What is a saint?
Stimulus: The Sheep Thieves
Once upon a time there were two sheep thieves who regularly stole from the townspeople. One day they are caught, and the punishment for steeling sheep in this town is to be branded with a hot branding iron. An ‘S’ and a ‘T’ are seared across the foreheads of the sheep thieves so wherever they go everyone will know what they are. One of the two men decides to leave the town and begin a new life while the other stays in the town. The sheep thief who stays in the town continues to be treated like a thief, and continues to behave like one. In the new town the people don’t know what the ‘S’ and the ‘T’ stand for but they decide that it must mean ‘saint’. They begin to treat the man like a saint and he begins to behave like one.
Task Questions:
- Has the Sheep Thief really become a saint?
- Can a criminal become a saint?
Nested questions:
- Do saints really exist?
- What is a saint?
- Is it possible to behave like a saint?
- Can you be like a saint?
Stimulus for KS2/3
Ages 10-14
A] You walk into a shop and there is no one around. It would be very easy to take something and there are some ipods on the shelf.
B] You buy something in a shop and the shop keeper makes a mistake in giving you your change: he gives you a £20 note instead of a £5 note.
Task questions:
- What would a normal person do?
- What would you do?
- What would a saint do?
Nested questions:
- When making a choice or decision ask yourself this question: what would the best kind of person do?
- Who is the best kind of person?
- Why do we not always act like the best kind of person?
Teaching Strategy
Remember: try not to moralise! When doing Enquiry sessions, but particularly sessions to do with morality, it is extremely important to resist the temptation to moralise. This is not to say that there is no place for moralising in teaching but that it should be avoided during Enquriy sessions. It provides a much greater and more effective challenge to children’s behaviour and motives to require them to provide reasons for their views on moral behaviour and for them to challenge each other. It is important, however, that they do not feel that they might be ‘caught out’ or condemned for their ideas. If the children detect that there might be a particular answer that the teacher expects of them then the session may become unduly influenced by this perceived answer.
