Lesson video

Hello everybody, it's Mrs. Baker here.

And it's time to do your next lesson in what is citizenship? I'm one of the citizenship teachers here at Oak National and I'm looking forward today to introducing you to a really important concept in citizenship.

So, time to find ourselves somewhere nice and quiet to work, turn the notifications off in your phone and make sure you haven't got any distractions around you.

And I'll see you in just a moment to tell you what our lessons going to be about and what you need to have a successful lesson.

See you in a moment.

Hello everybody.

So what we need for today's lesson is something to read, no, something to write with and something to write on.

And obviously we need our brains in special thinking mode, please.

Lots of questions to answer and lots of thinking points in today's lesson as well.

So not necessarily things that we are going to write and answer down to, but certainly things I would like you to consider and be ready to discuss perhaps with somebody else during the lesson, off lesson, or perhaps with somebody at home.

So let's get started and see what today's lesson's all about.

So today's lesson is about something really important, and with a concept that comes up in citizenship for really throughout your citizenship education.

So, first of all, we need to think about what is a community? And there's actually units in that your citizenship work that are based just around this, about thinking what our community is and what kind of community we live in.

But this is just a quick introduction today.

Then we're going to think about what the term democracy means.

Again, really important concept that is covered in citizenship throughout your school life, and a really important concept to all countries, really part of our British values as well very important for us living here in the UK.

Then we're going to look to see if we can work out what makes a democratic community.

So after investigating those two concepts, we're going to talk about what makes those things work together.

And then see if you could create a democratic community, thinking back to your lesson from the other day.

So where you designed your desert island, if you've got those notes handy, it may well help you.

So if you want to pause the lesson here, in case haven't got something to read or write, sorry, if you haven't got something to write with or write on and you can go and get those, or if you know where your notes are with regard to your democratic, with regard to your desert island, then please do feel free to go and grab those in case they're in a different folder or a different book.

It's not essential that you have those but you might like to look back at them during today's lesson.

So if you'd like to, you can pause your lesson now.

Those of us that are ready, let's get going.

So what is a community then? Well, a definition of a community is a group of people living or existing together, sharing common values, interests, and or ways of doing things.

So you all live within a community.

I live in a community, you may belong to more than one community.

For example, your school could be described as a community, okay? So these are the kinds of ideas that you could explore in the communities unit later on in your study of citizenship.

But at the moment, all we need to think about is the idea that a community is a group of people living or existing together, sharing common values, interests, and or a way of doing things.

So the image there is just showing you a normal street with someone running, someone crossing over, house in the background, so it's an idea of what a community is.

So, next one, what is democracy? And this is a word that gets used a lot.

And people talk about democracy or whether something is democratic or not.

And basically the word democracy means rule by the people.

And it comes from a Greek word, meaning demos, which is people and kratos, meaning strength or power.

So it meant that the people had the strength or power.

So rather than somebody who's like a King or queen or emperor, being able to rule it's about the people having a decision or the people having a say in how something is run.

So in democracy you have more rights and you can influence decision makers and those in power.

So that's why we think democracy is really important in this country and it's one of our values.

In that we believe that everybody should be able to have their rights and also be able to express their views to those decision makers.

So what does democracy actually look like? Because we can hear the word, but sometimes it can be quite difficult to give any examples.

Let's have a look.

So the features that we'd expect to see in a democracy then include free and fair elections.

So for them to be free and fair, we'd want them to be regular.

So in the UK, we have to have an election at least every five years, if not sooner.

We would expect there to be a secret ballot.

So in other words, no one can intimidate you or know who you're voting for and say, " Well I saw who you're voting for so now I'm going to beat you up over that." Or say, "If you don't vote for me, then I'm going to punish you." Because you vote in secret, no one needs to know who you voted for.

And the other aspect of a free and fair election is that we have universal suffrage.

So suffrage gives us another sort of word about another word to explain the right to vote.

