Can’t Wait to Have Students Read This
There’s an interesting op-ed in Thursday’s New York Times, “Why China’s Political Model Is Superior.” The author Eric X. Li, makes some claims in it that are beyond radical from an American perspective:
In the history of human governance, spanning thousands of years, there have been two major experiments in democracy. The first was Athens, which lasted a century and a half; the second is the modern West. If one defines democracy as one citizen one vote, American democracy is only 92 years old. In practice it is only 47 years old, if one begins counting after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — far more ephemeral than all but a handful of China’s dynasties.
3 Ways to Honor Martin Luther King, Jr.
Have Your Students Participate in the Manning Marable “Along the Color Line” Speech Contest
While there is more to the contest than just writing about King, one of the suggested lessons focuses on King’s legacy, and Dr. Marable’s view of it. The King lesson is here, and full contest information and suggested lesson plans are here.
Remember King’s Reality
Last Martin Luther King Day, I wrote about four lessons students, and their teachers, can learn about Dr. King that challenge common misconceptions about his life and work:
- Sometimes, history happens by accident
- King dreamed of a whole lot more than white and black boys and girls joining hands
- King fought against terrorists
- King was a human being, with flaws
Teaching World-Changers: Lessons From the Civil Rights Movement
Seven years ago I fell in love with two wonderful woman named Bernice Robinson and Septima Clark, who founded the Citizenship Education Program, the little known backbone of the Civil Rights Movement. Without these two, I am certain we would not be celebrating Martin Luther King Day this Monday. We in education have much to learn from them:
The primary goal of the Citizenship Education Program was to teach and develop first-class citizens. And every aspect of the program was grounded in this goal—from teacher training sessions to day-to-day practices to the rhetoric of staff correspondence. Dozens of adult literacy programs had targeted African-Americans in the South—but none were as successful as the CEP, because too many narrowly focused on the skill of literacy, rather than its application in citizenship.
In my opinion, we have made a similar mistake with skill-based competency testing under No Child Left Behind. A curriculum and testing regimen that only focuses on skill development outside of meaningful and relevant application cannot prepare students and communities for 21st-century success. I hope that with the implementation of the Common Core standards, we will not make the same mistake again. As teachers, we need to develop a clear sense of our own purpose—and make every effort to ensure that how we teach each day aligns with that purpose.
Read the rest at Education Week Teacher. It’s an honor to share part of their story.
Democracy in Action: Following Up on My Students’ Questions
(This is a long overdue follow-up post)
A few weeks ago, my students left me with a wonderful problem: they generated so many great questions leading to larger inquiry, that we had to narrow down the list in some way. I must admit, when I came to school that Wednesday morning, I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do, so I took a chance. I gave my students the entire list of questions, and told them they had 30 minutes to democratically choose five of them that would help us answer our unit essential questions: “How democratic is the US?” and “Does my vote count?” I held an election for a facilitator, told students they first had to decide how they would go about making the decision, and then sat down and took notes on their process. What followed in each section captured the American political process in all its flawed messiness.
First Period
This class held no discussion of how to make their decision. The facilitator started by asking everyone which of the categories (that I had rather arbitrarily created) they were most interested in. At one point, the facilitator said, “I think we should take 2 questions from each category with more than 4 votes.” Another student responded, “that doesn’t make sense, we’ll have too many questions,” but the discussion about how to go from there ignored the complaint. The class was much more focused on their objective rather than discussion how to create a better process, much like the American electoral system, where we still vote on Tuesday for antiquated reasons. The conversation also showed just how much ballot construction can influence the results of a vote.
At another point, one student took on the role of the media, encouraging people to continue arguing for his entertainment. When a student lost a vote, she said “I feel like this classroom is not a democracy.” The facilitator asked her, “What would you like to change?” But the instigator then shouted “Fight fight fight fight!” distracting everyone from the base issue that was raised. The process of deciding continued without any discussion of how to create a better process.
Second Period
Much like first period, there was no discussion of process. The facilitator on her own decided to go question by question asking for yes or no votes. People were voting on their interest levels. At one point, a student reminded the class “We need 5 questions to answer these [essential] questions [on the board].” Her comment was ignored, much like how in American democracy, we rarely focus on big picture and long-term, but rather on the issues right in front of us.
About 15 minutes into the process, one student noticed “No one’s even voting!” Nonetheless, the voting continued. Five minutes later, another student berated the class, “Can everyone participate, because you are going to start complaining about our decisions?” Despite the complaint, no further effort was made to include other’s voices.
Third Period
Much like the earlier periods, the facilitator decided how to proceed on her own without discussing with the class. She too went category by category, and then had students vote for one question within each category.
In the end, these were the questions students chose:
First Period
- Where is the government when Black Friday events happened?
- Why is pepper spray legal when police use it?
- If people are allowed to protest, why do police attack protesters for protesting?
