IFM-SEI

Tool "Piece of Cake"

Language: English

Project Featuring This Tool: Rainbow Resources

Time	30-45 minutes
Approximate number of participants	10-25
Age	under 10, 10-15
Date published	9 Dec 2011, 15:03

Objectives

To explain the concept of equality, including equality of opportunity, equality of process and equality of outcome

To encourage the children to think about how resources can be divided

To explore measures that could be taken to increase equality

Materials

Two small round cakes for cutting (no single cake should be enough for everyone to have a good-sized piece). If possible, choose fancy cakes, so they are special to the children.
A blunt knife
Flipchart paper and marker

Setting

Write the different equality definitions on a piece of flipchart paper

Step-by-step instructions

1. Get out a cake during a moment in an activity and say that people can help themselves. This is best achieved when not all people are present, for example during a break when some people are out of the seminar room. Make sure that the cake is too small for everyone to have a piece. Let people have as much as they want without regulation. The effect is also much stronger if people are a bit hungry and have not just eaten.

2. Bring the whole group together and explain that some people have had cake and others have not, but that everyone had the opportunity to have as much cake as they wanted. Ask the following questions:

Did everyone know about the cake?

Did everyone get what they wanted?

Was just letting you take as much as you could the fairest way to distribute the cake?

3. Explain that this cake was divided by the ‘equality of opportunity’. No one was prevented from taking cake; everyone had the opportunity to help themselves.

4. Present another cake and say that you are going to divide the cake up equally for everyone in the room. Just before you start cutting the cake, ask:

Is it fair that those who have already had cake have another slice?

What is a fair way to divide the cake when some people have already had something?

5. Explain that if you give everyone an equal slice of the second cake, not thinking about what people have had before, then this is ‘equality of process’ that gives everyone an equal amount of cake but doesn’t think about where people started.

6. The group should now think of an alternative way of distributing the cake. If the amount of cake varies depending on what people have had before, explain that this is the ‘equality of outcome’, which makes sure everyone receives the same depending on the needs and starting point of everyone. Distribute the second cake.

7. Sit the group in a circle. Explain again the different kinds of equality (write the different concepts on a flipchart):

Equality of opportunity: this gives everyone the same opportunity but doesn’t look at where people started, where people end up or the process (cake left in the room, people took what they wanted).

Equality of process: this gives everyone the same, without consideration of where people started. This means the outcome might not be equal distribution (dividing the second cake equally, even though some have already had cake).

Equality of outcome and need: this makes sure that everyone has the same outcome depending on the need and starting point of everyone (deciding how much cake each person gets based on what they had before).

Debriefing

What kind of equality is fairer?

Where do you see the different forms of equality in real life?

Can you think of another system that would be fairer?

Do you know examples of distribution of resources from school or the wider world that you think are unfair or fair?

Tips

While this exercise may touch on correctional measures (such as ‘positive discrimination’), it is often counterproductive to introduce these terms. Instead try to encourage the children to use their own terms and don’t just replicate debates in wider society before the concepts themselves have been explored.

Attached files

• Piece of Cake (787.08kB)