PHILOSOPHY FOR CITIZENSHIP
SOCIAL JUSTICE AND FAIRNESS – teachers’ notes
These two resources (the ‘Naughty Nigel exercise’ and the ‘forgiveness exercise’) address issues
concerning justice and fairness, particularly in relation to the treatment of wrongdoers. They
can be used with a wide variety of different age groups (KS2 to KS4), though the wording of the
Naughty Nigel exercise may need tweaking in KS4+ classes; otherwise there is a risk that it may
seem patronising.
THE NAUGHTY NIGEL EXERCISE
THE SET UP
 You should read out the Naughty Nigel story.
 You should then divide the class into groups and follow the standard p4c method: questionforming in groups; question-picking; reflection (perhaps in groups); building the enquiry as a
whole-class; final thoughts.
QUESTIONS THAT MIGHT ARISE
 Which teacher was right?
 Which punishment will be most effective?
 Should teachers punish poor behaviour?
 Is it right to punish the whole class for the poor behaviour of a single pupil?
 Is it right to punish parents for their children’s poor behaviour?
 Should children be given money for good behaviour?
 What sort of rules should a school have?
 What forms of behaviour should attract punishment? Picking fights in the playground?
Doing badly in a maths test? Losing a football match? Wearing the wrong uniform?
 Would you prefer to be fined or given detention?
 Would you prefer to be caned or fined?
TIPS FOR DEVELOPING THE ENQUIRY
 Personalise. When I ran this enquiry with a P7 class, one of the children immediately
identified as Naughty Nigel. For the rest of the session, Naughty Nigel became Naughty
Alex. This seemed to please Alex as well as the other children.
 Use the colour-coding. Since the teachers in the story are named after colours, you could lay
out coloured pieces of paper on the floor to represent them. You could then take polls
(before-and-after) by getting the children to stand by the ‘teacher’ (i.e. coloured piece of
paper) they agree with.
 Developing the enquiry. During the main phase of the enquiry, you need to give the children
enough time to air their thoughts and engage in dialogue without too much teacher
interruption. However, after this phase, you may need to adopt strategies that focus the
enquiry and lend it more momentum:
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Playing devil’s advocate. Ask the children to come up with two or three reasons in
support of an opposing viewpoint.
Grouping reasons. Ask all of the children to write down a reason in support of their
viewpoint, lay the pieces of paper on the floor, and then ask the children to group
together similar reasons.
Generalising. Ask the children whether there are general principles at work in the
discussion. For example, some children may assess the different responses to
Naughty Nigel by considering how effective they are in stopping Nigel from
misbehaving again whereas other children may appeal to considerations of fairness
(‘it’s unfair to punish the whole class for the poor behaviour of one child’).
Extrapolating to other contexts. Ask the children to think about punishments meted
out e.g. by parents or by the criminal justice system. Are these punishments similar
to the penalties meted out in the Naughty Nigel story? Is detention a form of shortterm imprisonment? Should the state punish criminals at all? Should children be
subject to the criminal justice system?
Take an extreme view. If the aim of punishing Naughty Nigel is to deter him or to
teach him a lesson, would it be acceptable to fine him £1000 for misbehaving or to
imprison him for 3 months? Would it be acceptable to use corporal punishment?
And is it acceptable to punish him for doing badly academically (e.g. failing a maths
text) as well as for poor behaviour?
THE FORGIVENESS EXERCISE
THE SET UP
 Depending on the class size, you will need 5 or 6 sets of the forgiveness cards.
 Divide the class into small groups.
 Each group should discuss whether they would or wouldn’t forgive in the various scenarios
depicted on the cards.
 They should try to agree a ranking from ‘definitely would forgive’, ‘probably would forgive’,
‘not sure’, ‘probably wouldn’t’, ‘definitely wouldn’t’.
 You should emphasize to the class that they could, as an option, say that they would forgive
everyone or, for that matter, that they would forgive no one.
 If possible, each group should lay out the cards in the same direction on the floor to express
its ranking.
DEVELOPING THE ENQUIRY
 After the initial group-work phase, you should ask the pupils to wander round the room and
look at the other groups’ rankings.
 The different groups should then be given the chance to ask questions about one another’s
rankings. As a prelude to this task, you could encourage the groups to notice salient
differences between their respective rank orderings.
 Some of the questions that might emerge might be about the ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ of the
rankings: for example, ‘why did you say you would definitely forgive your best friend who
has stolen your lunch money?’ ‘Why did you say you definitely wouldn’t forgive a terrorist
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who has killed your parents?’ Some of the questions might be about the relative orderings:
for example, ‘Why do you think you have a stronger reason to forgive a friend who has
stolen your lunch money than a stranger?’
Next, you could consider encouraging the class to identify the kinds of factors that
differentiate the scenarios. These include:
o Whether the perpetrator is a friend;
o Whether the perpetrator has apologized;
o Whether the perpetrator is still alive;
o Whether the perpetrator has shown a willingness to forgive;
o Whether the perpetrator has already been punished;
o How serious the offence is.
You could also try to steer the enquiry round to considering whether there are any general
principles at play here. For example,
o Is it always wrong to forgive those who refuse to apologize?
o Is it impossible to forgive the dead?
o Are there some offences that are so serious that they are unforgivable?
As part of the enquiry, you may also want to consider some conceptual questions:
o What is forgiveness? Is it different from forgetting, excusing, not punishing, not
taking revenge, granting mercy?
o What does it feel like to forgive? What does it feel like not to forgive?
o Who can forgive? Can we forgive on behalf of others? Or as part of groups?
Remember strategies for developing an enquiry, such as:
o Taking the extreme view: ‘I believe that people should always be forgiven regardless
of the offence and regardless of whether they repent’. ‘Hitler should be forgiven for
his crimes!’
o Extrapolating out: ‘If you think it’s wrong to forgive your best friend for stealing
your lunch money, is it wrong for the teacher to forgive you if you break the school
rules?’
Remember, too, strategies for concluding an enquiry. For example, you could:
o Ask members of the class to swap places if they have changed their minds about
when it is right to forgive;
o Ask the groups to consider whether they would like to make any changes to their
ordering of the cards in light of the whole-class discussion.
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