Adapted from Go-Givers: www.gogivers.

org
Most people are free to make choices, for
example:

• What kind of work we do

• Where we live
• Where we travel
• How we get there
• Who our friends are
• What we eat
• How we decorate our homes.
However, the amount of freedom we
have to make choices is limited by our
responsibilities to others.
For example when we go out into
the playground there are places
where we are not allowed to tear
about or kick a football. If we
did, younger children might get
hurt, or we would deny the
pleasure of children who want to
play quieter games.
Children who break the playground rules are
using their rights to choose, but are
forgetting their responsibilities to others.
 The wider world works in much
the same way.

When a group of people or a nation becomes

too self-centred and greedy, it may impose
its will on another, ignoring the other’s
rights. At its worst we call this war or civil
war.
If a group of people is overpowered
they experience a loss of freedom. Just
like children in a playground dominated
by bullies, their movement becomes
restricted, and their choices more
limited.

When people are completely deprived of

choice we call it slavery.
Have you ever had your freedom
taken away, even for a short time?
How did it make you feel?
Can you begin to imagine how it might
feel to have your freedom taken away
completely – perhaps for ever?
 Glossary
Dominate – control, take over

Deprive – take away, leave without

Restrict – limit

Limit – boundary, edge

Civil war – war between two groups within

the same country