- Can we manage to have safer Black Fridays?
- How do we eliminate poverty without becoming Communist?
Second Period
- What makes the US democratic?
- Can my vote get canceled out?
- What limitations do voters face?
- Is there a way to make our country more democratic?
- What would the US economy be with a Communist government?
Third Period
- Why is it okay for shoppers to campout out and not for protesters?
- How are citizens affected by police decisions?
- Why hasn’t there been another form of government in the US?
- How much power should one person have in the government?
- What would you want to pursue other than a capitalist lifestyle?
The questions about communism and capitalism were tabled until our second semester economics course. The remaining closed questions were discussed in class the following days, which eventually led all three classes to questions about the influence of money in politics, which we have been examining for the past two weeks.
Some Amazing Questions: Follow up on Black Friday Lesson
I had great conversations that carried into today after the Black Friday lesson I did with them yesterday. We spent the second half of today using the Right Question Institute’s Question Formulation Technique to move further with deeper inquiry into the issues raised by this lesson and to help us answer our essential questions for the unit: How democratic is the US? & Does my vote count?
My students came up with some incredible questions, which means I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed with even beginning to think about how to move forward. I’m leaning towards letting them make that decision (democratically) tomorrow. Here are their questions, which I’ve categorized.
Questions about Democracy
- How democratic does the government consider itself?
- What makes something democratic?
- Is democratic being liberal or conservative?
- If we have democracy do we have to be socialists?
- What makes the US democratic?
- If our government is capitalist, how can we expect the government to be democratically successful?
- Can the US be democratic without a capitalistic system?
Questions about Voting
- Why would a democracy want an electoral college?
- How much of the 99% votes?
- Can my vote get canceled out?
- Are certain votes rules out?
- What happens when we can’t decide with votes?
- What limitations do voters face?
- Should the US give workers a voice?
- Do only rich people’s votes count?
- Who is in charge of making votes count?
- Whose vote really counts?
- Does the rich vote count more?
- Does age matter when talking about voting?
- How does capitalism play into voting?
- What are the demographics of voters?
- How does the voting system work?
- Does the youth vote actually count?
- Do you think at the age of 18 you are capable of making decisions that can effect the US?
- Why would the people that usually don’t vote be motivated to vote?
- Do you think when our generation votes our type of government will change?
Questions about how the Government Works
- Where is the government when these events happen?
- How is the government run through parties?
- Is the country more liberal or conservative?
- Who declares if the country is Republican or Democratic?
- Should a state be labeled Democratic or Republican?
- How can a president change his political views during his presidency?
- How does the democratic government work in the US?
- How much power should one person have in a government?
Questions about History
- Was it necessary for capitalism or democracy to come first for the second one to happen?
- Does capitalism cause democracy?
- What was the first type of government the US had?
Questions about Laws
- Why is pepper spray legal when police use it?
- Why didn’t the government get involved with the aggressive shoppers?
- Why is it okay for shoppers to camp out and not for protesters?
- Why is it okay for cops to pepper spray people in NY if pepper spray is illegal?
- What laws are they making?
Questions about the Police
- If people are allowed to protest, why do police attack protesters for protesting?
- Should police officers think about the rights of others?
- How are citizens affected by police decisions?
- Why do you think cops think they can do whatever they want?
- Why did cops think it was right to pepper spray innocent protestors?
Questions about Values
- Why is violence accepted during shopping by non-violent protesters are arrested for being democratic?
- Why are they worried about safety when it comes to protesting but every year a person gets hurt during Black Friday sales and they don’t stop that?
- How do the conflicts between capitalism and democracy affect the nation?
- How can we balance the ideals of democracy and capitalism?
- What brings more conflict to the US, capitalism or democracy?
General Questions
- Do the majority fully agree?
- Is “the younger you are, the less you know” really true?
- Can we manage to have safer Black Fridays?
Questions about Economics
- Why is it better for business to be privatized?
- What would the US economy be with a Communist government?
- What would you want to pursue other than a capitalist lifestyle?
- What does how much we pay people show the values of our society?
- How do we eliminate poverty without becoming communist?
Question Comparing to Other Places
- Do you think Democracy here is different from anywhere?
- Do you think capitalism is different anywhere else except New York?
- Why hasn’t there been another form of government?
- Which countries are democratic?
- What are the other practices of other democratic countries?
- Is there a way to make our country more democratic?
Resources I’m Using to Talk About Black Friday Violence
My lesson on Monday will ask students to think about the values of capitalism and democracy through the lens of looking at Black Friday and UC Davis violence. I hope some of the resources will be helpful to others.
Do Now: What is the message that the creator of this image is trying to communicate? What is your reaction to it? (4 minutes)
Ask students to turn to the person next to them and share what they wrote. Then, ask for three volunteers to share what their partner had to say. (6 minutes)