A Real Life "Sneetches" Moment

I love months with major holidays because that means I get to dick around doing crafts and singing songs in all of my classes rather than teaching real lessons. It being December and the Christmas season and all, I've done absolutely nothing for the past two weeks than make paper Santa Clauses, Rudolphs and Angels (because I'm allowed to teach religious things), and teach my little Korean students how to butcher the singing of all of our favorite Christmas classics.
Last week in one of my morning kindergarden classes we were making Rudolphs out of clothes pins. The kids colored the clothes pins brown, glued on the google eyes and nose and then twisted on some pipe cleaner antlers. When they were finished they brought their creations to me and I wrote their names and the year '2005' on the bottom and then put some glue on the fuzzy red ball that made the nose and sprinkled on some glitter dust. I have two colors of glitter, clear and silver. I gave the children the choice to pick their own color and this is when things started getting crazy. Genie was first in line and picked clear. As soon as the dreaded words escaped her lips I could see her glancing among the faces of the other girls in the class to determine, whether or not this had been the "right" choice to make. It quickly became apparent that it wasn't. Gena, one of the stupidest but most socially strong girls in the class instantly latched onto Wendy, the new girl's arm. She quipped in her ear that she should pick silver because that was the same color she, Gena, was going to pick. Wendy was probably confused but obviously felt the weight of the decision she was about to make as she took another step forward in the line.
In the end Wendy, Gena and Jenny picked silver while Genie and two of the boys were the only ones to have chosen clear. As soon as the Rudolphs were properly frosted the kids began running around the classroom with the clothespins held high in the air like they were flying. As the line got shorter and more children entered into the ensuing game, the more elaborate it got. No longer was it just about flying. There were special stations for eating and sleeping and it was clear that these stations were segregated. Jenny, whose Rudolph had a silver nose, said aloud at one point that all of the "pretty" ones were to join her own Rudolph underneath a spread out tissue because it was where they were supposed to sleep. Meanwhile Genie, the girl whose Rudolph was adorned with a clear nose, did her best at getting the boys more devoted to their "race" while trying hard to conceal the hurt she felt for being put off by her "friends".
So as I sat there and watched as these children had what was probably their first encounter with discrimination and certainly with racial discrimination. Since Korea is such a racially homogeneous society I doubt that they are ever on the receiving end of race based discrimination and if anything would be on the giving end, in which case they might not recognize their behavior as discriminating. But anyway as I sat there I couldn't help but compare the situation to my most favorite childhood book, Dr. Seuss' the Sneetches.
"Now, the star-belly Sneetches had bellies with stars, while the plain-belly Sneetches had none upon thars. Those stars weren't so big they were really quite small, you might think such a thing wouldn't matter at all."

There were clear-nosed Rudolph's, now they came first.
But the silver-nosed Rudolph's thought the clear's were the worst.
The colors were similar and this much was true,
Though in a seven year old's head the wrong color won't do.

It's true it's my fault, I gave them the choice.
Everyone knows kids don't have a voice.
They go with the flow, they side with the most,
And when it's all over the most will all boast.

But hey this is Christmas, we all know how it goes.
Santa comes out and looks at that nose,
and says "Rudolph you're somethin', you'll prove yourself yet."
And the front of the pack is the spot that he gets.

The other reindeer and the girls in my class,
Will be the last one's laughing as they stare at the ass,
of Rudolph and Genie as they lead the pack.
One with a red nose and the other with a knack.

(for English, Genie has a knack for English)