A Social Science teacher asked students to make rules for their class. These…

In social science pedagogy, the concept of ‘Democracy’ is built around two defining features: rules and decisions are arrived at through the participation of the people they govern, rather than imposed by a single authority, and those rules hold because people have given their consent to follow them, not because they are compelled to. An activity is used to introduce this concept when it lets students directly experience participatory rule-making and consent, rather than only describing government structures in the abstract.

In this activity, the teacher does not hand down ready-made class rules; the students themselves frame the rules together, and every student consents to abide by them before the rules are pasted up for reference. This is exactly the participation-plus-consent experience used to introduce democratic government at an early stage — the class becomes a small self-governing community that makes and accepts its own rules.

• Diversity is introduced through activities that get students to notice or compare differences among themselves — in language, religion, festivals, or ability. Framing and adopting classroom rules involves no such comparison of backgrounds.

• Marginalisation is introduced through activities that show a group being denied a fair share of participation or resources, often through role-play of unequal access. Drafting shared class rules is not built around unequal access to anything — every student takes part equally.

• Markets are introduced through activities involving buying, selling, bargaining, or the pricing of goods and services. Framing classroom rules involves none of these exchange elements.

Because the activity is built entirely around collective rule-framing and consent to follow those rules, it is best used as an introductory activity for the concept of Democracy.