Beginning Responsibility: Rules Are For Gorillas Too (2nd Ed, 1983)

[Music] Imagine you were a wild animal, a gorilla for instance, and you lived in a zoo. And imagine that one day you decided to open some locks and escape for a while. Say you disguised yourself as a person so no one would notice you. But if you were a gorilla trying to be a person, you might not notice some things that people do pay a lot of attention to. Rules. You might not notice that there are rules all around for adults as well as children. For instance, some doors have signs telling people they can go in them but not out. And signs on other doors tell people they can go out but not in. And other signs announce other things. All rules. But if you looked around further, you'd see people following rules even without signs. For instance, you might see a man looking both ways before he crosses a street. He'd be following a safety rule. Of course, if you didn't know that rule, you wouldn't do it, and you might be sorry. [Music] Looking both ways before you cross a street is a safety rule you'd learn fast. But if you looked around, you'd find a lot of safety rules. Danger, do not enter. That tells you to stay out for your own good. What if you decided to go to school? Would you discover safety rules there, too? You sure would. No ball playing. That's for safety. And so is the rule about throwing litter in trash cans. No one wants to look at litter everywhere, of course. But even more important, as you might find out, things thrown on the ground can be dangerous. But not all rules are for safety. Suppose you were sitting in class and the teacher asked a question. What is this plant? And suppose you just said an answer out loud. Tommy, a cactus. That's right. If you were a gorilla, it might take you a minute to figure out what you did wrong and what the rule was. And where does a cactus grow? But then you might notice that people who wanted to talk raised their hands and that they only talk when they're called on. That that's the rule. Bridget in the desert. And finally, if you thought about the reason for the rule, it would be easy to see. If people raise their hands to get called on to speak, then everyone gets an equal chance. It's a rule that helps make things fair for everyone, even for gorillas who are trying to be people. Are there other rules that help make things fair? Imagine everybody in your class was lined up to get art supplies and you tried to cut into line. It wouldn't take you long to find out that there's a rule against that. And it wouldn't take you long to see the reason. If everybody goes through the line, everybody gets treated equally and fairly. At recess, you'd see people using rules to do something else to play games. But what would games be like if they didn't have rules? How would you play hopscotch, for instance, if it didn't have any rules? Or tag? or kickball. If there were no rules, how would you know what to do? It's easy to see that games have to have rules to tell us how to play them. But what would happen if one person didn't know the rules or decided not to follow them? One of the rules of rope jumping is that everyone takes turns. What would happen if you didn't know about taking turns? If you just started jumping, the game would be ruined and nobody would have any fun. But instead, what if you learned the rules and followed [Music] them? Then the game would work and everybody could have a good time. Since sports are a kind of game, the same is true for them. Baseball, handball, volleyball, basketball, track, they all have rules. And if one person doesn't follow the rules, that spoils the game for everybody. Suppose you decided to play checkers with someone. And suppose you tried to move your checkers in all sorts of ways. Could you? Not if you wanted to play the game correctly. The rules would tell you what you can't do. But then how would you know what you could do? The answer is the rules. Rules also tell you what you can do. Is it okay to walk? This sign tells us that it is. Sometimes rules are different in different places. This place allows skateboarding. But does this place? The rule says no. Suppose you went to somebody's house after school and you both were allowed to spend the afternoon playing. Then suppose the next afternoon you went home with someone else. Would the same thing happen? You might find a different rule. In that home, for instance, you might have to do your homework first. Sometimes it all seems a little confusing. There are rules for this and rules for that. Rules in one place and different rules in another. Where do all these rules come from? The answer, of course, is that people make them. The grass doesn't grow here very well. That's a problem. When people see a problem, they try to make a rule that will solve it to make things work better. But it isn't only adults who do this. Imagine you were a pitcher in a ball game, but you didn't know how to pitch. Do something. Get rid of the ball. [Music] Oh no. The other players might think it's necessary to add a rule. [Music] don't think is a good one. For instance, imagine you knew about a perfect place to play ball on Saturdays. But suppose there was a rule that said no ball playing. Instead of just playing ball there anyway, you could go to the person who made the rule and you could talk about it. It's possible you could get the rule changed. And sometimes you might want to make up a whole set of new rules where there weren't any. Imagine that your baseball team won a field trip to the zoo. You could probably suggest rules to help make the trip safe and enjoyable for everyone. Here are some possibilities. Stay together. Don't push. Be courteous and uh be nice to the gorillas. If you finally got tired of being a person, maybe you'd want to stay in the zoo. Gorillas are gorillas, after all. By now, you would have learned a lot about rules. You would have learned that rules help make things work better. They help keep people safe. They help people get along and they help you play games. Rules tell us things we can do and things we can't. And rules are sometimes different in different places. And most important, you would have learned that rules are made by people, including sometimes by you. And if you learned all this, you would have learned something useful. Everyone has to follow rules, even gorillas. Feeding time. 5:00 is time to eat. That's the rule, you know. And don't forget the rule about bedtime at 7:00. And then there's the rule about getting up at 6:30 for breakfast. And then after that, there's your bath. That's another rule. Then your morning exercise. And remember the rule about your banana break. 15 bananas and a glass of orange juice. And then after that, [Music] [Music]