Looking for a meaningful way to teach power, privilege, discrimination, and fairness in a safe and structured classroom setting?

This activity is inspired by Jane Elliott’s Blue Eye/Brown Eye experiment and thoughtfully redesigned for modern classrooms.

This Blue Eye inspired classroom simulation helps students experience unequal rules in a controlled, trauma-informed way — followed by guided reflection and discussion that connects the activity to real-world systems of power and inequality
Designed for middle and high school classrooms, this activity encourages empathy, critical thinking, and thoughtful discussion without targeting real identities.

What Students Will Learn

• How systems of power create unequal outcomes
• The difference between individual bias and systemic discrimination
• How privilege can impact opportunity and voice
• The importance of fairness and equity in communities
• How to reflect thoughtfully on social justice issues

What’s Included

✔ Step-by-step teacher instructions
✔ Structured fairness simulation activity
✔ Clear setup directions (low prep!)
✔ Reflection questions for meaningful discussion
✔ Guided debrief support
✔ Trauma-informed safeguards
✔ Adaptations for different grade levels
Designed with Classroom Safety in Mind

This resource is carefully structured to:
• Avoid using real identities
• Promote respectful discussion
• Provide clear debrief guidance
• Support emotional processing

Perfect For:

• Social Studies
• Civics
• Sociology
• SEL (Social Emotional Learning)
• Discussions on equity, fairness, and social justice

If you’re looking for a powerful, age-appropriate way to introduce conversations about privilege, discrimination, and systems of power, this ready-to-use lesson makes it manageable and meaningful.

Terms of use
You may use and edit these Google Slides, lesson plans, and worksheets for your own classroom instruction and make copies for your students. However, you may not share, resell, or redistribute this resource with other teachers or schools, claim it as your own, use it for commercial purposes, or upload it to shared drives or online platforms accessible outside your classroom.