Equality, race and religion, are very important topics for parents and teachers to talk about with their children – but it can be complicated and difficult to explain
A teacher has been hailed for her ‘beautiful’ way of explaining race to young school children in her class. Equality, race and religion, are very important topics for parents and teachers to talk about with their children, but it can be complicated to explain.
Children are so young, naïve and full of complete innocence, so having to explain things that they might have never thought of before, can be difficult. Children are also the masters of awkward questions and may ask them in public when somebody walks past them in the street or gets onto public transport.
As parents we may find this extremely awkward, but it is important to be open and honest with our children and teach them that everybody looks different… and this is a good thing.
Sometimes children learn about race and religion in school, as shown by a viral video shared on TikTok earlier this week. The video showed a teacher of a young class explaining race to the group of children.
The teacher and children were stood around a table with a bowl along with a packet of eggs. The teacher held out two eggs, one was brown in colour while the other was white.
The teacher said: “One is brown, and one is white, right? So now lets look at the inside.”
First she cracked the white egg into a bowl to show the egg white and yolk before cracking the brown egg on the side of the bowl.
She said: “Lets see what this one looks like on the inside. Well look at that, if I spin it around can you tell which egg is which?”
The children said “no” to the teacher, and she went on to explain why she did the experiment.
She said: “They both look the same on the inside, don’t they. So this is just like people, people look different on the outside, right?
“But on the inside we’re all the same. That’s what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was trying to tell us.
“That’s why we should all be treated the same because we are the same. We’re all people.”
Over a million people watched the video, with thousands of people commenting on the video to say how vital the lesson was.
One person said: “This is beautiful, I hope their parents teach them the same at home.”
A second person said: “This kind woman gave a beautiful lesson in the simplest way. By cracking two eggs – one white and one brown – and showing the children that the inside is the same, she taught them a powerful truth, people may look different on the outside, but inside, we are all the same.
“Her actions are full of wisdom, kindness, and love, planting values of respect, equality, and humanity in the hearts of children from a young age. This is true education, and this is how a better generation is built.”
A third person said: “So beautiful! I’m getting goosebumps.”
A fourth added: “So emotional watching this, I wish there were more teachers like you.”
