Teaching Resources

4 hours

13 - 14

Promotion of EU citizenship, EU and democratic values and human rights
Enhancement of empathy outside school (friends, family, strangers

Handouts
IWB
Pens and paper

Self-awareness
Self-regulation

This teaching source uses role play to look at the reasons why people engage in violent acts. This kind of activity widens the students’ points of view and lets them understand the others’ behaviour with more flexibility, deepening their reflection on causes and solutions about a certain situation. It also allows the students to give voice to their real frustrations and feelings. The image of throwing stones can be connected, on the one hand, to those who carry out acts of violence as individuals and human beings, and on the other hand, of identifying acts of violence as unacceptable, particularly where their consequences cause others to suffer. Both of these positions are consistent with the idea of human rights – and both are necessary in order to find ways out of cycles of violence and mutual mistrust.
This is an activity which is carried out in groups, in order to leave each participant free to express and take part as much as they wish.
The main objectives are:
- To develop understanding of what causes people to be violent and the consequences of their violence
- To develop skills to respond to violence in a non-violent manner and self-control
- To promote a sense of compassion, justice and responsibility

1. Students are asked to recall an incident when they felt angry or frustrated and when they felt the desire to do something destructive. A few minutes of silence are left to take themselves back mentally into the state they were in.

2. A few volunteers are asked to share their incidents with other members of the group, describing briefly what happened and their emotions at the time.

3. The role play is introduced by displaying a picture of someone about to throw a stone. Teachers explain that this pose comes from extreme anger and frustration.

4. The participants are divided into small groups and they have 30 minutes to prepare a short role play that shows an incident, and which ends in the act of being about to throw a stone.

5. The copies of the questions for consideration are handed out to help them plan their role play.

6. After 30 minutes teachers invite the students to show their role plays to the rest of the group. After each showing, a few minutes are left for the audience to react to what it has seen and to ask questions.

7. Debriefing and evaluation follow.

In the last part of the activity the students are invited to discuss about what they have learnt and experienced and to reflect on broader issues through guided questions, such as:
- Did the role plays help you understand what could provoke someone to throw a stone?
- Were there feelings or emotions that were common to the different role plays and which were central in leading to the desire to be violent?
- Why do you think that people sometimes feel the need to damage or hurt someone or something? Does the act of causing damage or hurt actually help to resolve whatever it was that caused it? Why? Why not?
- Has the activity helped you to understand better either your own acts of violence or those of others around you? How?
- Are there acts of violence that you cannot understand at all? Can you understand what leads people to fight in wars or blow up buildings or other people?
- How do you understand the terrorist threats that some countries face?
- Is there a difference between understanding what caused an act of violence and justifying it? Is it important to try to understand what lies behind violent acts? Why? Why not?
- What is the best way of responding to violent acts? What are the advantages and disadvantages of responding with more violence, or of responding in a peaceful way?
- Which human rights were at stake in each of the role plays?