And universal means everyone can do it.

So universal suffrage means that everyone who is entitled to, can vote.

So in the UK, anybody over the age of 18 that has registered to vote and fulfils most criteria is able to vote.

There are a few exceptions and again, guess what? There's a citizenship lesson all about that.

So you could learn about those later on in your studies.

As I said, this is just a little introduction for you.

What else would we expect to find in a democracy then? Well, another important feature would be the protection of human rights.

And within our human rights, we would expect our freedom of speech to be protected.

So if we said something that other people didn't agree with, we wouldn't expect to be punished for that.

Or if we said something against the government, we wouldn't expect to be put in prison over that.

We believe that we have the right to say things even if other people disagree with us.

We also have the right to freedom of association.

That means we can join with other people and we can be part of clubs and groups, and we're allowed to be, no one's going to stop us doing that.

And we also respect individual and minority rights.

So we understand that some groups are different and we can respect that.

And we don't make everybody do the same thing.

So to talk a little bit more about rights then.

Rights are basically our freedoms. And they're freedoms that have been written down in the United Nations Convention on the rights of a child.

So all of you have got a special set of rights up until the age of 18.

And Article 12, for example, and an Article just means one of the rights, it's the way it's written.

So Article 12 of this law says you should be free to express your views in all matters that affect you.

So under Article 12 at the United Nations Convention on the rights of a child, as a child, if a decision is going to affect you, then you should be able to say what you think about it.

So that's why your voice, even though you're not 18 is still important in many things.

Okay, you're ready to see what you've remembered? You see how hard you've been listening.

Let's go.

So, what does the word democracy mean? Is it number one, rule by the people and it comes from the Greek word, demos and kratos? Is it number two, freedoms that you are entitled to? Is it number three, someone who works towards making a positive place in society? Or is it number four, a set of articles that protect your rights? Get ready to tell me what it is in five, four, three, two, one.

Fabulous.

Well done, I heard you shouting at me.

It is indeed option number one, demos and Kratos coming from the rule of the people.

So in our previous lesson, you looked at what the idea of fairness was.

And let's just have a quick recap on that.

So fairness is the quality of treating people equally or in a way that is right or reasonable.

So these are also things that we would expect to find in a democratic community.

We would expect people to be treated fairly.

We've also got here, when we look at this, a different explanation of what fairness is.

Researchers found that there tends to be two main ideas.

Treating everyone the same, and that would appear to be a fair thing to do.

Or treating people differently according to what their characteristics are.

Now, treating people differently to start with, doesn't really seem fair.

Because we've always been told, haven't we? I think you'll probably agree with me.

We've always been told that if you're going to treat someone fairly, you treat everybody the same.

But treating someone differently, doesn't really seem fair to start with.

However, if you are making special allowances because people have special characteristics and you are making it possible so that people are fairer, then that would be fair.

So for example, if somebody was in a wheelchair perhaps, and you were allowing them to sit at the front of a cinema or seat at the front of the theatre, because that's where the accessible seats were, even though they weren't in the front of the queue, then that would be treating them differently but it would be fair because of their characteristic.

Okay, so that's just a quick illustration I'm sure you can think of lots more yourselves.

So let's have a little look about this idea of treating people differently and fairly a little bit more.

Here's three cats.

I really like cats.

I've got a cat called Dennis and he looks a bit like this, but he's stripy.

A Ginger Tom, and he's very naughty.

So, look at these three cats.

If you have three fish, how would you share them? Do you think sharing them in an equal way and what, sorry, if you're sharing them in an equal way, how would you do that? Can you tell me? Is it fair to share the fish that way? How have you decided to share your three fish? Well, if I was going to share my three fish fairly and I looked at these cats, I would give each cat one fish, because there's three cats and I've got three fish.

So that would seem to be the fair thing to do.

Let's have a look at the cats on the next picture.

Ah, okay.

