Pause for Thought: My Design for Life
Following the rules
by Brian Radcliffe
Suitable for Whole School (Sec)
Aims
To encourage us to consider the pros and cons of rules within a community context.
Preparation and materials
- In the ‘Assembly’, Step 3, you may wish to use a different approach to gather the students’ opinions. Rather than conducting a poll, you may prefer to ask students to form a spectrum line, with rebels at one end and boundary-keepers at the other. In between, students should stand on the spectrum relative to their tendency towards one extreme or the other. Ask students to discuss for one minute with a partner why they have chosen their position on the spectrum.
Assembly
- Ask the students, ‘What are rules for?’
Listen to a range of responses. - State that rules can sometimes be a positive thing, but they can also have a negative effect and cause frustration.
So, what do we need to consider if we want to create a workable set of rules for our community?
Encourage students to discuss the question and then offer suggestions. - First, we need to consider who we are, because we don’t have identical personalities. Some people find it easy to abide by whatever rules they’re given. In fact, they can get worried if they’re late for an appointment or unprepared for a task, or they fear the consequences of breaking a rule. These people can be described as boundary-keepers. They’re important members of any community because they give it stability and keep it in order. You may feel that this describes you.
Other people view rules as things that are there to be broken, or at least bent. They consider rules to be a challenge. We could call these people rebels. They’re important members of any community too, because they find the loopholes in the rulebook, the inconsistencies and the injustices, so they help the community to improve the rules. Maybe this describes you, or perhaps you feel that you come somewhere between the two extremes.
For the next part of the assembly, instead of a poll, you may wish to use a spectrum line, as outlined in the ‘Preparation and materials’ section above.
Let’s do a quick poll. Raise your hand if you consider yourself to be more of a boundary-keeper.
Note the student response.
Raise your hand if you consider yourself to be a bit of a rebel.
Note the student response.
Finally, raise your hand if you feel like you’re somewhere in between.
Note the student response. - A second consideration in creating a set of rules is what kind of community we want to create. Do we want it to be regimented and strict, without any room for personal choice, an environment where everyone is made to conform?
There are nations in the world today that have that kind of structure. We give it the name ‘totalitarianism’.
Alternatively, do we prefer total freedom of choice, with no rules at all?
There have been experiments with this kind of community. We give it the name ‘anarchy’.
So, there are those two extremes again. My guess is that the solution most of us would choose is somewhere in between the two.
Time for reflection
Jesus was once asked which were the most important rules for life. He replied that they could be summed up in two:
- to love God completely, emotionally, spiritually and physically
- to love everyone we come into contact with, friend and enemy
So, what motivates us, what drives us? It may be that we have a religious faith. That is our starting point; we act in the way our God wishes us to.
If we have no faith, it’s probably useful to create what we call a ‘moral framework’, a set of ideas about what we consider right and wrong that drives our life. We can then act in a way that is consistent with this framework.
Also, what kind of community do we want to create? Love isn’t a soft word. It’s a challenging, hard-nosed, other-serving, self-denying word that looks beyond ourselves to what other people around us need.
So, how can we sum this up?
First, we need to know who we are and check what drives us. Next, we need to work towards building the community that we want to be part of.
Song/music
‘Everybody wants to rule the world’ by Tears for Fears, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGCdLKXNF3w (4.50 minutes long)
