#breakingstereotypes

By: Adelyn Lafferty

During the last couple weeks, Tina Hiller, the junior high English teacher, has been working with her eighth classes on #breakingstereotypes.

“#breakingstereotypes is a social media epidemic that has appeared on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, etc. . . The point of the project is in the name. Society labels people and groups of people for oversimplified reasons, and people are #breakingstereotypes by sharing the ways they do not conform to what society believes. It's no secret that some stereotypes are more harmful than others. In an effort to ensure 8th grade students at Arlington High School are not letting harmful stereotypes get to them, we chose to join the movement, #breakingstereotypes,” says Tina Hiller.

Some of the eighth graders explain what they learned from the project below:

What was the point of the project?

“The point of the project is to get people to realize everyone isn’t the same. Society needs to accept the people are different.” -Madilyn Courtney

What did you learn from joining this movement?

“Don’t judge people. Don’t assume something about a person before you get to know them. A person is a person, no matter how different.” -Kendra Crist

“You can’t assume someone likes a certain thing because of their gender. You also can’t judge someone if they don’t like something “their gender” is supposed to like. People can’t help the way they are born.” -Evelyn Flick

“Be kind...don’t judge someone because of where they are from.” -Madilyn Flick