A teacher’s lesson to help her students understand that ‘we’ve all got baggage so we need to be kind to each other’ has gone viral, clearly striking a chord with the rest of the world.
Karen Wunderlich Loewe is a teacher from Oklahoma who has been teaching primary school-aged children for 22 years.
She took to Facebook this week to share that she’d tried a new activity called “The Baggage Activity” in which she asked her students to anonymously write something down that was bothering them on a piece of paper then screw it up and throw it in a bag.
Each student then took a turn to pick out a piece of paper and read it to the class, and if the child who had written it wanted to reveal who they were and talk more about it with the class, they could.
“I’m here to tell you, I have never been so moved to tears as what these kids opened up about and shared with the class,” she wrote.
“Things like suicide, parents in prison, drugs in their family, being left by their parents, death, cancer, losing pets (one said their gerbil died cause it was fat, we giggled😁) and on and on.”
Karen continued, “The kids who read the papers would cry because what they were reading was tough. The person who shared (if they chose to tell us it was them) would cry sometimes too.
“It was an emotionally draining day, but I firmly believe my kids will judge a little less, love a little more, and forgive a little faster.
Karen has kept the bag hanging up at her classroom door “to remind them that we all have baggage”.
“As they left I told them, they are not alone, they are loved, and we have each other’s back,” she said.
Karen’s post has gone viral, and has received comments such as:
“What an amazing and inspiring message you gave each of them to carry for a life time… you may have eliminated some of their heaviest baggage just by having them share it!!”
“What an exercise in grace & love… I wish there were 100’s more teachers like you in our world doing real world stuff with our kids!,” said another.
