Of course, Delphi works this out too and Miletus, realising his mistake, changes his idea. He states this time that ‘Fair is when every person is treated as they deserve to be treated.’ Again, I asked the class their opinions and whether this would work in practise. Here’s what happened:

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Firstly, quite a lot of children agreed this was more accurate than the previous definition. Some of them were happily writing down suggestions like if a baby was to hit someone, they wouldn’t be punished in the same way as someone older would be. Conversations and discussions were getting stronger within the room and there was definitely a buzz of debate present. At one point I had to intervene when two boys, who were passionately arguing for separate sides, were starting to get louder and louder in their discussion! (They shook hands and agreed to disagree with one another!)

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When it came to sharing as a class, this was a real highlight. The children seemed to take on ownership for the debate themselves, with lots directly replying to other children’s ideas and challenging them with further questions like Delphi was doing with Miletus in the story. There was so much discussion and so many different scenarios brought up that I couldn’t possibly write it down. One girl’s argument did stand out for me though in response to this second definition. She thought that Miletus’ second version was just the same as the first version. She argued that first of all, it was difficult to know what people deserved and so as a result, people would be treated the same. Saying that people are treated by what they deserve, is still treating them the same. She had applied her logic and critical thinking and had judged this argument to be as flawed as the first.

She wasn’t the only one either. Delphi isn’t satisfied either and ‘helps’ Miletus to think of the final definition. This time it said: “Fair is knowing how to treat people.”

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So we went through the same routine again, did this argument work? Quite a lot of children felt this was the most accurate definition so far. One said, “I agree because if you didn’t know how to treat people then you might treat them badly.” Another said, “I agree because if you know how you want to be treated then that’s how you would treat people and that is fair.” There were still quite a few who disagreed however. Lots asked the question: “How do you know how to treat people?” In response to this, a child argued that it comes down to education and that’s why a baby, who hasn’t had an education, wouldn’t be punished in the same way as a child would be if they did something unfair to someone else. I was quite interested to read another child’s response, however, who was beginning to think about animals in their answer. He wrote down, “this is not always true because how would you treat things like animals?”