Eighth graders learn important lessons from “Night”

The eighth grade class has been reading Elie Wiesel's autobiography, “Night,” as they study the Holocaust.  In an effort to illustrate the need for cooperation and empathy among Jewish prisoners, students participated in a simulation of the cattle car transports to the concentration camps.  

Students were asked to stand in a taped area that would have been equivalent to the amount of space a prisoner would have had during transport- two square feet.  Mrs. Cauley then sprinkled paperclips on the ground and told students they had 30 seconds to gather four paperclips.  Students immediately squatted down and began grabbing for the items.  After the first attempt, many students were pushed out of the "cars" while the ones left inside had an unequal distribution of clips- some had one or two, and some had 14.  The class reflected on how and why this happened, and after being given a few minutes to come up with a plan, the students tried again.  On the second attempt, all of the students were able to stay in the "car" and hold four paperclips.