Beginner
40 mins
Teacher/Student led
+70 XP
Teacher-led from the board. Pupils do not need a device, but can follow on one.

What We Owe Each Other

In this lesson you will discuss rights and responsibilities in a community. Learn to separate wants from needs and things owed. Debate statements about community duties and build a list of everyday actions people can take.

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    Opinion line
    List builder

    1 - Start ~4 mins

    Illustration for Start

    Today is about living with other people. Not the polite version, the real one: what a community owes you, and what you owe it back. By the end you will have taken a stand on hard statements and written the first lines of a list this class will keep.

    2 - Want, Need or Owed ~8 mins

    CSPE is the course where you work out how people live together, then do something about it in your school and local area.

    Three different kinds of claim get mixed up all the time:

    • A want is something you would like. A later lunch. A different phone. Nobody else has to provide it.
    • A need is something you cannot get by without. Food, safety, a place to sleep. Still not the same as a right.
    • Something you are owed is a claim on other people. If you are owed a fair hearing, somebody has to give you one. That duty sits on them whether it is convenient or not.
    Key point

    Everything in this first part of the course turns on that third idea. A right is not a preference. It is a claim somebody else must answer.

    3 - Where Do You Stand ~12 mins

    Three statements about what a community owes its members. For each one, stand on the line before anyone speaks, then hear the strongest case from both sides. You can move once you have listened, and nothing is scored.

    Opinion Line

    4 - First Lines We Owe Each Other ~8 mins

    Turn what you actually argued into the first lines of a shared list. Each line must be something a person in this class can do on an ordinary Tuesday, not a value nobody can be held to. This list is raw material the class will come back to. It is not a finished charter.

    First lines we owe each other

    5 - Make Sense of It ~5 mins

    Talk these through as a class. No writing, no saving.

    • Which of the statements was hardest to place on the line, and why?
    • Where did hearing the other side actually move someone, and what was the point that did it?
    • Look at the list you just built. Is every line still something a person could do this week?
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