Take a Walk in Someone Elses Shoes

Reading what Angela and Rebecca said made me think about an article I read this semester for my multicultural education class. We read an article about an 8th grade teacher who asked her class "what is going on with immigration today?" and "how do you feel about it?". After a short discussion it was clear that the class had come to a general consensus; legal immigrants are good, and illegal immigrants are "very bad". Her students began making comments that "they're taking jobs" "they're terrorists" "they bring crimes and gangs". Clearly at this young age, these children are more than likely repeating what they have heard in public, on the news, or from their family members. The teacher decided to show a documentary to the students that was made by Morgan Spurlock (the man who made "Super Size Me"). The documentary/reality show was called "30 Days", and in this particular episode, a man named Frank who is an American working for border patrol on the Mexican border as a Minuteman, agrees to live with a family of undocumented immigrants for 30 days. As you can imagine, Frank holds strong political views that illegal immigrants should be sent back to wherever it is they came from. During Frank's time with the family, he grows close to them, but his feelings do not change on the issue. That is until Frank visits the brother and parents of the family, who still live in Mexico, and who they haven't seen in 12 years. After seeing the horrible living conditions that the family in Mexico lives in, Frank's beliefs on immigration are quickly altered, and he now doesn't blame the family for taking their chances and trying to escape to a better life. Frank later says that he may not want to be a Minuteman anymore. After the teacher showed this documentary to the class, their views immediately changed, and they became much more sympathetic to these people, who days before they were calling "illegals" and "terrorists". These 8th graders now saw for themselves what this one family had to go through, and now were able to form their own opinions on the matter of immigration, and not simply regurgitate what they had overheard their parents saying. It goes to show just how impressionable young people are. As teachers we need to give our students the chance and the knowledge to form their own opinions. If everyone could just take a walk in someone elses shoes, I think that would be a major step towards bettering the racial and ethnic relations within the United States. Brigit May, Post 17