Session 9.1
THE MERRY-GO-AROUND
Introduction
An activity to encourage people to talk
openly about their feelings and ideas concerning the topics
of the campaign "All different - All equal" to
other people. The exercise also allows for one to one communication
with a large number of different people in a short space
of time.
Materials
• Trigger questions, 13 - 15
questions are probably enough.
• Chairs, arranged in one outer
and one inner circle facing each other.
Time
2 hours
Group size
15 - 30 people
Process
People are asked to sit opposite(and facing)
another person arranged around the room. Chairs should not
be too close that pairs can overhear conversations taking
place near to them. Spacing the pairs out will help them
to concentrate on their partner. If there is an odd number
of people one chair is put slightly outside the circle for
a person to sit on (to make a 'three').
The people are told that they will move around, so they
will not only speak to the person opposite them now. They
will have three minutes each time to speak to each other.
Every time you will call out the question. The question
can vary according to the topic you are working on and the
age and level of the group.
The following questions are some suggestions:
• What is your reaction if your
best friend told you (s)he had mobbed someone?
• A good friend of yours tells
a racist joke to a group of friends. What do you say?
• On the wall of your youth club
somebody writes racist graffiti. What is your response?
• What is racism?
• Why does it say "Blacks
go home" on the wall?
• Already for a long time it
is very popular between your friends to use racist name-calling
such as Four Eyes, Paki, Blackie, Gypsies. How do you react?
• What does it mean when you
stereotype people?
• What could be done to challenge
some of the negative views and stereotypes of minority groups?
After each question and three minutes conversation the
people on the outside of the circle are asked to stand and
shift one (or more) place to the right. Then they discuss
the second question, which you have called out. After five
or six questions like this, ask the inner circle to shift
one (or more) place to the left. Another five or six questions,
with changes of place should take place.'
For the last two or three questions ask both circles to
make up their own questions to get an answer. By this stage
they have an idea of the exercise and the type of questions.
At the end ask people generally whether it was easy to
answer the questions? Did they find something out about
their personal limits concerning the issues? Would this
exercise influence the way in which they train or inform
other young people?
Conclusion
This exercise can be good as starting
point to consider the complexity of some issues. It can
also be useful near the end, if people are planning to spread
their ideas further, by using peer education or other kinds
of action. It is a very useful way to enable them to continue
their discussions with each other if they wish, so it could
be structured to take place prior to time off or a break.
Another technique that you may like to
try for getting people to express opinions about issues
is that described in "Just
a minute" in Compass.
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