PallasHohokam Canal Builders of the Salt River Valley 3rd grade · age 8
By Simit Patel · published October 1, 2026
The Hohokam canals could only be built and kept clean if every family in the villages sent workers to dig and repair them, even when a family would rather spend that time on its own field. Should a Hohokam family have been required to send workers to the canals whenever the leaders called for them?
Under what conditions do we owe our work, time, or goods to the larger group we live in?
The Judgment Lab asks: What do we think about that? When we work on the Judgment Lab, our ultimate goal is to articulate our own principles and values in a thoughtful and respectful way.
As you learned in the reading, the Hohokam lived in the hot, dry Sonoran Desert in what is now southern Arizona. Farming there was really hard because there was so little rain. The Hohokam solved this problem by digging canals — long channels that carried water from the Salt River out to their fields. Without those canals, the desert would have been too dry to grow much of anything.
Over time, the Hohokam dug more and more canals using simple tools made from stone and bone. Their canal network stretched for more than eight hundred miles. Building and caring for all of this took a huge amount of work. But because of the canals, the Hohokam grew so much extra food that traders came from far away to trade with them.
Here is the scenario for this Judgment Lab: All of that digging and repairing had to be done by the families who lived in the Hohokam villages. Every family needed water from the canals to grow its own food, but every family also had its own field to take care of. Sometimes the leaders called for workers to dig or fix the canals, and a family might have preferred to spend that time working on its own crops instead. Should a Hohokam family have been required to send workers to the canals whenever the leaders called for them?
The Judgment Lab asks under what conditions we owe our work, time, or goods to the larger group we live in. When we say we "owe" something to the group, that means the group has a right to ask for it and we are expected to give it, even if we would rather not. For example, when grown-ups pay taxes, they give some of their money to the community so it can pay for things like roads and schools that help everyone.
Was it right for Hohokam leaders to make every family send workers to the canals, even when a family would rather have spent that time taking care of its own field?
Follow the steps below to complete this Judgment Lab. By the end of the lab, you will have decided whether you think a Hohokam family should have been required to send workers to the canals whenever the leaders called for them. You will also articulate and test your principles about under what conditions we owe our work, time, or goods to the larger group we live in.
Step one
Generating claims
The Hohokam canals could only be built and kept clean if every family in the villages sent workers to dig and repair them, even when a family would rather spend that time on its own field. Should a Hohokam family have been required to send workers to the canals whenever the leaders called for them?
Yes
No
Step two
Articulating principles and values
Under what conditions do we owe our work, time, or goods to the larger group we live in?
Always, never, or sometimes?
Principles
I think that we owe our work, time, or goods to the larger group we live in when...
Values and beliefs
I think that because I believe that...
Step three
Testing principles on a new case
Barn Raising in Early America
In the 1700s and 1800s, many families in America lived on farms far apart from one another. A family needed a barn to keep its animals warm in winter and to store hay and grain. But one family could not lift the huge wooden beams of a barn all by itself. The beams were so heavy that it took many pairs of hands at the same time to raise them up.
So neighbors came up with a plan called a barn raising. When one family needed a barn, word went out and everybody came — men, women, and children. The men lifted and hammered the big wooden frames. The women cooked huge meals and the children carried tools and water. In one day, a barn that would have taken one family a whole year could be finished.
Nobody was paid, and no leader ordered anyone to come. People came because they knew that someday their own family would need a barn, or a roof fixed, or help bringing in the harvest before a storm. A family that never showed up to help its neighbors might find that no one showed up for them either. But no one was punished, and a family could stay home if it wanted to.
Apply your principle to the new case
According to your general principle, should a farm family have been required to come help raise a neighbor's barn? Why or why not?
From Hohokam Canal Builders of the Salt River Valley, a 3rd grade history lesson on Pallas.