AMAZING GRACE
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 13: BAD GUYS, GOOD GUYS
BY RICHARD KIMBALL
© Copyright 2008 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/7/2014 7:32:17 AM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
The great hope of society is individual character.
— William Ellery Channing
This session is the first of four that focuses on ethical development, using the Cherokee story of the two wolves inside us to ask whether people are basically bad or good. The session continues with a series of up-and-down questions that introduce the concept of character and then ask youth to talk about building good character. The Ethics Play activity asks youth to practice making ethical decisions. The Faith in Action segment asks youth to nurture their better "environmental wolf."
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
ACTIVITY | MINUTES |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Story and Discussion – Two Wolves: A Cherokee Tale | 7 |
Activity 2: Up-and-Down Questions | 10 |
Activity 3: Building Character Puzzles | 20 |
Activity 4: Ethics Play | 15 |
Faith in Action: Our Environmental Wolves | 15 |
Closing | 3 |
Alternate Activity 1: Our Hard-Wired Brains | 8 |
Alternate Activity 2: Story – I'm Sorry | 7 |
Alternate Activity 3: Temptation Freeze Tag | 20 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
In the days before you present this session, explore your own ideas about the basic morality of humankind. Are people bad or good at their core? Search for explanations as to why you answer that question the way you do. Is it based on experience? Is it influenced by your religion or spirituality? Is it what your family taught you as a child?
In the moments before you present this session, with all preparations made, make a peaceful moment for yourself and for your connections with all. Breathe deeply. Know that your efforts to assist youth are themselves virtuous. Breathe deeply. Connect with what is good and true. Breathe deeply. Relax. Feel the energy of sharing fill you. Connect again with your leadership team, and be ready to greet your youth.
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
As participants enter, greet them. If you have newcomers, greet them warmly and be sure they know others in the room. Give them nametags if others have them. Ask newcomers and old timers alike to look at the Conundrum Corner, but do not say anything more about it. In answer to any questions about it, say you will be talking about it later.
If playing "Amazing Grace," stop the music or reduce the volume to a very low background level.
Lead the group in the day's opening rituals—a chalice lighting, a moment of focusing silence, and a moment of sharing.
Light the chalice, or let a youth do so, and speak these words (asking the group to join you if you have posted them):
May this light help us explore our own characters.
Ask the group to be silent for a moment as they reflect on the opening words and settle in for the session. End the silence by saying "blessed be," or other appropriate words.
Ask the youth how many of them sometimes have dreams they remember. How many have had good dreams? How many have had bad dreams? Ask whether the good dreams have ever helped anybody and whether the bad dreams have ever hurt anybody. Accept a few comments if you like, but do not allow the session to drift away into endless descriptions of "you will never believe the dream I had last night."
Extinguish the chalice without ceremony and move the chalice table aside as necessary to allow movement in the room.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY AND DISCUSSION – TWO WOLVES: A CHEROKEE TALE (7 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The group shares the central story of the session, which involves internal battles between right and wrong.
Tell or read Story 1,"Two Wolves: A Cherokee Tale." Alternately, you might ask for one or more volunteers to read it.
"Two Wolves" is very short, but it has impact. After telling it, lead a discussion with questions like these:
Do you sometimes feel that you have two wolves inside of you, one bad and the other good? How do people feed these wolves?
Remind the group (or inform it, if you have not already done Session 12), that some people believe in the idea of original sin. They think that people are sinners from the moment of birth. (See Activity 2 of Session 12, Human and Divine.) Others disagree. They believe in the basic goodness of people. Many Unitarian Universalists and humanists (see Faith in Action of Session 12, Human and Divine) feel this way. They believe that most people are the best people they know how to be, even if they are not perfect. What do your youth think? Which wolf do most people feed?
ACTIVITY 2: UP-AND-DOWN QUESTIONS (10 MINUTES)
Description of Activity
This activity allows a bit of movement as participants respond to ten statements.
Give instructions like these:
I am going to read ten statements. If you agree with the statement, stand up. If you disagree, stay seated. If you halfway agree, stand halfway up. After you react to each statement, we will talk about it. Then we will all sit down and I will read the next one.
Here are the statements:
Ask youth what they think "character" means. You might say that "character is the real you, the qualities that make you you." Mention that an educator named Henry Huffman once said, "Character is what you do when nobody is looking." Ask how "character" and "personality" differ. Consider explaining that personality is related to character, but personality is more on the outside than character is. Personality is what people see when they first meet you. They will not understand your inner character until they know you better.
In the course of discussion, point out that people sometimes say that an individual has a "good character" or a "bad character." However, most people are not wholly bad or wholly good. They have a mix of good characteristics and not-so-good, or bad, characteristics. It is better (and easier) to evaluate peoples' actions than their characters. Still, it is good to know something about the characteristics that form their characters.
Including All Participants
If you have participants who cannot easily stand, change the way you ask the group to signal agreement. Youth might raise two hands for full agreement, one hand for partial agreement, and no hands for disagreement.