So now we've got one cat who seems to be doing very well for himself, haven't we? One cat has managed to catch all of those fish.

And he looks very healthy.

In fact, we might say he's a little bit overweight.

A bit like Dennis, I give him too many treats.

But the middle there, cat he's managed to catch a fish and he looks quite healthy, not too fat, not too skinny but he looks quite well.

But the poor other cat, he hasn't caught any fish and he looks really sad and is looking really skinny.

So if have three fish now, how would you share your fish? Have you changed your mind now? Are you changing the way you share your fish? Before I chose to share my fish one to each of the cats, but now I'm not going to give that fat cat on the end any of my fish because that cat's got a lot of fish already.

So now I have to decide, am I going to give all three fish to the poor skinny cat, and none to the cat that looks quite healthy? Or am I going to give two fish to the very skinny cat and one to the cat that looks happy and healthy? Well, because the cat in the middle looks happy and healthy and is able to catch fish, I'm not going to give him any of my fish.

I'm going to give all my fish to the skinny cat and hope that that makes him feel happier.

And then maybe he'll be able to catch his own fish.

So I certainly did change my mind.

I didn't seem to share my fish out equally now, did I? Because two cats didn't get any fish.

And one cat got all of my fish.

I bet if you've got brothers or sisters and somebody said to you, "I've got these treats and I'm going to give one of you all the treats." You wouldn't like it if it wasn't you.

So does treating someone fairly, always mean treating everybody equally? Do you feel that I've made a fair decision here by feeding the skinny cat all of my fish? What would you have done? A fair does not always mean equal.

Sometimes treating people fairly doesn't mean we treat people or everybody equally.

Sometimes we treat people differently to make sure the situation is fair.

With the cats, it would not be fair to give the cats that caught all the fish another one with when one cat was going to be very hungry.

When we treat people differently to make a situation fair, we call it equity.

The person being treated differently is normally at a disadvantage or struggling.

So for example, our cat, who doesn't seem to have learned how to fish yet, he was struggling to get any food.

In a democratic community, we would expect this to happen.

So in a democratic community, we would expect equity, not just everybody being treated equally.

If somebody with disadvantage or somebody was struggling, we might expect them to get more help than other people.

So if you've got your notes from last time, perhaps you remember that you were taken to a desert island with nine friends.

And you have to draw up your rules and I've got the set of rules that were made up in the lesson.

And we're going to have a look at those and see how democratic the island community was.

And if you've got access to your rules, you can have a quick look at those and see if you think your community that you set up on your island was democratic as well.

So let's think about the first action.

How did you choose your rules? Who decided if someone didn't like them? What would be the democratic thing to do? Since you and nine friends on your island and you have to write your rules, how did you come up with them? Did one person give each rule? And then you all had to agree, so you ended up with 10? Or did you find another way to do it? Can you shout at me a way you think that would be democratic to decide which rule stays and which rules didn't.

Yeah, that's right.

Having a vote.

Because if you remember a key feature of a democratic society is an election.

And this is how we decide on important things.

So on your island, if you had different view, views about a law or rule or a big decision, you could hold an election and that would solve everything.

Okay.

So had you already built in an election system to your Island? If you had, you were already running a democratic community, so well done, you.

Let's have a look at another one of your rules specifically.

And this is from the rules that were set up last time.

Everybody gets equal food.

Another way to decide about the rules, if you don't agree with them, is to hold another kind of idea.

So at first, this idea of everybody getting equal food seems fair, but thinking back to what we just discussed, maybe it's not.

So apart from voting to see whether or not we think it's fair in an election, you could also hold a meeting to discuss the issue.

So we think this seems quite fair splitting up the food equally.

However, some of the members of your community have decided they want to discuss this rule.

They're not sure that is equal, it's always fair and have suggested that their desert island community should split food using the idea of equity.

