Dear _____,

Here are some thoughts. Of course, you know your group and what you want to target. And I know you can't cover everything you'd like. So just pick and choose. Maybe my ideas will help. E-mail back if I'm on the wrong track or you want more input.

 

Start with general ideas to get them talking:

 

1) What do you like and dislike about this act?

2) Do some of the characters remind you of people you know? In what way?

 

Move into reflection questions:

1. This boy had a bad reputation from the past. Although that shouldn't affect the jury's thinking, does it? What does this tell us about the need to protect our own reputation? (Much of our future, including our ability to get certain jobs or marry a certain person can be affected by what people think of us.)

 

2. One juror decided to disagree with the entire group. What made this hard to do? (Some wanted to make a quick decision and leave. Most already had their minds made up. The outcome looked obvious. Peer pressure.) Peer pressure can be just as bad for adults as for youth. How do you think he resisted? How can we resist?

 

3. Most people are overconfident in their own opinions. Most people think they're smarter than average. But as we see in this script, that can get people in trouble. Often we think we know things for certain that we really don't know. Mark Twain, the author of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, put it something like this, "It's not so much what we don't know that hurts us; it's what we do know that ain't so." What do you think Twain meant by this? How do we see it in the script? (Most of the jurors were absolutely sure that the boy was guilty. Only later did they begin to doubt.)

 

4. How does overconfidence hurt us? (We make up our minds about people too quickly, judging them before we really know them.)

 

5. How can we guard ourselves from making judgments too quickly on people? (Keep an open mind. Ask other's opinions and listen. Be more humble than arrogant.)

 

Action Points

 

It's not easy to change and grow; but if we don't, we might end up just like the men in the jury - hurting others by wrongly judging them. What are some character traits we can work on this week to make us better people?