One day, a teacher decided to share a personal lesson with her students—and a reminder parents should hear as well—about why bullying, insults, and humiliation are real harm.
She told them this story:
“Before class, I stopped by a grocery store and bought two apples. They looked almost identical—same color, nearly the same size. At the beginning of the lesson, I asked the kids:
‘What’s the difference between these two apples?’
They were quiet. There really wasn’t much to see.
Then I picked up one apple and said to it:
‘I don’t like you. You’re an ugly apple.’
And I slammed it onto the floor.
The students stared at me in shock.
Next, I handed that apple to one student and said:
‘Find something you don’t like about it—and throw it down, too.’
The student did as asked. Then the apple was passed from child to child.
And everyone found something wrong:
‘Your stem is weird.’
‘Your skin looks gross.’
‘You’re probably rotten inside.’
And each time, the apple was thrown onto the floor again.
When the apple finally came back to me, I asked the class whether they could see a difference between this apple and the one that had been resting untouched on the desk.
The kids shrugged. They still looked almost the same.
Then I cut them open.
The apple that had stayed on the desk was crisp and white inside. The kids even wanted to eat it.
The other apple—the one we had insulted and thrown—was bruised, brown, and damaged inside. No one wanted to touch it.
‘Do you see?’ I said quietly. ‘We did this. This damage is on us.’
The room went silent.
Then I added:
‘This is exactly what happens to people. When we insult them, mock them, or tear them down, the damage isn’t always visible. But inside, we leave deep wounds.’
I had never seen my students understand something so quickly. They started sharing their own experiences—how painful words had hurt them. Some of them cried. We cried together. And then, eventually, we laughed.
When the lesson ended, the kids ran up to hug me—and each other.
That’s when I knew: this lesson truly mattered.”