Imagine that you are the leader of an after-school activity club. There are eight 5-8- year-old children in your group. The five girls in your group attend for two hours on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The children attend this group to improve academic and social interaction skills. The children work on their academics during the fist hour in your group and then you lead the group in making crafts, playing games, and playing outdoors.

On one sunny Monday, you take the children outside to play freely on the playground. After a few minutes, Miranda comes to you crying. She tells you that two of the other girls, Kiana and Vanessa, will not play with her because she doesn’t look like them. Miranda is of a different ethnic background from the two other girls. When you talk with Kiana, she tells you that her mother says bad things about “those people.” Vanessa says that she was just going along with Kiana.

What assumptions did you make about each of the girls and their families in this case study? How do these assumptions influence your work with these children?

Based on the work you did throughout the term, what do you see as the major issues influencing the girls in this case study?

How would you deal with the discrepancy between what Kiana has learned at home and how you want her to behave at school? How do your own views about diversity influence this situation? What are the pros and cons of the strategies you have chosen?

Discuss the Pygmalion effect and how it could apply in this case study.

Design and discuss a game or activity that you could use to teach the whole group about the value of diversity. How could this game contribute to the development of positive attitudes toward self and others? (1500 – 2100 words)