This week, an oracy activity exploring the concept of “dibs” – the peculiar term often shouted if someone wants to lay claim to something without evidence of official ownership. It feels interchangable with the phrases “shotgun” or “bagsy” too – maybe you have a local variation?
It tends to get used when there’s ambiguity over who can get something limited and desirable – whether that be something trivial like the last slice of cake, or more serious matters like ownership of land. Calling dibs only seems to apply when you really want the thing for yourself. If you’re happy to give the thing up to someone else, the peril disappears!
“Dibs” is an interesting example of what the philosopher J. L. Austin called a “speech act” – something where the words used don’t just say something, they do something, for example making a promise, sentencing a prisoner, apologising.
Which of these is it fair to claim by declaring “dibs”? And which should be decided some other way?
Choose any from the varied list below to start a discussion.
-The backseats on the school bus?
-The top bunk?
-The front seat in the car?
-The first choice of monopoly piece?
-The last slice of cake?
-A role in a play?
-A role in an imaginative game?
-Choosing a film?
-Naming rights of a new family pet?
-The first go on the trampoline?
-A baby name among friends or siblings?
-An undiscovered forest?
-The moon?
Get the students to come up with proposals – some are likely to be along the lines of oldest / asks first / gets there first and more imaginative ones too – and let them vote once you’ve got three or four. We’ve left these broad so you can invent a backstory if you need to.
These may feel a bit surface-level, similar to “Would You Rathers”, but like Would You Rathers, they have what our longtime colleague and friend Steve Williams calls “Questions in Waiting” – deeper questions that bring other concepts into play. At the heart of any discussion about dibs are questions of fairness, merit, speed, age and reward, and will often bring these into conflict with one another by asking for the most reasonable reason for staking a claim. Here are some examples:
-What makes a situation one for which “dibs” is a fair way to decide?
-Could dibs be unfair to some people?
-What ways of deciding who gets something would be fairer than dibs?
-What ways of deciding who gets something would be less fair than dibs?
-What decides whether a method of deciding who gets what is fair?
Thanks to Katie Campbell and Amanda McLachlan for helping create the list using examples from family life!
“Negative Dibs”
There’s also a form of dibs which can be invoked as a claim to avoid something unpleasant. “Shotgun not!” was the phrase shouted when I was at school. To explore this further, present a generally-unpleasant chore and ask for suggestions of what’s reasonable grounds to NOT have to do it.
Further idea
You could reverse the activity above and ask for situations when shouting “Dibs/shotgun” gives you right to something.
If you like this..
Have a look at this dialogue Jason wrote many moons ago on the ethics of buying your way out of doing chores.
Or this one we wrote in 2019 asking “What makes a good excuse?”
What’s On in the Philosoverse?
Jason has just returned from China and the most technically ambitious training we’ve done so far – an oracy keynote for the YCYW network of schools with 200 people in the room and over 1200 from 14 schools joining remotely. Jason will be heading back to China in the autumn so do get in touch if your school is in China, SE Asia or Oceania and would like to be part of the itinerary.
Last week, Tom ran a two-hour oracy workshop for the Essex Primary Heads’ Association, this time for teachers of RSE and PSHE, described by one attendee as the best CPD session he’d ever had. If you’re part of an association, cluster or network and think our oracy training would help, just get in touch via our website or by replying directly to this email.