History https://www.morningsidecenter.org/ en Feminism in 2017 https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/feminism-2017 <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Feminism in 2017</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><h4>To the Teacher:<br> &nbsp;</h4> <p>This activity uses tweets to have students consider some of the events that put feminism on the front burner in 2017 - from the women's march to the #MeToo movement.</p> <p>Consider following up the lesson with discussion of some of the issues raised, especially sexual harassment and abuse. See our lesson on <a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/environments-encourage-harassment-and-how-change-them">Environments that encourage harassment - and how to change them</a>, which builds on the #MeToo sexual harassment awareness campaign.</p> <p><img alt="A protest" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b977647e-3b69-4047-8a75-a467f1c088e7" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/TM%20%26%20Article%20protest%20photo.jpg" width="1266" height="800" loading="lazy"></p> <p><em>Photo: International Women's Day March in LA, 2017, by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyswork/">Molly Adams</a>.&nbsp;</em><br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4>Gathering: Feminism Word Web</h4> <p>Ask students for their associations with the word "feminism" and record their ideas graphically on a web chart. Making webs often stimulates creative thinking. To make one, write a core word, in this case "feminism," in the center of the board or on chart paper and circle it. Student associations with the core word are written so that they radiate out from the center. Draw lines from the associations to the core word to create a web.&nbsp; Related ideas can be grouped.</p> <p>Encourage associations while energy is high. Ask open-ended questions to help prompt responses if the group is slow to engage. As energy tapers off, ask students to read what's on the web and ask some or all of the following debrief questions:</p> <ul> <li>What do you notice about the web?&nbsp;</li> <li>Are there generalizations we can make about what's on the web?&nbsp;</li> <li>Based on the words in this web, can you try to come up with a definition for the word "feminism"?</li> </ul> <p>Share with students that "feminism" was Merriam-Webster's "Word of the Year" for 2017.&nbsp; Merriam-Webster's definition of&nbsp;<em>feminism</em>&nbsp;is: "the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes" and "organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests."&nbsp;</p> <p>Compare and contrast these definitions with those students came up with.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Check Agenda and Objectives</strong></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4><strong>Feminist Timeline 2017</strong></h4> <p>The word <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feminism"><em>feminism</em></a> was a top lookup throughout the year <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-of-the-year-2017-feminism">according to Merriam-Webster</a>, with several spikes that corresponded to various news reports and events. The general rise in lookups tells us that many people were interested in the word; specific spikes give us insight into some of the reasons why.&nbsp; As part of this next activity we'll look at events in 2017 that may have caused some of the spikes Merriam-Webster noted over the course of the year.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Print several sets of <strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/Tweets%20for%20Feminist%20Timeline.pdf">these tweets</a></strong> and put them into envelopes. Provide each small group with an envelope containing a set of tweets and invite them to organize the tweets chronologically and look them over.&nbsp; Then, in their small groups, invite students to discuss:</p> <ul> <li>What do they notice about the 2017 events shared in these tweets?</li> <li>What thoughts and feelings do these tweets bring up? Discuss.</li> <li>Which stories had you heard (about) before?&nbsp; Which stories are new to you?</li> <li>Are there similarities/differences between the stories published more or less widely in the news in 2017?</li> <li>Do students feel there are tweets missing from this time line?&nbsp; If so which?</li> </ul> <p>Provide students with the timeline below (or use the<strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/Feminist%20timeline%20handout.pdf">pdf version</a></strong>) explaining the various events mentioned in the tweets in more detail.&nbsp; Continuing to work in small groups, invite students to pick one or two tweets that resonate with them.&nbsp; Give each student up to a minute and a half to explain why a particular tweet, or two, resonates with them.&nbsp; Next invite students to discuss the following questions:</p> <ul> <li>What else did you learn about the more detailed descriptions of events discussed in this hand out?</li> <li>What do the events highlight about women, feminism and gender?</li> <li>What do the events highlight about other marginalized groups?</li> <li>What do the events highlight about the world beyond the U.S.?</li> </ul> <p>Bring your class together inviting students to share some of the main themes discussed in their small groups (without breaching confidentiality, i.e. sharing people's personal stories without their explicit permission):</p> <ul> <li>What did the discussion in your small groups revolve around?</li> <li>How does all this tie back to feminism?</li> </ul> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4>Closing</h4> <p>What is one wish you have for women, or for the feminist movement, in the coming year?</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4>Feminist Timeline Handout</h4> <p>(Also see <a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/Feminist%20timeline%20handout.pdf">this pdf version</a>.)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>January 21</strong> - Started by a Facebook post and organized in just 11 weeks, the Women's March brought together millions of women and men in cities across the country, and world, to protest gender oppression. While initial organizers of the march were mostly white, the organizing committee was quickly broadened, and women of color both led and participated in the march in huge numbers. Some 500,000 people marched in Washington D.C., where Donald Trump had just been inaugurated - after coming under fire for bragging about his assaults on women. At least 408 marches were reported to have been planned in the U.S. and 168 in 81 other countries. It was the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_protests_in_American_history" title="Largest protests in American history">largest single-day protest in U.S. history</a>.</p> <p><strong>February 6 -</strong>&nbsp; During a debate on the nomination of Jeff Sessions to be attorney general, Senate Majority Leader&nbsp;Mitch McConnell&nbsp; tried to silence Sen.&nbsp;Elizabeth Warren&nbsp;as she read from a letter by civil rights activist Coretta Scott King opposing Sessions' earlier nomination for a federal judgeship. McConnell interrupted Warren, saying: "Senator Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted." The Senate then voted to prevent Warren from speaking on the floor for the remainder of the debate.