© 2000, Mariana Mincheva-Rizova, Ilian Rizov,  MODELS FOR TEACHING THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD (I-IV grade)

• To allow students to evaluate situations according to the criteria of  “quality” and “quantity”
• To explore the independence and strength of a group of people according to the number and abilities of its members.

• a long rope
• two balloons and two balls

Divide the class into two groups according to a principle chosen by you (e.g. the appearance of the children - colour of their eyes, hair, type of shoes, clothes, etc.), so that the number of students in one of the groups to outnumber/exceed considerably the number of participants in the other group (with 5 people at least). The division into two groups can be done in another way by using cards, pictures, etc.

After the grouping suggest the following competitive games:

It is a well known game in which the participants from two teams line up opposite each other and hold the two ends of a rope. The two teams pull against each other on a rope, each trying to pull the other over the winning line.

It is expected that the group that has more participants will win this game. It is likely that the pupils from the group with fewer participants will refuse to take part in the game and protest arguing that it is not fair to compete under these circumstances. No matter whether they will play the game or not it is necessary that you discuss the following questions with your pupils:

• Which group is stronger and why? (Or: Why didn’t you wish to participate in the game? Could you predict which group would be stronger?)
• Which team felt more confident and coped with the task more easily?
• Did you guess which team would win the game in advance?

Both teams line up in two parallel columns. The first participant of each team is given a balloon (or a ball).

At a given signal for the beginning of the game the balloon has to be handed from one participant to another “over the head” or “between the legs” of the participants. After the last pupil in the line has taken hold of the balloon he has to run and take it to the beginning of his/her team’s line in order to stand in front of the first participant and to continue the competition.

The game can be made more complicated if the movements ”over the head” and “between the legs” are performed alternatively every time they pass the balloon. The winner in this game is the team whose participants line them up in the way they were arranged at the beginning of the game.

It is expected that the team that has more participants would be the winner of the game. This time it is possible the pupils from the bigger group to refuse to take part in the game. Similarly to the first game no matter whether pupils will play the game or not it is necessary to ask them the following questions for example:

• Which group is quicker and why? (Or: Why didn’t you wish to participate in the game? Were you able to predict which the quicker group would be?)
• Which team felt more confident and coped with greater ease?
• Could you predict which team would be the winner?

Immediately after the two competitive games followed by the respective brief discussions, explain to the pupils what the trick/knack of the games was and recap the conclusions after the analysis of the situations.

The conclusion that it is not fair to play in this way which the pupils have already drawn is a provocation for them as well - to investigate /explore once again the correlation between quantity (the number of participants in the group) and quality (the success as a result of their co-operative work). In the different types of games success is always in favour /on the side of the more numerous group which we usually call ”majority”. Sometimes (though rarely) the less numerous group which we refer to as “minority” can have advantages (as is shown in the second game).

After this explanation which allows students to learn about and differentiate between the concepts: “majority” and “minority” you can offer them to give their own examples of minorities and majorities.

The next step gives the opportunity to explore the correlation between the power (success) of one group and its quality characteristics.

Ask the students whether in the previous games they have predicted beforehand who the winner will be and whether they are able to suggest which of the same two groups would be better if they announced competitions about:

• group writing of the most interesting short story;
• group solving of a difficult problem in math;
• working out of the best group drawing;
• the best group performance of a song;
• the best dancing;
• the best organised party

Each time when the pupils give an answer you should ask them what their reasons are. It is supposed that most of the arguments will be related to peer evaluation of the individual qualities of the participants in the groups. For example students will give priority to one group or the other according to which of the groups have the best singers, dancers, mathematicians, etc.

It is possible while evaluating these situations the children to look for arguments concerning quantity indicators. For instance, in order to point out the best group according to the number of children participating in it who can sing and dance well, or the most number of children who can draw well. Nevertheless the evaluation of the abilities of the groups will not depend to such a great extent on the difference in the number of participants in them which should already prompt the children that comparing quantities is much easier than comparing qualities. A lot of simple examples could be given to prove this argument. It is much easier to count the number of people in a room and to announce how many they are than to estimate what they can do /achieve together. Between two teams with unequal/uneven number of participants it is easy to spot/notice the difference in the number of the players (similarly in football and hockey after one of the players is punished to leave the game), but it is much more difficult to decide who the better team is after all during a match.

Finally it will be pertinent to emphasise that no matter what the people’s desire is for them to solve their problems and conflicts in a fair way very frequently the result is in favour of the majority. Similar is the case with the class that should take a decision that expresses the opinion of the better part of the class (majority) which is not always good for everybody. The solving of a common problem taking into consideration only the opinion of the majority threatens to deprive the minority of its truthful right of making the best decision. Thus the inequality in terms of number in the groups can cause inequality in their opportunities to defend their own interests.