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Oklahoma teacher brings class to tears with powerful 'baggage activity'

An Oklahoma middle school teacher is telling her students to leave their "baggage" at the door in an emotional and powerful classroom activity.
(Photo: Karen Loewe/Facebook)

OKLAHOMA (WTHR) – An Oklahoma middle school teacher is telling her students to leave their "baggage" at the door in an emotional and powerful classroom activity.

Karen Loewe, a teacher of 22 years, decided to try a new activity with her students and called it "The Baggage Activity."

Loewe asked her students what it meant "to have baggage" and asked them to write their "baggage" on a piece of paper, without including names.

The students were then told to wad up the piece of paper and throw it across the room.

Then the students picked up a piece of paper and read out loud what their classmates wrote.

"I’m here to tell you, I have never been so moved to tears as what these kids opened up and about and shared with the class," Loewe wrote on Facebook. "Things like suicide, parents in prison, drugs in their family, being left by their parents, death, cancer, losing pets (one said their gerbil died cause it was fat, we giggled😁) and on and on."

Loewe says the activity not only brought her to tears, but many of the students as well.

"It was an emotionally draining day, but I firmly believe my kids will judge a little less, love a little more, and forgive a little faster," Loewe wrote. "This bag hangs by my door to remind them that we all have baggage. We will leave it at the door. As they left I told them, they are not alone, they are loved, and we have each other’s back."

Loewe's Facebook post has been shared more than 425,000 times.

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