So, what suggestions could you make in a meeting about this? If you were on your desert island with your community, and now people are saying, rather than splitting up the food all equally, certain people might receive more and certain people might receive less.

Remember the fish and the cats? What recommendations could you make? What contributions could you make in that meeting? I'd like you to write down some of your ideas.

There's some things to think about there, that the types of jobs people may have to do, anybody that has certain health conditions.

Anything you can think of that might make a difference to how much or maybe what kind of food people should have.

So, pause your video now and complete that task.

Well done everybody I expect you come up with lots of ideas, but here are a few that I came up with.

So, to show food is split using equity, you could consider anybody with health concerns.

Maybe some people could only eat some things, if so, should they have more of that and less of something else? First say, for example, if you were allergic to a particular fruit that was available on one day, then you wouldn't be able to eat that.

So maybe on the next day you should have a bigger share of whichever food is available, because you would have been hungry the day before.

Perhaps you should think about the work people are doing.

If some people are doing hard, physical work, they will need more food than people who cannot do the same level of work.

So if anybody perhaps is not able to do the physical work, perhaps they can't construct buildings or they can't do something, maybe they're looking after the children or maybe they're organising something else and they don't need as much energy, they don't need as many calories, perhaps they should have slightly less of the food to make sure the people that need, physically need more food have some.

And then you could think about whether anybody has access to other food.

So perhaps some people saved food from one day, ready to eat the next day.

Should you say that everybody can eat twice a day? So even if you save your food from one day, if you've got enough for one meal, then you should only be given one other meal.

Otherwise you might find some people eating three or four times a day and some people only eating twice a day.

Now, some people might be able to argue against the points I've made and that's fine, that's what a meeting's all about.

But the important thing about a meeting is that everybody gets a chance to have their voices heard.

So how should your meeting work then? For your island to be a democratic community, who are you going to allow to speak to that meeting? Which voices are you going to allow to be heard? Do you think everyone should be able to express their views on this matter? What if there is young people who may not understand, do they still get to speak? So just have a little think about those ideas for a moment and decide if food affects everybody, should everybody be able to speak? What about people who maybe haven't got any experience, people that aren't doing the hard work, people that aren't needing the extra energy, should they have a say in whether those people actually get there? If you've got young children on the island who don't really understand that there isn't enough food, should they still be able to take part in the meeting? What do you think? So how does this work in democratic communities? In democracies people are listened to, but they are a certain age before this happens formally.

To be able to vote in an election, you need to be 18 in England.

You can vote at 16 or 17 in some elections in Scotland.

Why do you think there's an age limit to vote in a general election or in a council election? Why do you think we don't let anybody vote? Quite a lot of 16, 17 year olds that I know really want to take part in elections.

So what do you think? Some of the 16, 17 year olds that I know say that they understand about politics and they've got views about their local area and they think they should have a chance to express those views.

But other people sometimes say, "Actually, you haven't finished your education and you're too young, you'd be influenced by what your parents say or what the newspapers say or what your friends are doing, and you wouldn't make your own mind up.

You'd just be convinced to vote for certain people." Do you think that's a fair thing to say about young people? Why do you think there's an age limit that's applied to voting? There were lots of age restrictions applied to lots of different things.

Did you know that you have to be 16 before you can buy a pet? You also have to be 17 before you can fly a plane.

You have to be 18 before you can ask people to stand to vote for you so you can go to the houses of parliament and be a member of parliament.

You have to be 21 to adopt a child.

18 to buy fireworks and 16 to play the National Lottery.

Why do you think these age restrictions are put in place? Why do you think it's so important to have certain ages that people can do things? Do you think those ages are fair for those things? I think 17 is a bit young to learn to fly a plane, but actually you can drive a car at 17 as well.

So I guess it's the same kind of thing, isn't it? 18 to buy fireworks.

That's when you legally become an adult and most things you're allowed to do at 18.

So your class is being really responsible, but fireworks are really dangerous.

