Freedom From Exploitation

Wow! What a powerful lesson we had today about exploitation! The students had to sort rice by colour for 10 minutes as an awareness activity.They were not allowed to speak, the room was hot, and the lights were dimmed. A few students who didn't follow the rules as laid out by the boss - Mrs. Robinson - were given more rice to sort, while two "workers" who were doing their job got their piles lessened and given to the ones not complying with the rules. The boss supervised over the shoulders and took pictures of the workers as they were sorting. Then, as an additional activity, once 10 minutes had passed, the workers had to take their largest pile and count it. We documented on the SMARTBoard the workers' total amounts, and the boss got very upset when one worker had not finished counting her pile in the given time, and made others explain why they had not sorted as many grains as their co-workers in the given time. Once the activity was completed, we all met at the carpet and discussed our feelings before, during, and after the activity, as well as their feelings toward their co-workers and toward their boss. It led to some excellent dialogue. Please take time to go through the photocopy of the comments made during this time and to discuss exploitation with your child/ren. This was REALLY a super activity, and I am so proud of all of the students for taking the activity so seriously and for generating such great discussion afterward. What an amazing group :) Way to go!



Sorting rice before counting our largest pile