dcf.cymru stimulus sheet · RE · Year 8
The teachings in Part 1 are real; translations vary slightly from book to book. Every name in Part 2 is invented. Nobody is being described.
Print one sheet per pair. No computers or phones needed. If a pupil says “this happened to me”, do not take details in front of the class — take their name and pass it to the class teacher or the safeguarding lead the same day.
The “Golden Rule” is the idea that you should treat other people the way you would want to be treated. It appears, in different words, in almost every religion and in non-religious worldviews too.
| Tradition | Teaching | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Christianity | “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” | Jesus, in the Bible: Matthew 7:12 |
| Judaism | “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. That is the whole Torah; the rest is explanation. Go and learn it.” | Rabbi Hillel, in the Talmud: Shabbat 31a |
| Islam | “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” | A hadith (saying of the Prophet Muhammad), collected by al-Bukhari and Muslim |
| Hinduism | “One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self. This, in brief, is the rule of dharma.” | The Mahabharata: Anushasana Parva 113.8 |
| Buddhism | “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” | The Udanavarga 5:18 |
| Sikhism | “No one is my enemy, and no one is a stranger. I get along with everyone.” | Guru Arjan, in the Guru Granth Sahib, page 1299 |
| Humanism (non-religious) | “Treat other people as you’d want to be treated in their situation.” | Humanists UK, Understanding Humanism |
The criticism: other people do not always like the same things as you. If you treat them exactly as you would like to be treated, you might get it wrong.
A humanist reply: think about how they would like to be treated, with their feelings and wishes. Humanists UK gives this example: “I should not buy my friend salt and vinegar crisps because I like salt and vinegar crisps. I should buy her whichever flavour of crisps she likes.”
Six friends set up a new group chat to plan a birthday trip to the cinema. It is called “no Ffion”. Ffion is usually part of the group. Someone writes: “don’t tell her lol”. You have been added.
Someone has cut Tomos’s face out of the class photo, stuck it on a cartoon pig, and posted it in the Year 8 chat. There are already thirty laughing faces under it. Tomos is not in that chat and has not seen it yet.
You are playing an online team game. One player on your team, @PixelPanda, keeps getting knocked out. Two of your teammates start typing insults at them in the chat, and they are getting nastier. You have never met any of them.
Amira posts that she is fasting for Ramadan and finding PE hard. Someone replies with a “joke” mocking her religion. It gets eleven likes, including one from someone in your form.
Dylan’s family runs a café in town. After Dylan and another pupil fall out, people in your year start posting one-star reviews of the café online “as a joke”. None of them have ever eaten there. Someone sends you the link: “your turn”.
A friend sends you a screenshot of a private message in which another pupil, Jac, says who he has a crush on. Your friend writes: “send this on, it’s hilarious”.