So I guess that's okay, but are all 18 year olds really mature or not? Mind you, all adults really mature? So, let's think about this then.

Why do we put certain ages on things? Well, it's all about responsibility, isn't it? That at certain ages you're allowed to do things, but you are also responsible for doing those things.

So for example, if you buy a pet, you're now considered responsible enough to look after that pet.

Whereas if you were younger, you're not considered responsible enough.

If you are 21, it's now that you are considered to be old enough and have enough life experience to adopt a child.

So responsibility is strongly linked to age restriction and to seeing what you can and can't do.

So let's go back to your democratic meeting.

Do you think everyone should take part now? Have you changed your minds? Would you put a restriction on anyone taking part in your meeting? Do you think it's really important that every voice is heard? There's no right or wrong answer to this, and people are always disagreeing about these things.

So it's really important that you share your ideas here as well.

Next task then.

Write a short paragraph to explain who should be able to take part in meetings in your the desert island community.

Think about the ages of people that are there with you, the experience that they've had, how democratic you want your island to be.

Now, if you decided that all the people on your island last time were your age, you can change the ages of people if it's going to help you do this task.

Or you can keep them all the same age, but you still might decide that there are other reasons why they will or will not take part in your democratic community.

Pause the video now, complete your task.

Well done everybody.

Here's some ideas that I had and hopefully you've had some as well.

In my desert island community, I would only let certain people speak at meetings meetings.

This may not seem fair at first, but I want to make sure that the views of people that are directly affected by the problem are able to explain their views.

So if the meeting was about a work problem, I would want people who are working to discuss it.

I think that's fair because actually it wouldn't be right, would it? For somebody who was having a problem with work to be influenced or to have the views of people that have never been involved in the problem and for them to get their own way.

I would also want people over 13 speaking, as I do not think younger people would have enough understanding of the issues.

So that was my choice, I thought actually at 13, I think people do start to understand what's going on and I think their voice should be heard, but under 13, sometimes the reasoning that people give isn't quite so good.

But you might disagree with me.

You might say actually at 10 people should be heard, at five people should be heard.

and remember that back to the UN Convention, the rights of child Article 12, if the issue affects you, you have the right to be heard.

So what can happen then when one person makes all the decisions? A community where only one person makes the rules and there are no elections or meetings or share ideas, is not a democracy.

We call this type of community, a dictatorship.

You may have heard of North Korea.

This is an example of a dictatorship in the world today.

The leader and his government make the decisions.

The leader always comes from the same family and there are no elections.

So this is an example of a dictatorship where nobody gets to say what they think or take part in helping make the rules.

It just comes from one family for years and years.

Okay.

So well done guys.

I think you've worked really well today.

There's some really important concepts there, and I'm certain that you've had some really, really good ideas.

So, you should be able to tell me now what a community is.

And you should be able to tell me what democracy is.

And hopefully you're able to pick out what a democratic community is.

So those things we look for, like free and fair elections, freedom of speech, human rights being protected, freedom of association.

And you can think about how you would create a democratic community.

Would you include meetings? Who would you allow to speak? Would you include voting? Would you be a good democratic leader? I hope you would 'cause it was really important to listen to people, isn't it? So I would be really interested to hear any of your views, perhaps around the idea of equity, perhaps around the idea of your democratic community and what you would do to make your community democratic.

So if you'd like to share those with me, please ask your parents or a carer to share that work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging in @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

You could also put the subject of citizenship in that.

So we know who can look out for that.

I hope you're really enjoying this introduction to citizenship, it is such a exciting topic to be studying.

And we've got some brilliant units for you to cover over the next few weeks or the next few months, or even the next few years.

We've got quite a lot of lessons.

So there's one last thing for you to do for me today then please.

And that is to complete your exit quiz so we can see just what you have learned.

Take care of everybody and I hope to see you again soon in another citizenship lesson.

Bye, bye now.