Reasons to do this activity:
- To discuss the rights and responsibilities of the group – how we make sure that everyone can take part in a safe and happy way.
- To emphasise the role of individuals in maintaining the group’s rights.
- To explore the ‘grey’ area between freedom of expression and offensive language.
- To celebrate the individuals in the group.
- To discuss group rewards.
What to do
Ask the Pioneers if they think that the old rhyme ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’ is true? Are there words that wound? Do words really have any power?
Ask the Pioneers to write down words on pieces of cards that they think might wound people.
Make a scale on the wall from ‘Teasing/playful’ to ‘Extremely painful/degrading’.
Get each Pioneer to show their word(s) and place it on the scale. Encourage discussion about
where the words should go. Do people have different opinions about how offensive a word is?
Article 13.2a of the Convention on the Rights of the Child gives a child the right to freedom of expression but specifically restricts expression that violates the rights and reputations of others. Should limits be placed on what we can say about our thoughts and beliefs? Should we always be able to say whatever we like?
Now that you’ve thought about words that wound, are there words that heal? Are there times when people say things to you that make you feel happy? Do words have that power?
Allocate each person in the group a ‘secret friend’. Everyone in the group is going to make a gift for their secret friend from very little.
Choose something about your friend that you particularly like and make a gift from scraps to represent that aspect of your friend. For this you could use a scrap box, or if you want to take the group outdoors they could gather leaves, twigs and flowers to make their ‘gifts’. A flower stuck on a card could represent someone’s sunny personality, a ball of green and blue paper could represent the way someone looks after the environment, plaited grass might represent strong friendships.
Once the group have made their gifts encourage them to give them to each other, then as a group discuss how this felt. Was it good to reward each other?
Does your group have some basic rules and rights. Are there rules and things that you do to make sure that everything you do is done in a way that includes and respects everybody. Saying we have rights isn’t really enough, with rights come responsibilities. Part of our responsibilities is to look at rules regularly and discuss them. It is important to celebrate things that go well and to try to make things that don’t work so well work better.
Could the group write a list of group rights and responsibilities? Is there a way that you could reward your group for living up to these rights and responsibilities – perhaps plan a celebration or a special trip out.
Please don’t forget to record people’s thoughts and ideas throughout these activities, especially:
- Why members like coming to group
- What members think could be better about the group; and
- How things might be improved.