&nbsp; But McConnell's words set off a social media firestorm, and turned into a feminist rallying cry.</p> <p><strong>March 7</strong> - The day before International Women's Day, a Wall Street firm installed The Fearless Girl sculpture, by Kristen Visbal, to demonstrate the lack of gender diversity and equal pay in the workplace.&nbsp; The little girl statue was placed right in front of the iconic charging bull statue on Wall Street, but the little girl stands up, firm and fearless, to the bull.</p> <p><strong>March 8</strong> - <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/sex-and-solidarity/">American women celebrated International Women's Day</a> with a one-day strike in solidarity with women across the world, including the&nbsp;<em>Ni Una Menos</em>&nbsp;("Not One Less") movement against gender violence in Argentina, as well as Poland's massive grassroots movement against the elimination of abortion rights. In one Virginia school district, so many teachers called in sick that the public schools shut down. Organizers highlighted how, as inequality has grown and the social safety net has shrunk, women have been forced to work longer hours for stagnant or declining wages, while simultaneously taking on a larger burden of care for their families.</p> <p><strong>March 15</strong> - The U.S. women's national hockey team threatened to boycott the world championships due to stalled contract negotiations.&nbsp; Days of meetings ensued with USA Hockey, the governing body of the sport in the U.S.&nbsp; On March 28, after almost a full year of negotiations, the athletes prevailed:&nbsp; The players would be better compensated and USA Hockey committed to advancing girl's and women's hockey through programming, marketing, promotion, and fundraising.</p> <p><strong>May 14 </strong>- For Mother's Day, organizers with Southerners on New Ground, the Movement for Black Lives, Color of Change, and other groups raised more than $250,000 for "<a href="https://www.theroot.com/black-lives-matter-activists-bail-black-women-out-of-ja-1795113708">National Mama's Bail Out Day</a>." The campaign freed at least 30 women in Atlanta, Houston, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and other cities, who were being held in jail before trial (mostly on minor charges) because they could not make bail. The campaign is part of an effort by 25 black-led organizations that wanted to collaborate on bail reform.</p> <p><strong>May 25</strong> - The U.S. Women's National Soccer team, which had been involved in negotiations with U.S. Soccer over equal pay for over a year, moved another step forward as the Senate unanimously approved a non-binding resolution calling on the U.S. Soccer Federation to&nbsp;"immediately end gender pay inequity and to treat all athletes with the respect and dignity those athletes deserve." At the end of March, the team had filed a federal complaint accusing U.S. soccer of wage discrimination.&nbsp; Their argument: The women players earn significantly less money than their male counterparts, despite the fact that they dramatically outperformed the men's national team for years and brought in millions more in revenue.</p> <p><strong>June 2</strong> - <em>Wonder Woman</em>&nbsp;opened to high acclaim in theaters across the country. The female-led and directed film became the highest grossing superhero origin film of all time.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p><strong>June 27 -</strong> Women's rights activists wore red robes and white bonnets based on "The Handmaid's Tale," the 1985 novel and popular Hulu series, to protest proposed cuts to Planned Parenthood. Other <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/us/handmaids-protests-abortion.html">Handmaid's Tale-inspired protests</a> took place in defense of women's reproductive rights across the country.</p> <p><strong>July 27 -</strong>&nbsp; During a House Financial Services Committee hearing, California Rep. Maxine Waters questioned Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on why he hadn't responded to a letter she'd sent about President Trump's financial connections to the Russian government.&nbsp; When Mnuchin evaded the question, Waters repeatedly declared that she was&nbsp;<a href="http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/news/a47004/maxine-waters-reclaiming-my-time/" target="_blank">"reclaiming my time,"</a>&nbsp;a phrase used to reset the clock when people stall during questioning by a House member. Tributes to this tough senior legislator, a black woman, spread across social media.</p> <p><strong>July 31</strong> - Actress&nbsp;Yvette Nicole Brown&nbsp;marked Black Women's Equal Pay Day (which recognizes the additional seven months a black woman, on average, must work to make as much money as a white man does in a year) by posting a tweet about pay inequity:&nbsp; "I found out that as a series regular I was making just a smidge over what a white man was making as a GUEST star," Brown wrote, "Dude was just visiting."</p> <p><strong>August 11</strong> - Esteemed civil rights advocate and law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw's explanation of intersectional feminism went viral.&nbsp; Crenshaw coined the phrase nearly 30 years ago at the University of Chicago when describing the "intersectional experience" as something "greater than the sum of racism and sexism."&nbsp; Intersectional feminism examines the overlapping systems of oppression and discrimination that women face, based not just on gender, but on ethnicity, sexuality, economic background, and a number of other identities.</p> <p><strong>October 5 &amp; 10</strong> - A New York Times article written by Jody Kantor and Megan Twohey revealed sexual harassment allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein dating back to 1990.&nbsp; On October 10, the New Yorker published a story by Ronan Farrow detailing the stories of thirteen women who say that Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them between the 1990s and 2015.</p> <p><strong>October 11 </strong>- The Chicago City Council passed the <a href="https://www.laborandemploymentlawcounsel.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/224/2017/10/SO2017-3260.pdf">Hotel Workers Sexual Harassment Ordinance</a>, which requires hotels to develop anti sexual harassment policies and provide employees who work alone in hotel rooms with panic buttons. The law was passed after Chicago hotel workers came together for a "Hands Off Pants On" campaign earlier in the year, to help protect Chicago hospitality workers from sexual harassment and assault.&nbsp; A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.handsoffpantson.org/wp-content/uploads/HandsOffReportWeb.pdf">union survey in Chicago&nbsp;</a>in 2016 found that 58 percent of hotel workers and 77 percent of casino workers had been sexually harassed by a guest.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>October 15</strong> - Actress Alyssa Milano tweeted:&nbsp; "Suggested by a friend: 'If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote 'Me Too' as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.'"