How to teach the veil of ignorance

Why this matters

Ask a class to write fair school rules and most students write rules that fit their own week. The athlete protects practice time and the student with a job protects the shift, and each rule sounds fair to its author because the author never pictured the student it leaves out. A student can define the veil of ignorance on a quiz and still write rules for themselves, and the teacher has to wait for the essay to find out.

The veil of ignorance and the original position

John Rawls set out his theory of justice, which he called justice as fairness, in his 1971 book A Theory of Justice (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). In the original position, people choose the principles of justice behind a veil of ignorance: no one knows their place in society, class, wealth, race, gender, natural abilities or even their own values (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Ethics Unwrapped at UT Austin puts the reason plainly: "By being ignorant of our circumstances, we can more objectively consider how societies should operate" (Ethics Unwrapped). Rawls argued that people in the original position would choose two principles of justice (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy):

1. Equal basic liberties: everyone has the same claim to basic rights and liberties, such as freedom of speech and liberty of conscience.
2. Fair inequalities: social and economic inequalities must come with positions open to all under fair equality of opportunity, and must be to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged. Rawls called that last part the difference principle.

In the Flint activity, each student writes three school rules (a phone policy, who gets the best lunch period, and who gets parking) and Sparky turns them into a spreadsheet with one row per student. Unlike a worksheet, Sparky reads how the student filled in each row and sends them back to the student their rule leaves worse off, without rewriting the rule.

Sparky gets Jonah to rewrite the rules that only fit him

Jonah ends up changing two of his three rules and explaining which unequal rule is still fair. Every student gets the same activity and the same four student roles, and Sparky's replies depend on the rules and answers each student writes.

Sparky works from Jonah's own rules and sheetSparky sends Jonah back to a row in his sheetA right answer gets a harder question

J

Jonah

Interest: Student council and his part-time jobStarting point: Designs rules that suit students like him

Jonah

1. phones put away during class but ok at lunch and passing periods, and ok in class if your job needs to text you about a shift. 2. best lunch period goes to student council and kids with jobs so we can have meetings or leave early for work. 3. parking goes to seniors first, then anyone who drives to a job after school

Sparky

Here's your spreadsheet, Jonah! For each empty cell, fill in how that student role fares under that rule: "better off", "worse off", or "the same", plus a few words explaining why.

Jonah

ok i filled it in. my rules mostly work for everyone, only the new kid is kinda worse off but they catch up when theyre older

Sparky

You wrote that the student with a disability is "the same" on parking: "they probably get a ride anyway." Imagine you wake up tomorrow as that student. Under your rule, seniors get priority, then job-drivers. Would you agree to that parking rule if you didn't know you'd have a disability?

Jonah

no i wouldnt, i didnt even think about that. new parking rule: spots closest to the door go to anyone who needs them for a disability first, then seniors, then kids who drive to work

Sparky

Now look at the new student row. You said they're "worse off" on lunch but "they can join student council." Is joining student council a realistic option for someone who just started this month?

Jonah

ok no, council elections arent till spring so a new kid cant just join. new lunch rule: best lunch period rotates between grades every quarter so everyone gets it sometime. but kids who leave early for work still get an early lunch pass

Understanding check

Your parking rule still gives seniors priority after disability spots. Rawls said an unequal rule can still be fair if it benefits the least advantaged. Does giving seniors parking priority help anyone who's worse off, or does it mainly reward students who already have seniority?

Rewrote his parking and lunch rules, then told a fair unequal rule from an unfair one

Jonah answered that senior priority is "just tradition", while the early lunch pass helps students who work because their families need the money. Jonah is an example student, and Sparky's replies are shortened.

What Flint did for Jonah

• Sparky turned Jonah's three rules into a spreadsheet with one row per student and his own rules as the column headers.
• When Jonah marked the student who uses a wheelchair "the same" on parking, Sparky sent him back to that row instead of rewriting his rule.
• After Jonah fixed two rules, Sparky asked the difference principle question: does senior parking priority help anyone who is worse off?

A teacher can't do this by hand for 30 students, and Sparky does it in every student's chat.

The activity page shows who still writes rules for themselves

While the class works, Needs attention shows the teacher which student is stuck and on which message. After three or more students submit, activity analytics lists what the class explained well, where students went wrong, and a follow-up to practice next.

Set up the activity for free

Open the veil of ignorance activity in Flint's public library, select Use activity to copy it into a free Flint account, and assign it to a class. Sparky builds each student's spreadsheet inside the chat, so no setting needs to be turned on. Students can type into the cells or describe each row in a message.

For more ethics activities, see Flint for ethics.