1 - Start ~4 mins
Think of somebody everybody in your year has heard of, and somebody who can change a rule that affects your school day. Are they the same person?
Today you sort fame from power, then build two short profiles: one person and one institution that each hold real influence in the world now.
2 - Fame Is Not the Same as Power ~9 mins
Two differences matter today.
Famous is not the same as powerful. Somebody can be known in every feed and still decide almost nothing that binds other people. Somebody else can be barely recognised in the corridor and still sign off a budget, a court order, or a regulation that lands on whole towns.
A person is not the same as an institution. A person holds power for a time: they can be voted out, replaced, or retired. An institution keeps its powers even when the faces change. The Dáil is still the Dáil after an election. The United Nations outlasts any one secretary-general. When you judge influence, ask three questions of both:
- What can this one actually decide?
- Who do they answer to?
- What would happen if they were gone tomorrow?
Those three questions are the spine of the profiles you build next.
What counts as a valid pick today. Choose a public office, public body, court, school authority, or international organisation with a mandate. Not a brand, not a campaign, not a private employer, and not a private family business.
Choose one person and one institution from these lists (or something clearly similar). Stay with public roles and public bodies.
Persons you could profile:
- Minister for Education
- Garda Commissioner
- A local TD
- A District Court judge
- UN Secretary-General
- President of the European Central Bank
Institutions you could profile:
- The Dáil
- A City or County Council
- The Courts Service
- The European Commission
- The World Health Organization (WHO)
- An Coimisiún Toghcháin (the Electoral Commission)
Need a head start? Fill in the blanks for one of the examples below. You can keep that example, or swap to another from the lists once the three questions feel clear.
Example person: Minister for Education
- Decides: can issue circulars that bind recognised schools on curriculum and organisation.
- Answers to: _________________ (think Taoiseach, Dáil, voters)
- If gone: _________________ (think: another minister is appointed; the Department and the education laws stay)
Example person: a local TD
- Decides: can vote on bills in the Dáil and raise issues that affect their constituency.
- Answers to: _________________ (think the voters in their constituency at each election)
- If gone: _________________ (think: a by-election or replacement TD; the Dáil itself continues)
Example institution: the Dáil
- Decides: can pass and change laws and approve how public money is spent.
- Answers to: _________________ (think the electorate at each general election)
- If gone: _________________ (think: individual TDs come and go, but the Constitution keeps the law-making role)
Where to find your facts: use what you already know, the lists and examples above, any facts your teacher shares with the class, and classroom books or websites your teacher allows. You do not need to hunt the open web unless your teacher says so.
Lock your person and your institution before you move on.
3 - Build the Two Profiles ~19 mins
First, on paper or in your notes, answer the three questions for your person and for your institution. Use the lists, the examples if you need them, and any facts your teacher has shared. Name one concrete decision each, not a vague claim such as "they run things".
When your three answers for each are ready, open the interactive and copy them onto two profile cards that someone else in the class could understand without your help.
Keep the weight on clear answers. A library picture is optional: use one that already allows class use, or skip the image if you are unsure.
Person and institution profile cards
4 - Make Sense of It ~5 mins
In pairs, swap devices and read each other's two cards.
Talk from these prompts (discussion only, nothing to type):
- Which profile names a clearer decision?
- Where does the person depend on the institution, or the other way round?
- If both disappeared tomorrow, which gap would be filled faster, and by what?
Be ready to share one clear difference with the class.
5 - What You Covered ~3 mins
You can now:
- tell fame apart from the power to decide something that binds other people
- tell a person's temporary hold on a role apart from the lasting powers of an institution
- profile one real person and one real institution using the same three tests: what they decide, who they answer to, and what happens if they are gone
Those profiles are the start of reading who can move a global challenge, and who only looks as if they can.
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