&nbsp; Within 48 hours, the hashtag was tweeted nearly a million times, according to Twitter.&nbsp; Some people simply tweeted "me too" while others opened up with intimate details of abuse they'd never before shared in public.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>October 16</strong> - Actress Alyssa Milano recognized Tarana Burke, the black woman activist who started a #MeToo campaign ten years earlier.</p> <p><strong>October 19</strong> - Tarana Burke <a href="http://motto.time.com/4988282/me-too-tarana-burke-interview/">expressed concern about the #MeToo hashtag going viral</a> without being centered on women of color: "Women of color, queer folks, differently abled folks and other marginalized communities — we always have to insert ourselves into this conversation. That's not a new phenomenon.&nbsp; And this work can't grow unless it's intersectional. ... Sexual violence knows no race, class, or gender, but the response to sexual violence absolutely does. Until we change that, any advancement that we make in addressing this issue is going to be scarred by the fact that it wasn't across the board."</p> <p><strong>November 6</strong> - Women, people of color, and LGBTQ candidates made by sweeping into office in state and local elections. "<a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/08/democratic-women-state-elections-244726">Gender played a huge role</a> in the campaigns this year," according to a Virginia House Democrats' pollster:&nbsp; Women running for office in Virginia took the Virginia House of Delegates from Republicans for the first time since 2000. Cities in Minnesota and Montana elected their first black mayors, and Charlotte, NC, elected a black woman as mayor for the first time. Virginia elected its first Latina and Asian American delegates. Across the country, Americans elected at least eight transgender candidates.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>November </strong>- In the lead up to&nbsp;a "Take Back the Workplace" march in Los Angeles on Nov. 12, Latina farmworkers wrote a <a href="http://latinousa.org/2017/11/15/open-letter-latina-farmworkers-wrote-hollywood-sexual-assault/">letter of solidarity</a> to the women and men in Hollywood who had come forward with their experiences of sexual harassment and assault - and called attention to the situation facing farmworkers: "We do not work under bright stage lights or on the big screen. We work in the shadows of society in isolated fields and packinghouses that are out of sight and out of mind for most people in this country ... Even though we work in very different environments, we share a common experience of being preyed upon by individuals who have the power to hire, fire, blacklist, and otherwise threaten our economic, physical and emotional security."</p> <p><strong>November 15 </strong>- <em>Wonder Woman</em> lead Gal Gadot confirmed rumors that she refused to sign up for the superhero sequel unless accused Hollywood sexual harasser Brett Ratner was dropped from the franchise going forward.&nbsp; A month earlier, Gadot backed out of a dinner honoring Ratner, where she was to present him with an award.</p> <p><strong>December 12</strong> - In a special election for the United States Senate in Alabama, Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore, a man accused of sexually abusing multiple teenage girls at a time when women all over the country were speaking out against sexual harassment and assault.&nbsp; It was a stunning election upset in a traditionally deeply red state that overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump a year earlier.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>December 6</strong> - Time Magazine named The Silence Breakers of the #MeToo movement its "Person of the Year," acknowledging the power of the movement in 2017.&nbsp;&nbsp; Questions quickly arose about why Tarana Burke, the black woman who founded the movement, wasn't on the cover.</p> <p><strong>December 21</strong> - <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/dec/21/we-created-the-metoo-movement-now-its-time-for-hertoo">Tarana Burke and Alyssa Milano</a> joined forces with UnicefUSA to say #HerToo. In an article in the Guardian, Burke and Milano pledged to build on the power and solidarity of #MeToo to embrace #HerToo: "#HerToo is about our deepest desire to ensure the dignity of every woman and girl is honored. It's about our personal dedication to building a culture of respect where it is sorely lacking. &nbsp;It is about work we all must undertake ... to end discrimination and violence against girls and women - and against all children suffering violence and harassment - worldwide, through education, protection and policy reform."</p> <p><strong>December 31</strong> - #MeToo Founder Tarana Burke kicked off the NYC Times Square countdown to the New Year.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>fionta</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2018-01-01T09:24:40-05:00" title="Monday, January 1, 2018 - 09:24">January 1, 2018</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Mon, 01 Jan 2018 14:24:40 +0000 fionta 288 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Loving v. Virginia: An anniversary for interracial marriage https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/loving-v-virginia-anniversary-interracial-marriage <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Loving v. Virginia: An anniversary for interracial marriage</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><h4>&nbsp;&nbsp;<br> To the Teacher</h4> <p>The summer of 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark 1967 Supreme Court decision <em>Loving v. Virginia, </em>which overturned laws banning interracial marriage in the United States. This lesson consists of two readings. The first reading provides historical background on the case and details its path to the Supreme Court. The second reading examines its lasting impact. Questions for discussion follow each reading.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <h4>&nbsp;<br> Reading 1:<br> <em>Loving v. Virginia</em>: Jim Crow and Interracial Marriage<br> &nbsp;</h4> <p>In 1958, Mildred Loving, a pregnant 18–year–old black woman, and Richard Loving, a 24–year–old white man, were married in Washington, DC. In 1958, the rigid system of Jim Crow racial segregation was enforced in the Southern United States, including the Lovings’ home state of Virginia. While Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery and Congress subsequently passed amendments to the Constitution mandating equal protection under the law and full voting rights for African Americans, in practice racial divisions and discrimination remained the order of the day.<br> &nbsp;<br> "Jim Crow" was a system of legalized discrimination: African Americans were regularly denied the right to vote, were forced to use separate drinking fountains and bathrooms, and they were made to attend separate, poorly funded schools. African Americans faced a reign of terror that included violence and lynchings targeting those who defied racial codes.