Carroll's Coin Game of Life
Objectives: As a result of
participation in this game and follow-up discussion, students will be able to:
1. state examples of laws that include discriminatory
categories
2. explain how the legal system determines whether such laws
violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
Procedures:
- Tell everyone to stand
up and take out a coin. Those
without coins may borrow one.
- State that the group
will play a game, and to determine a winner, rules reflecting life in
- "
Anyone
holding a penny, (write "penny" on the board) give your coin to
someone next to you, and sit down. Nice try!" Repeat this several
times (each time write on board in a vertical
column the key words) with examples such as. . "ancestry
that is African, Asian or Eastern European," "Hindu, Jewish or
Catholic," "glasses," "women," etc until only one
person remains: a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Then ask the group to
applaud our winner (be sure coins are returned at some point).
- Ask for opinions
(usually unnecessary I for participants are
complaining by now). Someone should say it's "unfair." Ask why.
Response: "Discrimination." Look puzzled and state that although
the rules may discriminate, there are laws that also discriminate
according to these same categories.
- Ask what each of the
rules symbolize (e.g., penny--economic status or
poverty). On the board, to the right of the column of rules (penny, etc.),
make a second vertical column, listing the categories symbolized by the
rules (e.g., religion, sex, physical handicaps, etc.).
- Repeat again,
"Don't we have laws that discriminate in these categories?" Seek
examples (e.g., poverty or economic status: Medicare, taxes, school lunch;
sex: the registration for the military; etc.). Mention that sometimes
there is "benign discrimination" (based on good intentions).
- How does the court
determine whether policies violate the equal protection clause of the 14th
Amendment?- Answer in chart:
