How much power do the people have?
In response to this question, we have been working hard to create a totem pole of power, showing where the Ancient Greeks stood in terms of power and importance. We looked at different types of government in the City states: Monarchy moving to Oligarchy leading to Democracy, in Athens. After this, we had a better understanding of how time has improved for certain groups of people. The girls have been particularly vocal in their opinions.
As a class, we jotted down as many different types of people as we could think of. Then, each child drew their type of person at random. We worked hard to try and find out how people fitted into the city state structure- gathering information that might help. We discovered, that even in Sparta, where women were able to own property and were better educated, women were not regarded as citizens . Consequently, in Athens, with the first ever democracy, women, slaves and men born outside Athens were not allowed to vote or have a say in how their city state was run. If you were disabled and born in Sparta, the likelihood would be that you would be left on the mountainside to die. How far times have come, and how lucky we are now that we have so many opportunities to succeed, regardless of gender, race, ability or wealth.