<br> &nbsp;<br> It may be hard to fathom now, but as recently as 50 years ago, Jim Crow included statutes prohibiting "miscegenation," or interracial relationships. In an April 4, 2004 article for the <em><a href="http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/4708#sthash.64816IPi.dpuf">History News Network</a>, </em>historian Peggy Pascoe detailed the evolution of these laws:</p> <p class="rteindent1">&nbsp;<br> As Reconstruction collapsed in the late 1870s, legislators, policymakers, and, above all, judges began to marshal the arguments they needed to justify the reinstatement—and &nbsp;subsequent expansion—of miscegenation law.’<br> &nbsp;<br> Here are four of the arguments they used:<br> &nbsp;<br> 1) First, judges claimed that marriage belonged under the control of the states rather than the federal government.<br> &nbsp;<br> 2) Second, they began to define and label all interracial relationships (even longstanding, deeply committed ones) as illicit sex rather than marriage.<br> &nbsp;<br> 3) Third, they insisted that interracial marriage was contrary to God's will, and<br> &nbsp;<br> 4) Fourth, they declared, over and over again, that interracial marriage was somehow "unnatural."<br> &nbsp;<br> The fifth, and final, argument judges would use to justify miscegenation law was undoubtedly the most important; it used these claims that interracial marriage was unnatural and immoral to find a way around the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of "equal protection under the laws." How did judges do this? They insisted that because miscegenation laws punished both the black and white partners to an interracial marriage, they affected blacks and whites "equally." This argument, which is usually called the equal application claim, was hammered out in state supreme courts in the late 1870s, endorsed by the United States Supreme Court in 1882, and would be repeated by judges for the next 85 years...<br> &nbsp;<br> Between 1880 and 1950, the regime of miscegenation law was at the height of its power. The laws were in effect in thirty states––every Southern state, the vast majority of western states, and several states on the border, like Indiana. Those states that didn't have miscegenation laws on their books, mostly in the Northeast, boasted that they didn't need to, because opposition to interracial marriage was by then so deeply rooted that new laws were simply unnecessary.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;<br> It was in this context that, when the Lovings returned to their home in Virginia, they were arrested and charged with a felony under the state’s anti–miscegenation laws. In a May 6, 2006 article for the <em><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/us/06loving.html?_r=1&amp;scp=1&amp;sq=Mildred+Loving&amp;st=nyt&amp;oref=slogin">New York Times</a>, </em>journalist Douglas Martin detailed the Lovings’ arrest and conviction:<br> &nbsp;</p> <p class="rteindent1">By their own widely reported accounts, Mrs. Loving and her husband, Richard, were in bed in their modest house in Central Point in the early morning of July 11, 1958, five weeks after their wedding, when the county sheriff and two deputies, acting on an anonymous tip, burst into their bedroom and shined flashlights in their eyes. A threatening voice demanded, "Who is this woman you’re sleeping with?"<br> &nbsp;<br> Mrs. Loving answered, "I’m his wife."<br> &nbsp;<br> Mr. Loving pointed to the couple’s marriage certificate hung on the bedroom wall. The sheriff responded, "That’s no good here."<br> &nbsp;<br> The certificate was from Washington, D.C., and under Virginia law, a marriage between people of different races performed outside Virginia was as invalid as one done in Virginia. At the time, it was one of 24 states that barred marriages between races.<br> &nbsp;<br> After Mr. Loving spent a night in jail and his wife several more, the couple pleaded guilty to violating the Virginia law, the Racial Integrity Act. Under a plea bargain, their one–year prison sentences were suspended on the condition that they leave Virginia and not return together or at the same time for 25 years.<br> &nbsp;<br> Judge Leon M. Bazile, in language Chief Justice Warren would recall, said that if God had meant for whites and blacks to mix, he would have not placed them on different continents. Judge Bazile reminded the defendants that "as long as you live you will be known as a felon."&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;<br> The Lovings eventually grew frustrated with the terms of their sentence and in 1964, Mildred Loving wrote a letter to Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who referred their case to the American Civil Liberties Union. The Lovings’ attorneys appealed the conviction on the grounds that Virginia’s anti–miscegenation law violated the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment. Although Virginia’s court upheld their convictions, the Lovings made their final appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, which in a unanimous decision on June 12, 1967, ruled that Virginia’s—and thus all—laws prohibiting interracial marriage were unconstitutional. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the <a href="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us–supreme–court/388/1.html">Opinion</a> of the Court:&nbsp;</p> <p class="rteindent1">There can be no question but that Virginia's miscegenation statutes rest solely upon distinctions drawn according to race.... There is patently no legitimate overriding purpose independent of invidious racial discrimination which justifies this classification. The fact that Virginia prohibits only interracial marriages involving white persons demonstrates that the racial classifications must stand on their own justification, as measures designed to maintain White Supremacy. We have consistently denied the constitutionality of measures which restrict the rights of citizens on account of race. There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause....<br> &nbsp;<br> Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law.</p> <p>&nbsp;<br> The <em>Loving </em>decision became a landmark moment in the Civil Rights movement, with lasting implications that can still be felt today.<br> &nbsp;</p> <h4>&nbsp;<br> <strong>For Discussion:</strong><br> &nbsp;</h4> <ol> <li>How much of the material in this reading was new to you, and how much was already familiar? Do you have any questions about what you read?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>According to the reading, what was Jim Crow? How was this system of segregation maintained?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>According to the reading, what arguments did defenders of Jim Crow use to justify anti–miscegenation laws? What were some the flaws in their arguments?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>Can you think of any other major Supreme Court cases that were decided during the 1950s and 1960s––a period sometimes referred to as the Civil Rights era? What was their significance?a</li> </ol> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4>Reading 2:<br> Loving’s Legacy, 50 Years Later</h4> <p><br> Beyond overturning anti–miscegenation laws across the South, the <em>Loving </em>decision played an important role in gradually shifting public opinion around interracial relationships in the years that followed.