This is another activity that I tried with my co-op philosophy class with kids ages 6-10. (We also asked What Does it Mean to Be Free?) The books we use come from suggestions at the Center for Philosophy for Children, and then I add some hands-on activities to make them hold the interest of a young crowd. I’m going to need you to trust me on this one, but you’ve got to embrace a little chaos and unpredictability if you want it to work. If you try to structure this activity too much, you’ll be reinforcing the very idea you are questioning, so just accept that it will be a bit of a mess.   [tabby title=”Overview”] The goal of this activity is to question whether or not we must have rules and, if so, what makes a rule fair. It uses Why Do I Have to Eat Off the Floor? by Chris Hornsey, which is a very fast, easy read where a dog asks a little girl why he isn’t allowed to do so many of the things he wants to do. She starts with very logical and pragmatic answers, but she gets exasperated by the end and says, “Because you’re a dog!” This devolved line of explanation may feel familiar to any parent who has a child who asks “why” from sunrise to sunset (not that I’m speaking from experience or anything . . .) The activity helps to illustrate some concrete lessons about rules. [tabby title=”Materials”]

• A copy of the book Why Do I Have to Eat Off the Floor by Chris Hornsey (I got mine from the library)
• Discussion questions (suggestions available below)
• Poster board
• Markers (four colors)
• Two dice
• Small objects that can be used as game pieces and look different from one another (coins, tokens, actual game pieces, etc.)

You’ll be making a game board out of the poster board. Feel free to get as elaborate as you like, but this doesn’t need to be anything fancy. As you can see from my picture below, a snaking path with some multi-colored blocks is really all you need to make this work. I suggest using four colors to give some variety to the game without getting too complex.

[tabby title=”Instructions”] (Printable version here)

1. At the beginning of the lesson, ask whether we need rules in the world. If you have some rebels who say no, encourage them to explain what rules they don’t like. Ask them what rules they would make if they were in charge. The more animated and passionate, the better.
2. Read the book.
3. Ask what the book teaches us about rules. Try some of the questions below:
   • Does the girl give Murphy any good reasons for the rules?
   • Why do you think Murphy is asking “why”?
   • Should we just follow rules, or should we try to understand them?
   • Is “because you’re a dog” a good reason?
   • Should we follow a rule even if we don’t understand it?
   • What would Murphy do if there were no rules?
   • Do you think Murphy would be happier without rules?
   • What might go wrong if Murphy had no rules?
   • What might go better if Murphy had no rules?
4. When it seems like the conversation has hit its end, announce that you have a new game, but you don’t know how to play it because you haven’t figured out the rules yet. Ask if they’ll help you figure out what the rules should be.
5. This is where you have to trust the chaos a little. You’ll need to improvise based on the responses you get, but the general order goes like this:
   • Announce that in order to figure out the rules, each person will get to make a rule at the beginning of his/her turn (or use teams if you have a lot of students). Write down the rules as you go so that you can keep track of them. If someone changes an existing rule, cross it out. Make something of a show of how confusing it’s getting.
   • More than likely, eventually someone is going to figure out that they can just skip to the end. If they don’t get there on their own, do it when it’s your turn. Wait for the “that’s not fair”s!
   • Start again, but this time start with the rules that people can’t change existing rules and that no one can skip to the end.
   • When it gets to your turn, make a rule that very specifically only privileges you. (“People with green shirts get to roll twice.” “People with glasses never lose a turn.”)
   • Wait for the “that’s not fair”s again.
   • Start again, but this time decide what the rules are going to be from the beginning and vote on them before playing.
6. Discuss.
   • What happened when we didn’t have any rules?
   • What happened when we made the rules up as we went?
   • Was the game fun when people could make unfair rules?
   • How did we end up with a fair set of rules?

[tabby title=”Adaptations”] I did this with mostly first and second graders, so I felt pretty confident about how the pacing of the game would go, and it worked out great. If you have older kids or particularly game-savvy students, you might need to be quicker on your feet to get to a meaningful lesson. Older students could have some more complex elements to their game. [tabbyending] SaveSave