The last post for this year and Career Oracle wishes its readers a very happy and prosperous new year!!!!!! Let us all learn to be a a little more empathetic to each other in 2014! Discrimination: Coping With Discrimination

Purpose of activity: To understand what it feels like to be left out from a group.

To be aware of people or groups who are left out in society.

Lifeskills: Critical thinking & Empathy.

Materials: Sets of stickers in three colours – or bits of coloured paper and pins. There should be enough of each colour for one third of the children in the group.

Steps:

1.            Tell the children that in this game, they will greet everyone differently according to the colour of the sticker placed on their shirt at the back (or a sticker on their forehead!).

2.            Each child has one of three colour stickers placed on the back of their shirt (or forehead). They don’t know which colour they have. They must not tell each other what colour they have pr it will spoil the game!

3.            Tell the children that they can move around the room and greet each other in the following way:

Green sticker - greet this person as if they are very important to you and who you haven't seen for a long time. You are VERY happy to see them and greet them warmly.

Yellow sticker - greet this person as if they are someone you pass everyday. You greet them but it is not a big greeting.

Red sticker - this is someone you do not want to see or greet. Try to avoid them but if you must greet them, do so coldly and try to get away quickly.

4.            Children move around the room and make their greetings for 5-10 mins.

5.            Now the children can look at their sticker and form groups according to their colour. The groups discuss what happened in the activity and what it felt like.

6.            Mix the groups so that there are some of each colour in each group. These groups discuss:

What did it feel like to have the red, yellow or green stickers?

Are there any people in society whom society does not like or leave out? (For example, people whose skin is a different colour, people who have a disability, people who have HIV, women, people who are homosexual, people of a different religion)?  Why?

How do you think those people feel when they are left out? How can we help make those people feel more included?

7.            Each group presents their key points.