Choose Beautiful....

A while ago I saw an ad on TV for Dove soap called "Choose Beautiful."  It was a social experiment where women were asked to make a choice as they walked through a door.  They could either go through the BEAUTIFUL side or the AVERAGE side.  I loved seeing the results, and thought I'd share the video with my class.   A terrific discussion followed about self-confidence and self-worth.  It was great!

The following year, I decided to go a step further and have my students make the decision themselves before I showed them the video.  At first, they weren't quite sure what to do.  They just stood there staring at the two choices!   I would simply encourage them to choose a side.

After some thought, each child made a decision and walked into the room.  Of course, they all gathered to see which side their classmates would choose, and the kids were all asking each other which side they chose.  There was such a wonderful feeling of excitement and energy that filled the classroom!

I stood outside my door that morning, curious to see which side each child would choose.  I learned  a lot about how each child viewed him/herself that day.  

I was surprised as I watched one of the most "beautiful" students in my class walk through the AVERAGE side.  This particular student is kind, sweet, caring, as smart as can be, and also physically beautiful (in my opinion) - yet she chose the AVERAGE side.  I never questioned any of the kids about their choice; however I did notice that after watching the video and having a class discussion, many of the students went over to the BEAUTIFUL side.

Two of my girls trying to decide which side to walk through.  One chose BEAUTIFUL, one chose AVERAGE

My students enjoyed the experiment so much that I decided to change the signs above the door every day for a week.  I tried to create signs that would cause the children to think and reflect about themselves.  Each day we would discuss the new signs and talk about what we could do to become even better versions of ourselves.  

The children noticed that when the signs in the picture above were up on our door, I went through the left side, and they called me out on it.  They said, "Mrs. Monks, you always try your best!"  And I explained that there are some days that I feel I can try even harder.  I told them that I wasn't ashamed to admit that and that I'm going to try to do my best even more than I do now.   In that moment, they realized that there wasn't a "bad" side and a "good" side of the door.  There was simply an opportunity to reflect and be honest with ourselves in order to become even stronger in the future.  SO many valuable lessons were learned that week!

By the end of the week, the students were the ones coming up with the ideas for the signs!  It was awesome.  They were so disappointed when I eventually took the signs down.  They wanted them to stay up for the rest of the year!

Clip below to view the video:

Choose Beautiful Video by Dove