Teacher reveals how she explains fairness to her students using band-aids and it's simple yet brilliant

A third-grade teacher went viral on social media a couple of months ago when she shared how she uses a simple trick to explain the idea of fairness to her students. The teacher, 21-year-old Aimee Scott from Utah revealed in a TikTok video that a couple of band-aids are all it takes to break down the fairly complicated concept to youngsters. Scott tackles the subject on the very first day of school so that her students will be able to understand and accept it if and when another student gets something or is allowed to do something they're not allowed to have or do.

"How I teach fairness to my elementary schoolers using band-aids. On the first day of school, I asked my students to raise their hand if they've ever scraped their elbow. As you can imagine, they all raised their hands," Scott says in the video. "So I get a band-aid, I pick one student to tell us the story of how they hurt their elbow. Next, I ask who's ever bumped their head. More hands go up, I have someone tell me a story and then I say, 'I'm sorry you hurt your head, here's a band-aid for your elbow.'"

Scott acknowledged that this would leave her students slightly bewildered. "The kids are a little confused at this point. Next, I ask who's ever scraped their knee. More hands go up and I say, 'I'm sorry you scraped your knee. Here's a band-aid for your elbow.' At this point, the kids are super confused," she says in the video. "I'll stop my lesson and we'll have a conversation about how even though I gave everyone the exact same thing in the exact same way, it wasn't helpful to them. And in conclusion, fair doesn't mean everyone gets the same thing, fair means that everyone gets what they need to be successful."

"After this lesson, students are much more understanding when their friends with diabetes need an extra snack, when their friends with autism need noise-canceling headphones, when their friends with ADHD need a fidget spinner and they can't have one," she explains. "It helps with everything." In a follow-up video, Scott elaborates more on why she goes the extra mile to instill empathy and compassion in her students. "Now that I've taught you how I teach my students using band-aids, I'm going to show you why. Yes, this is an equity lesson. If I had known that my TikTok is going to get that many views, I would've used a different word," she shares.

"Sometimes when my kids see these things happen in my classroom, they are going to tell me 'That's not fair.' And now all I have to do is to say 'band-aid' and they know and they get it, and they remember," Scott says in the video. She then goes on to demonstrate a few situations where this lesson helps students perform better in class. In one example, she explains why a fidget toy might be very helpful for some students but a distraction to others. "If a student notices an accommodation they think will help them, they can absolutely use that tool. As long as it is helpful," a text overlay states at the end of the video.