This Teacher May Have Finally Found a Way to Make Sure Young Kids Wash Their Hands

Getting kids to wash their hands can sometimes be a bit tricky. Sure, as an adult it’s easier to understand the danger posed by germs, but it can be hard for a parent, teacher, or other adult to put that into terms a child can understand. However, teacher Donna Gill Allen found a way to drill the message into her students’ minds.

Allen took to her Facebook page on August 13 to share a photo and description of an “experiment” she had found which used pieces of sliced bread to show how damaging germs found on a child’s hands can be. She explained the experiment in the photo’s caption, writing:

To all my teacher friends this is the grossest yet coolest experiment. I did this while teaching about germs and how they spread. You use three pieces of bread. You let all the kids see you put a piece of bread in a baggy with a glove on hence “controlled” then you wash your hands and put a piece of bread in a baggy for “clean,” last but definitely not least you pass a piece of bread around and let every kid in class touch it then you put it in a baggy and label it dirty. Watch how the bread changes over time due to germs. It is so cool and a great way to teach the importance of hand washing.

Donna Gill Allen’s post, ironically given it’s content, went viral almost immediately. As of September 18, more than a month after her initial Facebook post, Allen’s photo has accumulated 40,000 reactions, 14,000 comments, and a mind-boggling 74,000 shares.

Allen spoke to Your Bump about where she found the experiment. “I actually saw this post 2 years ago. One of my friends had posted it. I teach health science education. My students will be certified nursing assistants when they finish my classes. I have to teach infection control and part of that is teaching them to wash their hands. I figured this would be a way to get my point across.”

Allen continued with another of her key teaching principles.

“One quote I am famous for is, ‘If it is warm, wet, and not yours consider it contaminated….so washing your hands is the best way to make sure you get rid of the germs,’ and not spread germs to your patients,” she said.

Be sure to SHARE this story with any parent in your life struggling to get their kids to commit to washing their hands.