Nobody needs a Band-Aid on the elbow to remedy a bump on the head, a concept that even third graders easily understand.
Aimee Scott, a 22-year-old third-grade teacher from Utah, uses a simple Band-Aid example to teach her students the often-misconstrued concept of fairness. She cheerfully explains the method in her viral TikTok video.
“On the first day of school, I ask my students to raise their hand if they’ve ever scraped their elbow. As you can imagine, they all raise their hands,” she says in the video.
Scott then picks one student to explain to the class how they hurt their elbow, and she puts a Band-Aid on that student’s 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 am so sorry you hurt your head. …Here’s a Band-Aid for your elbow,'” she says.
At this point, Scott says the kids look at her like she is a “crazy person.” How nonsensical to bandage an elbow for a bump on the head! “They giggle and laugh and try to politely correct me and I just ignore them and act like it totally makes sense to have all of the Band-Aids on the elbows,” she explains to The Epoch Times.
Then, Scott goes on to ask the students who has ever scraped their knee, and after hearing a student’s knee-scrape story, she sweetly sympathizes and offers them a Band-Aid—again, for their elbow. This is when Scott stops the class for a discussion. The students’ faces show that her Band-Aid behavior has truly confused them, and Scott takes the opportunity to explain the concept of fairness.
“A child begins to say that things aren’t fair as early as 3 years old,” Scott says. “We’ve been given answers growing up, telling us that ‘life isn’t fair’ or ‘you’ll get what you get and you don’t throw a fit,’ end of discussion. We need to take the time to explain to children the reasons we do things.”
Scott says the Band-Aid lesson has helped her to successfully address all kinds of situations in the classroom.
For example, after the lesson, students easily grasp why someone with diabetes might need an extra snack during the day, why students with autism might need noise-canceling headphones, or why a child with ADHD might need a fidget spinner to help them focus in class. Not everyone needs the same thing—just as the same elbow bandage does not adequately address every kind of ouch.
Not only does the Band-Aid lesson help Scott’s students understand why different treatment might be required in the classroom, but she says she can visibly see the relief of some of the children with different challenges who may have “felt out of place” before.
“They know they’re going to feel like they belong in my class because they realize that everyone has different needs,” she says.
According to Scott, teachers have used this bandage idea for years to teach fairness in the classroom. However, she decided to share the lesson on Tiktok as a way to help other teachers after she met with a flood of parents with concerns about their children in the beginning of the school year.
The third-grade teacher generally meets with parents for “anything from things outlined on an Individualized Education Plan (or IEP), a 504 accommodation for physical or mental impairment, or they just want me to know that their child is shy and needs some help making friends.”
“The list of concerns is endless and I take each of them seriously,” she says.
And the Band-Aid lesson has helped concerned parents and students alike to move forward with ease—not only at her school but all over the map.
Since her viral TikTok fairness lesson has reached teachers and parents worldwide, Scott has received truly heartening responses. Her favorites are the stories about parents who have shown the video to their child’s teachers, resulting in children with special needs feeling much more comfortable in the classroom.
Scott’s Band-Aid lesson has not only attracted concerned parents and teachers, but it has also sparked the interest of major media outlets. The bubbly third-grade teacher has been able to share on podcasts and at teachers’ conferences, and even partner with education companies and other businesses.
Perhaps best of all, Scott’s video has helped to take the concept of fairness from the often-misunderstood idea that there should be mandated equal distribution to a far more helpful and purposeful place: where authentic care for each individual allows room for genuine service.
For Scott and her classroom, the Band-Aid lesson is here to stay. And for her third-grade students, so are the lovely concepts that she is helping to make deliciously simple and clear.
“Any time a student tells me ‘that’s not fair!’ I just say, ‘remember Band-Aids?’ and they do. They remember all year,” Scott concludes.