<br> &nbsp;<br> Although only 17 Southern states had formal laws barring interracial marriages at the time of the <em>Loving</em> decision, public opinion throughout the country was largely against the idea of interracial marriage. <em>Loving</em> represented a landmark moment in the U.S. for ending bans against interracial marriage; nevertheless, attitudes about interracial marriage took time to shift.<br> &nbsp;<br> Even now, there are some people who do not support interracial marriage.&nbsp; To cite one example from 2016: Some people responded negatively to an Old Navy advertisement depicting an interracial family. As Marie Solis, staff writer for <a href="https://mic.com/articles/163824/old–navy–s–ad–showing–an–interracial–family–drew–stomach–churning–racist–backlash#.5cxjAhvQJ">Mic.com</a> wrote in a December 30, 2016 article:<br> &nbsp;</p> <p class="rteindent1">As the 2016 movie Loving seeks to remind us, it's been nearly 50 years since the Supreme Court outlawed bans on interracial marriage. Of course, that doesn't mean bigots are OK with it.<br> &nbsp;<br> This time, racists took aim at an Old Navy ad showing a family of four: a black father, white mother and two biracial children, all outfitted in winter wear for the retailer's "frost–free" clothing line.<br> &nbsp;<br> While most viewers might see only a wholesome ad, racists on Twitter saw a family of race traitors.<br> &nbsp;<br> Twitter user @MontyDraxel replied with two images of all–white families superimposed with the phrase "When you're white there is no upgrade. Don't mix."....<br> &nbsp;<br> Another person called the ad "disgusting" and asked Old Navy why it was trying to "force" black–white intermarriage onto people. "The kids come out looking like neither and really confused!" he wrote. ...<br> &nbsp;<br> Racists can stay mad, as far as Old Navy is concerned.<br> &nbsp;<br> An Old Navy spokesperson told <em>Fortune</em> that the retailer is proud of its message of "diversity and inclusion."</p> <p>&nbsp;<br> Those who oppose interracial marriage are increasingly in the minority. Today, public approval for interracial marriage has reached an all–time high, and among young people approval is the highest. As pollster Frank Newport reported for Gallup in a July 25, 2013 article, interracial marriages are widely approved of by Americans today. Indeed, approval for interracial marriages has shifted so drastically since the Lovings were arrested for their marriage in 1958 that it would likely be hard for many younger Americans to believe that not too long ago, such marriages were widely seen as taboo. The <em>Loving</em> lawsuit was part of wider Civil Rights movement that resulted in this sea change in public attitudes.<br> &nbsp;<br> <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/163697/approve–marriage–blacks–whites.aspx">Newport</a> noted:&nbsp;</p> <p class="rteindent1">Continuing to represent one of the largest shifts of public opinion in Gallup history, 87% of Americans now favor marriage between blacks and whites, up from 4% in 1958...<br> &nbsp;<br> Approval of marriages between blacks and whites is up one percentage point from 2011, when this attitude was last measured. Approval has generally increased in a linear fashion from Gallup's first measure in 1958, reaching the majority threshold in 1997, and crossing the three–quarters line in 2004. Eleven percent of Americans today say they disapprove of black–white marriage, compared with 94% who disapproved in 1958.<br> &nbsp;<br> Blacks' approval of black–white marriage (96%) is now nearly universal, while whites' approval is 12 percentage points lower, at 84%. Blacks' approval has consistently been higher than whites' over the decades, although attitudes among both racial groups have generally moved in a parallel manner since 1968 –– when Gallup first was able to report reliable estimates of each group's opinion. The gap between black approval and white approval in recent years has been smaller than it was prior to 1997.</p> <p>&nbsp;<br> This wider public tolerance for relationships that in previous generations were seen as taboo extends not just across racial lines, but also to same–sex couples. Over the past few decades, a series of court decisions, ballot measures, and state laws served as flash points in a debate about whether same–sex couples would have the right to marry. Gradually, an increasing number of states started to allow same–sex marriage and in June of 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that same–sex marriages should be legal.<br> &nbsp;<br> The court’s decision drew heavily on the <em>Loving</em> ruling as a precedent. As reporter Markus Schmidt wrote in a May 23, 2015 article for the <em><a href="http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government–politics/loving–v–virginia–looms–large–in–gay–marriage–case/article_1818c5b1–4680–51ea–b53e–c14247ab4f6e.html">Richmond Times–Dispatch</a></em>:</p> <p class="rteindent1">&nbsp;<br> To Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring, the Lovings’ fight for legal recognition of their marriage helped "broaden our understanding" of equality in a way that still resonates today.<br> &nbsp;<br> "In our recent same–sex marriage equality case, our opponents made the exact same arguments that were used to block the Lovings’ marriage," Herring said in an email Friday. "But the courts found in both cases that marriage is a fundamental right, and people should be free to marry the person they love."...<br> &nbsp;<br> Mildred Loving, a year before her death in 2008, expressed support for same–sex marriage in an essay she wrote on the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia.<br> &nbsp;<br> "I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry," she wrote. "Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights."<br> &nbsp;<br> And Cohen, the attorney who helped the Lovings obtain legal recognition of their marriage, said he believed the decision of the lower courts to strike down state bans on gay marriage was in the spirit of the Loving case.<br> &nbsp;<br> "I thought it was correct and late, but better late than never," he said.</p> <p><br> &nbsp;In the end, the <em>Loving</em> decision did not just to help change public opinion about interracial relationships, making them a more normal part of American life; the decision ultimately helped to legalize same–sex marriages and to broaden tolerance more generally.</p> <h4>&nbsp;</h4> <h4>For Discussion:<br> &nbsp;</h4> <ol> <li>&nbsp;How much of the material in this reading was new to you, and how much was already familiar? Do you have any questions about what you read?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>Some readers today might be startled to learn that, in 1958, 94% of Americans expressed disapproval for interracial relationships. This included large majorities in Northern states and also across racial groups. What do you think about this statistic?