Learning to Give, Curriculum Division of The LEAGUE

Purpose:

• To provide a physical experience that demonstrates how people are involved in communities.
• To introduce the idea of “holding in trust” through a physical activity.

 

Activity:

1. Musical Chairs Exclusion Style:
   
   Tell the group that participants are going to play a game that is universally learned in grade school. The game is “musical chairs.” Place chairs in a circle with seats to the outside. Start the music. When the music stops, everyone must find a chair. Remove a chair each time before music resumes. The winner is the last person to claim the single remaining chair.

   Processing
   
   Discuss how our communities exclude people. Ask what feelings were experienced when eliminated from the game.

   Discuss how the feelings of people excluded early in the game compare to those who remained longer. How do these feelings represent what happens in our community?

   Talk with the “winner.” How does he or she feel? When does this happens in a community? What can we, as “trustees,” do about excluding certain people in our community?
   
   

2. Musical Chairs Inclusion Style:
   
   Tell the group they are going to play musical chairs again, but this time, instead of excluding people, everyone will be included.

   Arrange chairs in a circle, one for each person. Each time the music stops, remove a chair but everyone stays in the circle and continues to sit. Participants will have to sit on each other. The goal is the least number of chairs available in the circle and still provide a seat for everyone.

   Begin music. Each time the music stops, a chair is taken away but everyone stays in the circle. The group has to work together to get everyone seated. It will get harder and harder as the number of chairs grows smaller and smaller. Continue the activity until the group decides they cannot do it with any fewer chairs. Note: To speed up the activity take more than one chair out at a time.

   Processing

   Discuss how it felt this time.
   
   How were people responding to each other? What was the tone of the group during this version of musical chairs?
   
   How was this feeling of community different from the last feeling of community?

   What made this way work better?
   
   How was the group able to get so many people on so few chairs?
   
   What does this activity tell us about how communities can work?
   
   What might be our role as a trustee to build a community more around keeping people in rather than leaving people out?
   
   

3. No Chairs Musical Chairs:
   
   

   Ask participants to hold hands and form a circle. Drop hands and face to the left and each person is to take one step into the center.

   Participants are asked to keep taking one step in until the group is formed into a very tight, evenly rounded circle.

   Explain that, for this activity to work, each of us must trust the people in front and behind. It will only work if there is trust in one another. It only takes one person to not trust and the whole circle will fall.
   Note: Allow for participants to “pass,” but encourage total participation.

   The facilitator begins count of 1-2-3, and, as the facilitator counts, everyone begins to go down slowly so on the count of three everyone is sitting. The entire circle will be in a “trust sit.” If it does not work, try again. After several tries, if it still does not work, have the group try later. If it works, have the group extend their arms. If the TRUST is there, the trust sit will work.

Variation:

Have the group clap hands over their heads or walk the circle by calling out left foot, right foot (slowly).
Facilitator follows instructions 1 through 3, and adults and youth form circle together and do the trust sit. Next have everyone stand up and ask the adults in the circle to step out, but no one can move closer together. With gaps in the circle, the trust sit does not work. Next have the adults step in and ask the youth to step out. Adults need youth and youth need adults working together to make our communities strong, to have citizens depend on each other and trust each other.

Processing Questions:

1. How were we able to sit without any chairs?
2. Who held you in trust during this activity?
3. Who did you hold in trust during this activity?
4. Who was the most important person/“trustee” in the circle?
5. Without all of us working together, would we have all been able to sit?
6. Would this activity have worked as well with only one or two people such as the winners in the first musical chairs?

Lecturette:

This activity cannot be done with only one or two people, and communities can’t be the best they can be when only a few people are involved. The more people involved the easier it is because the load is shared. The more people offering their gifts and talents, the more support for the needs of the entire community, without anyone being excluded. The circle rep¬resents trusteeship — everyone involved, everyone a trustee.