Kids can be hella smart if taught the right way. In fact, sometimes, they’ll even surprise us adults with the astuteness of their understanding of a concept that even we have difficulty grasping. Just give them the good teacher who can explain it to them in a way they get it. A prime example, this teacher of 8-year-old kids, who managed to teach them the difference between equity and equality with the help of something completely unexpected!
An illustration was circulating around Tumblr, which quite clearly showcased the difference between Equity and Equality.
Equity is giving people what they need to be equal. On the other hand, Equality is giving everyone the same thing, irrespective of whether they can use it or not. Like in the above illustration, Equity gives everyone a bicycle, customised in a way that fulfills their needs.
Whereas in Equality, everyone has been given the same bicycle, without thinking about whether they have a use for it or not.
The caption underneath read,
Taking this opportunity, a teacher decided to put forth a rather interesting way of how she taught 8-year-old kids in her class the above concept. What’s amazing is that she did so with using band aids!
What’s even more amazing is that those eight year olds understood it perfectly well too.
So how does she do it?
You see what she’d doing here, right? Just like the bicycle illustration of Equality, she’s giving them all band aids, but without thinking about where they need to put it.
And then, when the children continue to try and tell her that the bandaid is not actually where they need it to be, and therefore, not helping them feel better at all, she gives them the big lesson….
This one-time exercise now serves as a life-long lesson that she can remind her students of to make them understand why each of them gets different things…. Because their needs are different.
The teacher’s story sparked an interesting discussion and debate over the topic of Equity v. Equality.
Class was in session!
While there were those who thought her idea to be brilliant….
… others spoke about how this was all well and good in theory, but the practical was different ball game altogether.
And then, of course, there was this middle road that seemed to make sense!
Either way, you’ve got to agree the method she employed to teach the kids was indeed quite amazing. But what do you think? Where do you stand on the Equity v. Equality debate?
Images Sourced From Tumblr.