One day, Miss Ellis arrived at class accompanied by a young woman and two girls. “Today I have brought Cinderella and Snow White with me. They are accompanied by Cruela, their stepmother.” Such an introduction certainly suggested they would discover something of interest that day, and that the teacher had done sufficient lesson preparation.
When everyone was seated, and Mrs. Cruela was preparing to speak, all the classroom lights went out. Amid the darkness two tremendous slaps could be heard, and a short time afterwards both Cinderella and Snow White could be heard crying. Just then, the lights came on again and everyone could see the two girls weeping.
“Who did that?” asked Miss Ellis.
Without hesitation, all the children pointed at the stepmother. Mrs. Cruela shook her head, but at that moment the lights went off again. Then two loud thumps resounded around the classroom, and Clara and Phillip began crying. When the lights came on again the two of them were weeping and looking angrily at the stepmother, who everyone was pointing at accusatorily. The stepmother began to speak again, saying she was innocent, but again the lights went out.
However, this time it took only a couple of seconds for the lights to come back on. When they did, everyone could see what happening: Cinderella and Snow White were running towards Charlie and Robert, with their arms raised, ready to hit the children. Seeing this, all the children asked Cruela to do with her rebellious stepdaughters, who she loved greatly but who would cause problems wherever they went...
“And that's what I wanted to teach you all today, children,” said Miss Ellis.
“Let us not make judgments based on prejudice and surface appearances like race, beauty, or even names. That would be the most unfair thing we could do, don't you think?”
有一天，埃利斯老师在一位年轻女性和两个女孩的陪同下来到教室。“今天我给大家带来了灰姑娘和白雪公主。陪着来的是她们的继母克鲁拉。”这样的开场白绝对意味着学生们当天将会发现有趣的事，同时也说明这位老师是备足了课才来的。
等大家坐好，克鲁拉太太准备讲话，这时，教室里的灯都灭了。黑暗中只听到两记大耳光，不一会儿，大家听到灰姑娘和白雪公主都哭了起来。就在这时，灯亮了，大家看到这两个女孩在哭泣。
“谁干的？”埃利斯老师问。
所有的孩子毫不犹豫地指向了这位继母。克鲁拉太太摇摇头，就在这时，灯又灭了。整间教室回荡着两声重重的打人的声音，克拉拉和菲利普哭了起来。灯重新亮起的时候，他俩一边哭着，一边愤怒地望向这位继母。只见大家都把手指向了继母，说是她干的。继母又说自己是无辜的，这时，灯又灭了。
可是，这次灯没过几秒就亮起来了，大家都看到了真相：灰姑娘和白雪公主正跑向查理和罗伯特，她们扬起胳膊正准备打下去。所有的孩子见状，都求克鲁拉太太赶紧管管她家这两个不听话的女儿。她们简直是被惯坏了，走到哪儿都惹麻烦……
“孩子们，这就是今天老师要教给你们的。”埃利斯老师说。
“我们不能带着偏见或是光凭种族、外貌甚至是名字这些表面现象就下判断。那太不公平，你们觉得呢？”
-slap [slæp] n. 用掌拍
-thump [θʌmp] n. 砰的重击声
-resound [rɪˈzaʊnd] v. 回荡
放下偏见的一瞬就是迈向真理的一步。