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>The reading cites the example of some negative reactions to a recent Old Navy ad depicting an interracial relationship. Some argue that social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have allowed bigoted comments to reach a wider audience. What do you think? Do you think that negative comments about the Old Navy ad reflect a significant trend, or are they merely the views of a few extreme social media commenters?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>While the <em>Loving </em>decision had an undeniable impact on public opinion toward interracial marriage, it was not the only factor. Can you think of any other factors that helped to reshape public opinion around interracial marriage?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>Although interracial marriages have become much more widely accepted in the United States since the <em>Loving </em>decision, a small number of people continue to frown upon them. Do you think that interracial couples continue to face discrimination or disapproval? What forms does this take?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>The <em>Loving </em>decision established what is called a legal precedent for future Supreme Court decisions. According to the reading, how did this ruling affect the court’s later decision on same–sex marriage?</li> </ol> <p>&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>fionta</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-07-18T12:10:13-04:00" title="Tuesday, July 18, 2017 - 12:10">July 18, 2017</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Tue, 18 Jul 2017 16:10:13 +0000 fionta 323 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Frederick Douglass and the Importance of History https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/frederick-douglass-and-importance-history <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Frederick Douglass and the Importance of History</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><h4>Learning Objectives</h4> <p>Students will:</p> <ul> <li>read or watch the president’s remarks about Frederick Douglass</li> <li>conduct research about Douglass</li> <li>write an essay or letter about what they have learned about Douglass<br> &nbsp;</li> </ul> <hr> <h4><br> Frederick Douglass in the News</h4> <h4><img alt src="/sites/default/files/pictures/Douglass.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 265px; float: right; margin: 8px;"></h4> <p><br> Tell students that this lesson will take as its starting point a statement made by President Trump on February 1, 2017—the start of African American History Month. Either have students watch the remarks (you can find them <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/02/politics/donald-trump-frederick-douglass/">here</a>) or read them the remarks:</p> <p>"I am very proud now that we have a museum on the National Mall where people can learn about Reverend King [Martin Luther King, Jr.], so many other things. Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice. Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and millions more Black Americans who made America what it is today. Big impact."</p> <p>Give students 1 or 2 minutes to write down their initial reactions to the president’s statement. Then ask, "What did you notice about the president’s remarks?" Accept students’ answers. If they need prompting, ask additional questions, such as:</p> <ul> <li>Which African Americans does the president identify in his comments?</li> <li>What does the president think of Frederick Douglass?</li> <li>Do you agree with him? Why or why not?<br> &nbsp;</li> </ul> <hr> <h4><br> Reactions to the President’s Statement<br> &nbsp;</h4> <p>Share with students that after the president’s statement, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/02/02/trump-implied-frederick-douglass-was-alive-the-abolitionists-family-offered-a-history-lesson/?utm_term=.1c35d4f1a687">Washington Post</a> wrote:</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">"Critics seized on Trump’s comments at a Black History Month event, mercilessly attacking him for statements that spoke of Douglass in the present tense.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/02/02/trump-implied-frederick-douglass-was-alive-the-abolitionists-family-offered-a-history-lesson/%E2%80%9Chttps:/www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/frederick-douglass-trump/515292/%22">The Atlantic asked, simply</a>: ‘Does Donald Trump actually know who Frederick Douglass was?’ and said that Trump’s remarks were ‘transparently empty.’"</p> <p>White House press secretary Sean Spicer tried to clarify Trump’s comments later in the day:</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">"I think he wants to highlight the contributions that he [Douglass] has made and I think through a lot of the actions and statements that he's going to make, I think the contributions of Frederick Douglass will become more and more."</p> <p>Then Douglass’s descendants weighed in. Kenneth B. Morris Jr., Douglass’s great-great-great grandson, said:&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">"My first instinct was to go on the attack. I think it was obvious to anyone that heard [Trump’s] comments or read his comments that he was not up to speed on who Frederick Douglass was.&nbsp;We just thought that was an opportunity to do a history lesson ..."<br> &nbsp;</p> <p>Ask students:</p> <ul> <li>What do you think of the criticisms of Trump’s statement described by the Washington Post? Was it fair?</li> <li>What do you think of the press secretary’s clarification?&nbsp;</li> <li>What do you think about how Douglass’s great-great-great grandson responded to Trump’s comments?<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> </ul> <hr> <h4><br> Small Group Research &amp; Writing<br> &nbsp;</h4> <p>Now ask students, "What do <em>you</em> know about Frederick Douglass?" Write their comments on chart paper or the board.</p> <p>Tell students that we’ll follow Kenneth Morris’s suggestion and use this opportunity to learn more about the famous abolitionist. &nbsp;</p> <p>Divide the class into groups of three. Tell each group to find three sources they can use to learn more about Douglass. Only one of the three can be a textbook. If the other sources are websites, guide them to evaluate the validity of the sites. Suggest that they:</p> <ul> <li>use sites that are associated with colleges, universities, or museums (end in .edu)</li> <li>use sites that come from the federal government (end in .gov)</li> <li>use sites that are associated with nonprofit organizations (end in .org)</li> <li>avoid Wikipedia and other crowd-sourced sites</li> <li>avoid sites that appear to be blogs representing one individual’s ideas</li> </ul> <p>Have students take notes about Douglass from the sources they used. Have each team decide if they have enough information to write a letter that tells the story of Douglass’s life. If not, have them look at another one or two sources.</p> <p>Ask each group to write either a short essay about Douglass or a letter to the president in which they share information about Douglass and why it is important that we know about him.</p> <p>You can offer your students <a href="/sites/default/files/files/Douglass%20Template.pdf"><strong>this template</strong></a> to help them write their essays or letters.