1. “Treat others how you want to be treated.”
1. Introduce the chant/clapping game with drum beat (gr. 1/2) or the Golden Rule song
(Gr. 3 and up)
A. Discussion “Why do we need rules? What would happen to the world if we
didn’t have rules?” (make sure everyone shares! Give a consequence)
-Conclusion: Rules protect people, Rules make things easier, (Rules make sure
people get what they need)
B. Mr. Lee say “Not all rules are equally good. Some rules are good. Some rules
are not so good” and “Let’s play a thinking game”
Give students the recess example - ask students “why is it not fair?” -- Why do
girls get when they go outside: fun, exercise, and fresh air.. They got what they
need but boys don’t so it’s not fair.
-Conclusion: being fair is to give people what they need.
C. Another example to help students understand the idea of “fairness”: Let me
tell you a story about a Zoo Keeper (set up the Lamb stuffie and the Lion stuff -
use egg shakers to show different kinds of food - demonstrate people are
different so their needs can be different too so we need to give people what they
need to make it fair, NOT give them the same things e.g. baby vs adult)
INTRODUCE Mr. Lee’s favourite rule: The Golden Rule
Discussion - “Treat others how you want to be treated.” Test: Eyes close, hands up if you
consider yourself selfish? Hands up if you think you can be selfish sometimes?
Priming: the Golden Rule is an amazing reminder because very often we only
think about ourselves and we forget about other people’s needs. When people
stop caring about others, we get lots of problems. That’s why the Golden Rule is
my favourite because it reminds us “to not be selfish!” and be more caring. (e.g.
the sharp pencil vs dull pencil example)
2. -Story time - put yourself in the story: lets say your mom is calling you to come to the
kitchen because she made your favourite healthy snacks (ie some healthy cookies) -
a large one and a small one, which one you would you eat, and why? Share your
thinking with a neighbor
-What if your mom comes to the kitchen first? Would she eat the big one or the small
one, and why? Share your thinking with a neighbor
-Why would she give you the bigger cookie? Discussion.
Debrief: This is because she cares about you. She thinks about you before she thinks
about herself. She thinks about you FIRST. She thinks about what you need. She
thinks about what would make you happy. She thinks about what would be the best for
you. Our parents understand the golden rule.
How often do we think about others? How often do you think about your mom,
dad, friends?
HOW DO WE FOLLOW THE GOLDEN RULE?
Discussion: What’s the first thing we need to do to treat others the way we want to
be treated?
(1) Pay attention to others first
(2) Figure out what they need (empathy)
(3) Give what you can in a nice way.
The last question: do you think about other people first or do you just think about
yoursef?
So… what’s the secret:
a. Think about others first. --- show visual aid and circle “others” and “first”
Conclusion: Tell/show the Long Spoon Parable
3. Chicago Recovery Alliance: ‘long spoons’
allegory cartoons
In late 2013 I was approached by Dan Bigg of Chicago Recovery Alliance. Dan had become a fan of
my work after reading my drugs-themed comics War on Drugs and Rat Park. Since Chicago
Recovery Alliance engages with drug users to encourage safer drug-taking and ‘harm reduction’,
there was a natural fit with the undertones of those two comics.
My brief: the ‘long spoons’ parable
Dan emailed me to see if I could illustrate an allegory for him to use with Chicago Recovery Alliance.
Here is the way Dan described what he imagined.
An angel shows the viewer the difference between heaven and hell. Both images
show a group of people gathered around a round table with a pot of nourishing food
in the center each person holding long spoons sufficient to reach the pot and fill
their spoons.
Hell is this image with the people sweating and struggling to try to fed themselves
with the spoon whose handle’s length is too long to allow them to hold it and get the
food into their mouths…
4. Heaven, the angel shows the person, looks exactly like the first room except the
people are having a great time enjoying the food and interacting over a meal…the
difference is that in heaven the people have learned to feed each other.
Dan Bigg said that he has found this allegory to be the single best way to explain the concept of
‘harm reduction’ to audiences during his 30 years of work in the drug-recovery field. The analogy
shows how people caught in a predicament can help each other, and help themselves.
Attitude and behaviour: making the most of a situation
The difference between the two scenarios is the mindset and behaviour of the people stuck in the
situation. Attitude and co-operation can mean the difference between The Swiss Family Robinson
and Lord of the Flies. This is a theme I regularly return to in my comics.
Although my stock-in-trade is exposing the ways which our society and environment is failing or
crumbling, I always seek the positives of the situations. Can we learn anything from the problems we
created? Starting from the bottom, how can we climb out of the hole?
In the ‘long spoons’ parable, the people can either choose to struggle with their problem alone,
resisting the idea of trying new techniques. Or they can work with others to nourish each other and
transform their social environment.
Visually depicting the ‘long spoons’ analogy
5. For a well-known allegory, with its own Wikipedia article, artwork depicting the parable was hard to
find. Only one website seemed to have artwork of the two scenes featuring the long spoons.
Dan and I worked through several draft versions before we hit upon the final ‘look’. [e.g. 1, 2] The
people in the ‘hell’ scenario became more gaunt and desperate with each revision, and the people in
the ‘heaven’ scenario became friendlier.
People with ‘spoons for arms’? Or people holding long
spoons?
During the drafting process, I once tried imagery where the characters had long ‘spoons for arms’.
[Draft 2] I tried this idea so that the characters would be absolutely forced into starving if they
refused to feed each other. i.e. there would be no way that the characters would be able to re-grip
the spoons closer to the scoop end and feed themselves.
6. Ultimately we rejected this alien-like ‘spoons for arms’ idea and decided to use the conventional
‘long spoons’ interpretation. In this scenario the characters choose to only grip the very ends of the
handle because of their mindset which prevents any lateral-thinking. This mentality is analogous to
those who believe that harm-reduction strategies such as supervised injecting sites, and needle
exchange should never be used to help drug users. These people believe that the only way to
address the ‘drug problem’ is to fight it with escalating drug prohibition laws, and police enforcement.
You know what I think of this flawed approach.
The finished illustrations