ACTIVITY 3: BUILDING CHARACTER PUZZLES (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Small groups create puzzles to help participants describe and understand the characteristics that shape good and bad character. Conduct it in seven steps:
Conclude by making the point that human character is complicated. Even when we think we know someone really well, we may not. Return to an idea mentioned in Activity 1: Most UUs believe that people are the best people they can be. They do more right things than wrong things. In other words, they try to have good character, and most of them do, even if they are not perfect.
ACTIVITY 4: ETHICS PLAY (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants play a game replicating real-life situations involving ethical decisions.
Ask at the end of the game which of the Star's two wolves seemed to be winning. Ask also whether what people did and said in the game reflected good character or not.
Including All Participants
If some participants have limited mobility, you might wish to have the group remain seated, or at least give individuals a choice between standing and sitting when they speak.
CLOSING (3 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Briefly summarize what you have done in this session. Hand out any Taking It Home activity suggestions you have prepared.
If earlier you moved your chalice from its central position, retrieve it and re-light it without fanfare. Ask the group to sit and to speak these closing words with you:
As we extinguish this chalice, may its light shine within so we may see the difference between right and wrong.
FAITH IN ACTION: OUR ENVIRONMENTAL WOLVES (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Youth identify their good and bad environmental wolves and decide on some actions they and their families can do to feed the better wolves.
Introduce the activity by producing the battery from your Conundrum Corner. Ask youth why they think it is there. After hearing some ideas, say that it shows how the environment can be like emotions. Sometimes it is difficult to know what is good and what is bad. Ask why batteries are sometimes good and sometimes bad. (They produce electricity, which is cleaner than some other forms of energy, but when you dispose of them the wrong way, they hurt the environment; they need to be disposed of correctly.) Ask also which are better, rechargeable or non-rechargeable batteries. (Rechargeable batteries last longer, so users do not need as many batteries. Rechargeable batteries can be recycled, but they still contain heavy metals that are bad for the environment.)
Then connect the environment with the Cherokee story of two wolves. Ask if the youth agree that it sometimes seems that we have two environmental wolves inside us, one of them good and one of them bad. Ask the youth to brainstorm (1) what feeds the good wolf and leads to healthy environmental actions, and (2) what feeds the bad wolf and leads to unhealthy environmental actions.
Consider categorizing the responses into groups such as clean water, clean air, and disposable trash. What feeds the good wolf and leads to healthy environmental actions connected with disposable trash? (Using recycled materials, buying only what you can use, avoiding overly packaged materials, such as individually wrapped cheese slices.) What feeds the bad wolf, leading to unhealthy actions? (Being lazy and throwing out trash that could be recycled, littering or tossing things out of car windows, wanting and buying more than you need.)
When your lists are long enough (several appropriate items in each category), distribute paper and pencils to the youth. Ask them to think about the lists for a moment, then each write down three or four actions they think they and their families should take to feed their healthy environmental wolves.
When all have completed their lists, ask them to take them home and discuss them with their families so that together they can do more things right and fewer things wrong for the environment.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Meet with your co-leaders after the session to reflect on how it went. How was your mix of discussion and action? Have you successfully found ways to involve all youth fully in your sessions despite any limitations they might have? How did youth react to your discussions of dreams, thoughts, and emotions? Do they understand that we all sometimes have bad dreams, thoughts, and emotions? We cannot avoid that, but we can decide what to do with them.
Look ahead at Session 14. Decide who will lead which activities, and who will be responsible for which supplies.
TAKING IT HOME
The great hope of society is individual character.
— William Ellery Channing
IN TODAY’S SESSION… We shared a Cherokee story and thought about the good and bad wolves inside us all. We gave some up-and-down answers to ten questions, and made some puzzles showing bad and good personal characteristics. We did Ethics Play, and for Faith in Action, we decided how to feed our good environmental wolves.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about…
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try…
MYSTERY AND ME
Think about your character. What parts do you like best? What parts would you like to build? Is part of your character a mystery, even to you? (If you ever say, “I don’t know why I did something,” that may be a clue about something you do not understand.) If you are journaling, write your ideas about that part. Say how you can figure out the mystery.
A FAMILY RITUAL
Talk each day about the right and wrong you have experienced. Did you each do something good you want to share? Is there somebody in the family you want to thank for a virtuous act? Is there something you wish you had not done that you need to talk about? How can you make tomorrow a better day?
A FAMILY GAME
Play emotional freeze. Someday, when you are having a really good time with your family, freeze a picture of it in your mind. Do not spoil the time by interrupting it and talking about it. But do talk about it later. Remember how the enjoyment started so you can repeat it at another time.
FAMILY DISCOVERY
Find out how to feed each other’s good emotional wolves. How can you help one another to be the best people you can be? Find some ways to help one another do their best.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: OUR HARD-WIRED BRAINS (8 MINUTES)
Description of Activity
This discussion speaks of psychology and physiology and asks for comments about legal defenses based in psychology.
