Our ‘Global Reality Meal’

March 13, 2008 · Posted in work

Today at our school we gave some year 9 students the ‘Global Reality Meal’ experience. It was really educational for all of us. The students all participated fully and I hope they got a lot out of it. I know I did.

We had a table of ‘lucky’ students who had chosen the right coloured star when they arrived who got to sit at a table and were waited on. They were served an abundance of great food (well, not great to me, but all the junk food kids that age love). They had plenty.

The remainder and massive majority of the students sat on the floor on mats. After the ‘lucky’ students were served a pot of rice, a couple of loaves of bread, a couple of bowls of baked beans and a jug of water with plastic cups and plates were placed in the centre.

You can imagine the outrage and surprise! They reacted strongly. This is unfair. They blamed, they begged they whined, they complained and a small number of them refused to eat anything. We observed the behaviours of the two groups. Those seated at the ‘lucky’ table totally ignored the hoardes on the floor. Occasionally looking up with self-satisfied smiles. I heard one of them say how clever they were to have chosen the right colour.

After about 30 minutes of their meal, we debriefed them. There was quite a lot of hostility and I think if the floor dwellers had not had a chance to reflect on their experience they may have ripped the ‘lucky’ ones apart in the playground afterward. There was a lot of emotional response. It was effective. They all eventually realised in their ‘real’ life, they all were firmly seated at the ‘lucky’ table.

We discussed how the poor are not heard by the rich. The ‘lucky’ ones didn’t want to look at those on the mats. Even when they were yelling at them, especially when they became angry and abusive. They felt safe and protected. We discussed how powerless the poor were. We discussed leftovers and waste. We decided it’s not good enough to give charity, there needs to be changes to the distribution system.

Then they went out for their real lunch – to the tuckshop no doubt to get some food. I’m not sure what if anything will happen as a result of the experience, but I know they had an experience and all the money we raised will go to Project Compassion.

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Tags: compassion, school, social action, students

Comments

10 Responses to “Our ‘Global Reality Meal’”

Bettina (20 comments.) on March 13th, 2008 8:51 pm

what a fantastic way to illustrate the distribution of wealth in society!

well done!!
Joh on March 13th, 2008 9:05 pm

It was fantastic and I really appreciate the teachers who put a great deal of work and worry (as you do when you want to try something like this), into making it happen. I only had to do the MCing and debriefing with another teacher, so I felt privileged to be a part of it.
Meg (6 comments.) on March 13th, 2008 11:12 pm

Wow, what a great exercise. I’m sure that it would have been 10x more effective than any other method. I hope that it really hit a nerve for some of the students. Well done to the organisers and you for blogging it.
Ian (2 comments.) on March 13th, 2008 11:34 pm

I agree with the others, what a great way of showing the students the disparity between haves and have-nots. I’d be fascinated to know how my kids would have taken it.
Joh on March 13th, 2008 11:55 pm

Meg, it was truly effective. I hope we can do it again in the future because it really was insightful.
Ian, I discussed it with my son after school and he got angry just thinking about how the kids that sat on the floor would feel.
Apparently some restaurants have offered this experience as a fundraiser, so perhaps you could organise one in your area. It is truly an eye opening and very real experience.
Another thing that really struck me and we discussed it, was that it was only for an hour. The intensity of feelings generated in such a short time – imagine if there was no escaping it.
Trish (64 comments.) on March 15th, 2008 7:43 pm

wow I am in awe of how the school pulled this off -yes truly eye opening .It would be a great fundraiser and very enlightening especially if people didn’t know the result…
yes I can’t imagine not escaping it and day after day of the reality.
I am ‘buying’ some chickens from Tear Australia for Easter – instead of extra chocolate

My Little Drummer boys
PlanningQueen (62 comments.) on March 17th, 2008 12:40 am

I think that it is so important that children learn to understand the relative wealth within which they live. Has there been any feedback to you from the children on what they thought of the exercise?
March - Posts of the Month | Planning with Kids on March 29th, 2008 10:32 pm

[...] Justice: Our Global Reality Meal – A teacher describes an amazing exercise to highlight the inequality of our world for school [...]
PreSchool Mama (1 comments.) on March 30th, 2008 12:35 am

I just got here from Planning Queen’s (above!) blog.
What an incredible way to help them realize how lucky they are! I am going to share this with teachers I know.
Blog Action Day | Joh Blogs on October 15th, 2008 9:44 pm

[...] money, raising awareness is always a good thing to do also. Earlier this year at school we had a Global Reality Meal, which was really effective as an awareness raiser, as well as raising some money to [...]