Did you hear about this book last year? I can't think of a more analytical examination of the lack of compromise and polarized, partisan politics than this book. While I don't ask my kids to know about it in detail, we do spend a brief time examining the basic concepts. But in order to do that, I have to do some ground work. 1. What are we all expected to do? as citizens? We start by reading an excerpt from Robert Bellah's Habits of the Heart. The kids really get thrown for a loop on this one, because it seems so out of place. He is a sociologist, and talks about the importance of civic life and private life. He uses lexicon from old westerns to prove his point; I turn to Bruce Wayne from the Batman series. BW: hyper private, but connected to the community. All of this spirals back to selflessness vs selfishness... a keystone point in the excerpt. We started asking what we need to do all of these things, and came up with five themes.
They are needed for society and the economy to function. So, which is the most at risk? Well, in this scenario, it's compromise. Students watched a short video on PBS that explains the work in broad strokes, but here is a more detailed interview. You have to explain some of the history, like Obamacare's link to the Republican party in 1993 and the filibuster of today... but they get it. Here are some great questions to sum up their experience... Do you think that the government of today is fulfilling the promise of the Preamble; the stated purpose of the government? It is well accepted that the government should provide for societal equality (race, religion, gender), however, is it the role of the government to provide economic equality?
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Look around at the news today... Syria, Egypt, North Korea, Iran, Russia... all of these countries have different ways to solve an age problem... How to divy up resources and social freedom. Okay, they do it drastically different than we do.
So, how to describe this? We have to go back to the informationisbeautiful graphic. Notice how it is really incomplete in differentiating between economic versus social policy? Yeah, that's 'cause here in 'Merica, we are all pretty similar. That means we are a consensual state. We have these bundles of rights in the Bill of Rights that establishes a pretty even playing ground, at least in theory. Other states like the five up top are a bit more conflictual, meaning they argue about social and economic equality. I draw this up by analyzing the material at politicalcompass.org, which I usually summarize with a whiteboard presentation. (Remember, I hate powerpoints.) That way I can condense the matieral, and move on my way. We then spend time looking at answers to the questions of who participates, distribution of power geographically, and finally the relationship between executive and legislative branches. We spend a second talking about the origin of the state theories, and then off we go! It's art project time! Students work in teams to create fictional countries that explain how their country came to pass in relation to all these lovely choices. Pictures to come!! :) Day one is fun. It reminds me of that Key & Peele substitute teacher skit. "A-A-Ron?" I would, one day, love to purposefully mispronounce all the names. But I digress. First day is rough. You gotta cover logistics, but you don't want to bore the kids to death. I change our opening "warmup" every year, looking for that one golden goose. Besides the logistics, I love to pose the essential question to my kids. "Why do we need to take government." Oh, the answers are great. So much fun. "So you have a paycheck." "To torture me." "I was hoping you would tell me." When you ask them what it is, they answer names. Obama, Boehner, Pelosi, McCain. Wait, kids. We live in a dictatorship? An oligarchy? No, it's a bit more than that. It's an institution, no? We don't name names in the preamble, we name offices. We spend time analyzing this little video... People on the Street And then we cycle back to my favorite document... by my favorite ginger, and (some people say our favorite plagarist), TJ. LIFE LIBERTY PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS (here is why he's not a plagarist... he changed it to PoH from property. Why? Cause not everyone is stoked by owning. It's usually our ability to own; the chase and not the catch. Here is why government is important to us. It is to do all this. So we can do these essential things that you... I... don't think about. |
Jen's bookshelf: nerdcation
I want to start by thanking Mr. Snowden and Mr. Greenwald for their uncompromising dedication to giving the NSA violations air time and transparency.
I wanted to share some of the most important things I have learned from this book bef...
tagged:
nerdcation
tagged:
nerdcation and to-read
tagged:
nerdcation and to-read
tagged:
nerdcation and to-read
AuthorI lovgov. LOVE IT! I love teaching government, learning about it, debating, discussing, asking questions about government. And not the standard boiler plate questions, but the hard ones that are NOT in the books. Archives
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