Begin by asking youth to define "psychology" and "physiology." (The first may be defined simply as "the science of mental process and behavior." The second can be defined as "the biological science that studies how a living body works physically.")
Ask the youth whether they think psychology and physiology can explain why people think and act the way they do. If so, where does religion fit in? Can people obey the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule if the wiring in their brains tells them to be bad? What would participants say if they were judges in a case where a criminal admitted to setting buildings on fire but claimed that he had to do it because he had an abnormal brain? If they were judges, which would they rely on more, what the law says or the testimony of psychologists and physiologists who say somebody is sick in a way that makes them do bad acts? Should these sick people go to jail? Should they be free to act badly again?
In the course of discussion, help youth to understand that:
Conclude by noting that although this is interesting, does it suggest that we can all blame our brains every time we do something wrong? Answer the question, if participants do not:
Of course not. Most of us have good brains and bodies that we can use to make good decisions about right and wrong. We must act as if we have free will, and do right whenever we can. If we do not, we will make the world a worse place than it is. We will also get ourselves into trouble.
Notes: Fascinating though they are, psychological theories and research are largely beyond the scope of Amazing Grace: Exploring Right and Wrong. Deciding how to use all the moral tools at their disposal is challenge enough for most sixth graders. For a related activity that introduces the evolutionary theory of morality, see Alternate Activity 1 in Session 14, Letting the Good Out.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: STORY — I'M SORRY (7 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Youth hear and discuss a story that illustrates how actions speak louder than words.
Tell or read Story 2, "I'm Sorry." Alternately, you might ask for one or more volunteers to read it
Ask for reactions to the story. What do the youth think the moral is? ("Actions speak louder than words" is one possibility.)
Can the youth tell of events in their own lives when somebody stepped up and did something good while others were just talking?
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 3: TEMPTATION FREEZE TAG (15 MINUTES)
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This is an active illustration of the relationship between temptation and the conscience.
This high-energy activity is a variation of traditional freeze tag, in which one person who is "it" runs around and tags others inside the boundaries of a large but defined space. Anyone tagged must stop and stand in a frozen position. "It" wins when everybody has been tagged and frozen. The last person tagged acts as "it" for the next round. Most versions of freeze tag include a way to unfreeze people: if two people who are free connect their arms together around a frozen person, that person is unfrozen and allowed to continue playing until tagged again.
In this Amazing Grace version, the player acting as "it" is called "conscience." All other players are "temptations," so the conscience is always working to overcome temptations.
Lower-energy approach: Limit youth movement to walking. Set a rule that all must have at least one foot on the ground at all times.
When participants have run (or walked) enough, ask them to talk about other ways they might vary the game of tag to make it appropriate for Amazing Grace: Exploring Right and Wrong. If you have extra time available, or in a retreat setting, ask small groups to create new Amazing Grace rules for old games, then give the full group a chance to try these new variations.
Including All Participants
If you have participants with limitations that will prevent their playing this game in any form, you should skip it. If there are youth who can participate, but not at full speed, slow down everybody with the lower-energy approach.
AMAZING GRACE: SESSION 13:
STORY: I'M SORRY
A folk tale found in many cultures.
A farmer used his horse to pull a wagon loaded with produce to sell in the market. They had been at the market for a couple of hours when the horse fell over and died. All the farmer's friends and acquaintances gathered around. They felt very sorry for the farmer, because they knew that he and his family needed the horse to run the farm and make money.
"I'm very sorry about your loss," said one friend. "I'm sorry, too," said a woman. "I'm sorry," "I'm sorry," "I'm sorry," said many, many more people for the next hour or so.
Finally, when just about everybody in the crowd had said how sorry they were, a man in the back spoke up. "I'm sorry five dollars worth," he announced.
There was silence for a moment while everybody thought. Then another voice spoke. "I'm sorry five dollars worth, too." Another voice spoke, then another, and another. Sometimes the amounts were different, but soon the whole crowd was offering money.
By the end of the day, the farmer's friends and acquaintances had helped him bury his old horse and given him enough money to buy a new one.
AMAZING GRACE: SESSION 13:
STORY: TWO WOLVES
A Cherokee tale from the AAA Native Arts website, used with permission.
An elder Cherokee was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too."
The children thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
FIND OUT MORE
AAA Native Arts (at www.aaanativearts.com) is the website with the version of "Two Wolves" used in this session.
Vedantam, Shankar. "If It Feels Good to Be Good, It might Be Only Natural (at pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/1278113691.html?dids=1278113691:1278113691&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&fmac=&date=May+28%2C+2007&author=Shankar+Vedantam+-+Washington+Post+Staff+Writer&desc=If+It+Feels+Good+to+Be+Good%2C+It+Might+Be+Only+Natural)," published on The Washington Post (at www.thewashingtonpost.com) website. This is an article reporting on recent neuroscience experiments.