Teaching my students to get Freedom for Responsibility
Following up on this wonderful post #840405 from @cryotosensei!
Each year, when the 7th graders begin their ethics lessons for the year, we begin with the topic of freedom and responsibility.
To make things more interesting for the kids and to let them come up with their own ideas, we start with a mind map to collect all the freedoms they want to have at school.
How school can be boring fun.
What rights they should have in class.
And what they want from the teacher in general.
But unfortunately, they quickly learn that these freedoms come at a price. They come with responsibilities.
They only get things by giving things.
Life is harsh, brutal, and never fair.
So they find all sorts of things they want, but almost nothing they are willing to give up.
It's a wonderful experiment that I recommend to all teachers and parents. What do kids want, but what are they willing to give up?
Sure, we want all kinds of things, and that is the first thing they learn in my economics class, that the demands are endless.
But what are they willing to pay for?
It has to have a price, otherwise it is not earned, and therefore meaningless..
Earned freedom is so much sweeter! The kids will defend their rights and be held by their responsibilities. Not because a dictatorial teacher or a tyrannical system told them so, but because they know the reason why they gave up these things.
The experiment is as follows:
The class meets to discuss their ideas. Before they vote, they choose one person to be in charge of writing down all the ideas on the board. Then they vote for a person to keep order (whatever that means to the kids) while they discuss.
The task is then to find 5 freedoms they want, but also 5 responsibilities they are willing to bring with them.
Then they write their own constitution and everyone, including the teacher, has to sing it and it is pinned on the wall to remind everyone of the rules.
The attached pictures show an example from last year.
The composition is as follows:
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we will not interrupt someone when they are speaking (responsibility)
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we can choose where we want to sit (freedom)
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All smartphones are on the teacher's desk before class starts (responsibility).
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we will listen carefully to everyone (freedom)
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The teacher will not give any unannounced exams or tests. (Freedom)
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We will not eat during class, including chewing gum (responsibility).
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We will respect everyone. (Responsibility)
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The teacher may not punish the entire class for the misbehavior of one student. (Freedom)
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When the class begins, everyone stands by their chair and the class material is already on the desk. (Responsibility)
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We all follow the Golden Rule (Freedom / Responsibility)
If the teacher breaks the rule, the kids get to choose which game they want to play next class.
If the students break the rule, they will have an extra class that day to clean the school building and yard.
@SimpleStacker, do you have a story like that for us?
Sharing this post with the hard working teachers like @cryotosensei and @SimpleStacker, so zap big times!