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <h4><br> Some Sources About Frederick Douglass<br> &nbsp;</h4> <p><a href="https://www.nps.gov/frdo/learn/historyculture/frederickdouglass.htm">https://www.nps.gov/frdo/learn/historyculture/frederickdouglass.htm</a></p> <p><a href="http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass/bio.html">http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass/bio.html</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/people/frederick_douglass.html">http://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/people/frederick_douglass.html</a></p> <p><a href="http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july/">http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july/</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23/23-h/23-h.htm">https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23/23-h/23-h.htm</a> (primary source)</p> <p><a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2012/05/frederick-douglass-orator-activist-and-bad-bad-man.html">http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2012/05/frederick-douglass-orator-activist-and-bad-bad-man.html</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>fionta</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-02-28T08:57:02-05:00" title="Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - 08:57">February 28, 2017</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Tue, 28 Feb 2017 13:57:02 +0000 fionta 344 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Black History Month Lesson Collection https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/black-history-month-lesson-collection <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Black History Month Lesson Collection</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p><br> Looking for engaging activities for Black History Month? Here's a selection of relevant Teachable Moment lessons. Most are appropriate for high school students, and in some cases middle school students.&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/black-history-month-danger-single-story">Black History Month &amp; the Danger of a Single Story</a><br> Students explore why it is important for people to be able to tell their own stories and relate that to Black History Month.</p> <p><a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/black-history-month-how-do-we-change-history">Black History Month: How do we change history?</a><br> Students explore the origins of Black History Month and consider where we stand today in creating a more inclusionary history in classrooms across the country.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/mlk-day-lesson-montgomery-story">The Montgomery Story</a><br> Students use a remarkable 1957 comic book to learn about the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the real nature of the civil rights movement. &nbsp;</p> <p><a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/honoring-dr-martin-luther-king-power-nonviolent-resistance">The Power of Nonviolent Resistance</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>(Elementary school)</em><br> Through engaging activities, video, and small-group discussion, students consider the Montgomery Bus Boycott and how they might stand up against injustice.</p> <p>&nbsp;<br> <a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/civil-rights-movement-truths-myths">Civil Rights Movement: Truths &amp; Myths</a><br> History has a way of smoothing out the complexities of real-life events. This brief lesson explores some forgotten or misrepresented facts about the movement for civil rights.<br> &nbsp;<br> <a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/3-women-civil-rights-activists-who-changed-history">3 Women Civil Rights Activists Who Changed History</a><br> Through reading, discussion, and small group activities, students learn about three relatively unknown women in the civil rights movement: Diane Nash, Virginia Durr, and Claudette Colvin. &nbsp;<br> &nbsp;<br> <a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/50th-anniversary-civil-rights-act-movement-behind-it">The Civil Rights Act &amp; the Movement Behind It</a><br> Students explore the interplay of this legislation with the Civil Rights Movement, and consider what role everyday people play in making change.<br> &nbsp;<br> <a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/black-history-month-everyday-hero">Everyday Hero</a><br> This brief activity focuses on the African American girl who refused to give up her seat on the bus, months before Rosa Parks touched off the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott.&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;<br> <a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/university-missouri-win-students-against-racism">Voting Rights Act of 1965, Then &amp; Now</a><br> This activity traces the orgins of the Voting Rights Act; a second discusses the recent Supreme Court decision limiting the Act's scope when it comes to drawing voter district lines.<br> &nbsp;&nbsp;<br> <a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/fight-voting-rights-selma-1965-today">The fight for voting rights, from Selma in 1965 to today</a><br> Students examine a primary source document to help them understand&nbsp;why so few southern blacks could vote in 1965 and how that struggle 50 years ago relates to voting rules today.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/power-strategic-nonviolent-action-strategy-change">The Power of Strategic Nonviolent Action</a><br> Students consider nonviolence as a strategy for intentionally building public support--in both in the Civil Rights Movement and in the Occupy movement.<br> &nbsp;<br> <a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/freedom-summer-1964-and-voting-rights-today">Freedom Summer in 1964 and Voting Rights Today</a><br> In two readings and discussion, studnets learn about the Freedom Summer project, then discuss some challenges to voting rights that we face today.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/mlk-day-activity-organizing-end-poverty-then-and-now">Organizing to end poverty, then and now</a><br> This lesson focuses on MLK's Poor People’s Campaign and links it to current struggles to combat poverty in the US, including by workers at fast food restaurants, Wal-Mart, and others.</p> <p><a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/mlk-dayinauguration-day-power-alliance-building">MLK &amp; The Power of Alliance-building</a><br> Students discuss Dr. King’s views about alliance-building; consider these in light of Obama’s inauguration; and learn about the alliance-building work of&nbsp;Ai-jen Poo, founder of Domestic Workers United.<br> &nbsp;<br> <a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/black-history-month-order-v-justice">Order vs. justice: MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail</a><br> This brief activity examines King's letter from a Birmingham jail in light of current events.&nbsp;<br> <br> <a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/civil-rights-movement-truths-myths">Civil Rights Movement: Truths &amp; Myths</a><br> This brief lesson explores some forgotten or misrepresented facts about the movement for civil rights.