Prejudice and Bias 

“Mr and Mrs Miller live fairly happily in a big house with their 20-year-old son David. Then, upon their retirement, Mr and Mrs Miller decide to move to the country. David lives alone in the family home now and enjoysca satisfying bachelor’s life until one day he loses his job. David is no longer able to live alone in the big house. He uses his last money to split the house into 6 flats and puts a “For Rent” ad in the newspaper”
Now, imagine you are David and have to choose 5 tenants from a list of people who have answered your ad, in order to be able to keep the house.  

List of tenants (for younger students) Who would you share the same house with?
1. An unmarried mother with a 3-year-old child.
2. A family of refugee workers from Pakistan with 5 children aged 1 to 12. Their father works in a steel mill and their mother will take up the position of concierge at the house.
3. A family with a 17-year-old daughter in the final grade of Secondary School. The father is a bank accountant and the mother a teacher.
4. A single 70-year-old woman, living on a minimum pension.
5. A group of 7 refugees from Iraq who all work in the kitchen of a large restaurant.
6. Three Palestinian students who are political activists, and often demonstrate for their rights.
7. A Roma family with 5 members. The father only works occasionally and is otherwise unemployed. The family belongs to a broader family which is very close and likes to have parties.
8. An American couple with no children. The wife works for the International Atomic Energy Authority and the husband looks after the house and 3 dogs.
9. Two artists, around 40, who have many artists as friends.
10. A girl who studies the piano and singing at a conservatory, and has to frequently practice in the evenings.
11. An African American with his Austrian partner. He is trying to get a permit to work as an engineer.
12. A religious Muslim family which strictly follows the Quran. The mother will only leave the house wearing a headscarf.
13. A young man in a wheelchair who lives with his 76-year-old mother.
14. A blind girl living with her dog.

Polish, Italian and Greek students cooperate and create a short film depicting the prejudice and bias that may affect our judgement when we need to choose among a number of different people. The children studied the cases from the list above, took up roles, prepared their role's profile, wrote down scripts and acted them out. Three out of the fourteen cases studied were used for the short film. You can watch our short film below.

You can watch more videos (one for each case) below

Created with Padlet

The lesson plan for the activity is here