What Counts as a Punishment?

What can a schoolgirl do to fight injustice? What do we look for in pedagogues? What can we do for our children to be taught of equality and accepting each other in school?

In primary school, I always sat in the first or second row.

I hated it!

I always wanted to sit in the last row because there, I could have been next to the window watching the whole class. From time to time, some of the "worst" boys were seated next to me. The rules for table plan were the following:

1. bad students sit next to good students

2. if you are a good student and do something wrong (which happened to me quite often) then you will get a Gypsy next to you

For a few days or for months, it depended on the scale of the punishment. I liked those boys because they found this process unfair, too. I had three seatmate by this method in the first four years of primary school. When teachers realized that this seating arrangement was no problem for us and we even made friends, I got lectured and moved to another table.

This was how it worked, we had no choice!

In fifth grade, we got a new homeroom teacher who, on the very first day, said that we all are wonderful children. Everyone can sit wherever they want! My best friend said to me "Feel free to sit in the last row" because she knew how much I wanted to sat there. The class was thrilled. Freedom, finally! You could sit wherever you wanted. It did not matter who was Gypsy, who was not, who wore glasses or who had short hair. Ms. Ági turned to us with tears in her eyes and said: "Unfortunately, some adults are less clever and less kind-hearted than we are, children. Everyone is as good as their deeds are. It does not matter where you came from, all that matters is what kind of person you are and how you live your life. I still remember Ms. Ági fondly, she is a real hero to me.

Unfortunately, I have encountered a lot of injustice in my life, but I always aim to stand up for other people.

The blog entry was written by the participants of Roma Heroes workshop.

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