everyone we encounter will be as advantaged as each other, we cannot treat them any differently or any less than any one else. If anything, these children cannot be forgotten about and may need more guidance to follow them through their school career.
All of us at one point in our career will face these challenges.
The workshop left us all with lessons and thoughts which will stay with us forever. I know the session for me was extremely thought-provoking and will in future help to brand how I treat others and how I will act towards the children in my classroom. Everyone we teach should be treated with the same fairness and equality.
