The island Utopia

Today we travelled to the Island Utopia!

Utopia is an island in the ocean and it looks like an island many of us dream about. Here are sand beaches, palm trees; the weather is often sunny and warm. On the inner side if the island, we find forests and hills. The island is inhabited. People live in two villages and in a nomad settlement. One village is on the seaside, one on a hill, and the nomad settlement changes place, because its inhabitants are nomads.

Until last month, island Utopia was ruled by King Uto. Before him, his mother had been the Queen of the island, and before her, Uto’s grandfather had been the King. Uto himself did not have children. But he loved to travel and he visited many other islands, small and big, and studied how people lived there. He learned that not all islands have kings. On some islands, the people ruled themselves. It was not easy to understand how they ruled themselves. But King Uto had the impression that they lived well.

As King Uto became old without children, he did not want to choose a successor. In a speech in front of all Utopians, he declared that all Utopians together should be his successors and rule themselves. Soon after his speech, King Uto died. He left the Utopians with a great heritage and an even greater task.

Who is Utopian?

 

How great the task was, the Utopians understood when they needed to decide who should participate in the decisions, which previously were taken by King Uto on his own. King Uto said that the Utopians should decide together and explained the system of elections and votes on other islands. But King Uto did not say who exactly is a Utopian, and thus who is allowed to participate in elections and votes.

The big task of the Utopians 

Who should participate in decisions on Utopia?
If they have different opinions, who should decide what should happen?
Should some of them be allowed to decide about certain things, but not about other things?

The students had to think about these questions and define rules about who is allowed to participate in decisions on island Utopia. They had to determine if there should be different rules for different types of people and for different types of decisions.