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/3-allies-story-about-standing">3 Allies: A Story about Standing Up</a><br> Students consider what it means to be an ally and stand up for justice by examining a famous photo of a protest at the 1968 Olympics and learning the story behind it.<br> &nbsp;</p> <h4>Recent Activism</h4> <p><a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/black-lives-matter-lesson-series-part-1">Black Lives Matter Lesson Series: Part 1</a><br> Students learn about the origins of the Black Lives Matter movement through tweets, quotes, and discussion of the movement's principles. &nbsp;</p> <p><a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/black-lives-matter-lesson-series-part-2">Black Lives Matter Lesson Series: Part 2</a><br> Through a series of engaging "opinion continuum" exercises, students explore a range of views about the phrases "Black Lives Matter" and "All Lives Matter."<br> <br> <a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/black-lives-matter-lesson-series-part-3">Black Lives Matter Lesson Series: Part 3</a><br> Using tweets, video and a poster, students review the history of the Black Lives Matter movement, consider criticisms of it, and examine the movement's policy goals.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/has-black-lives-matter-had-impact">Has Black Lives Matter had an impact?</a><br> What are the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement, and what progress has it made in bringing social change? &nbsp;Students explore these questions with readings and discussion.</p> <p><a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/kaepernick-fellow-athletes-take-stand">Kaepernick &amp; Fellow Athletes Take a Stand</a><br> NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick added momentum to a wave of protests by athletes against racial injustice. Students discuss tweets about the protests, consider multiple points of view about them, and construct a timeline.</p> <p><a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/university-missouri-win-students-against-racism">University of Missouri: A win for students against racism</a><br> In this brief activity, students learn about how organizing by Black students at the University of Missouri led to the resignation of the university's president and sparked a wave of organizing on campuses nationwide.&nbsp;</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>fionta</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-02-07T12:37:06-05:00" title="Tuesday, February 7, 2017 - 12:37">February 7, 2017</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Tue, 07 Feb 2017 17:37:06 +0000 fionta 349 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Rethinking Thanksgiving https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/rethinking-thanksgiving <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Rethinking Thanksgiving</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><h4>To the teacher:</h4> <p>This activity has students explore the facts and myths surrounding the history of Thanksgiving. This history may be of special interest to students given the highly visible protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline&nbsp;at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. For more on this, see our <a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/standing-standing-rock">lesson</a> and<a href="http://www.indiancountrynews.com/"> Indian Country News</a>.<br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <h4><br> Objectives</h4> <p><strong>Students will&nbsp;</strong></p> <ul> <li>discuss what they know about myths</li> <li>discuss the role of myths in how we think about ourselves as a people</li> <li>learn historical facts about the "First Thanksgiving"</li> <li>role-play tweeting about the event from different points of view</li> <li>talk about what a Thanksgiving celebration for today might look like</li> </ul> <p><strong>Social and emotional skills:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Active listening</li> <li>Appreciating multiple points of view</li> <li>Articulating a vision</li> </ul> <p><strong>Materials Needed</strong></p> <ul> <li>Board or chart paper, markers, tape</li> <li>Today’s agenda on chart paper or on the board</li> <li>Slips of paper with different roles printed on them as follows:&nbsp;male settler, female settler, male Wampanoag, female Wampanoag, Tisquantum, Massasoit, Edward Winslow (create your own or use <a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/RethinkingThanksgivingRoles.pdf" target="_blank">this PDF</a>)</li> <li>Space in your class to set up chairs with groups of five</li> <li>Fact sheet about the "First Thanksgiving" (See below or <a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/RethinkingThanksgivingRoles.pdf" target="_blank">view PDF</a>)</li> <li>Blank paper and pencils for all students</li> </ul> <p><strong>Check agenda and goals for the day</strong><br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <h4>Gathering&nbsp;</h4> <p><em>(10 min.)</em></p> <p>If possible, ask students to circle up so that you can easily go around a circle for responses.</p> <p>Write the word "myth" in the center of the board or a piece of chart paper. Ask students to each give an example of a myth they know about or a word that they think of when they hear the word "myth." If they say the same word as somebody else, put a check mark next to that word.</p> <p>When everyone has spoken who wants to, ask students what they notice. Which words got the most check marks? What myths have been mentioned?</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <h4>Main Activity</h4> <p><em>(30 min.)</em></p> <p>Post another piece of paper and write the following quote on it:</p> <p>"Myths are made for the imagination to breathe life into them."</p> <p>Tell students that this quote is from a French writer named Albert Camus. What do students think this comment means?&nbsp;</p> <p>Get several ideas from students. The key takeaway is that people create myths that fit with how they explain the world. Sometimes the myths are a combination of historical facts and the way people want to think something happened.</p> <p>In our own country, for instance, we have several myths</p> <ul> <li>One is that Christopher Columbus discovered America. Christopher Columbus did come to islands in what are now called the Bahamas. But others had come to North America long before.</li> <li>Another myth is that there was a lot of empty land for the taking out west. Settlers headed for what they called the frontier to farm or raise cattle or sheep on the land. But the land already had people on it. It wasn’t empty.</li> </ul> <p>The Thanksgiving story is also a mix of history and myth. Write the word "Thanksgiving" on the board or chart paper and ask students what they think of when they see the word. Have the students call out one-word answers popcorn style and write down the answers.</p> <p>Ask students what they notice about the words. Many of the words will probably have to do with family, food, or football. Some of the words may be "pilgrims" or "Indians." Ask students what they did in elementary school around Thanksgiving time.</p> <p>Hand out the fact sheet at the bottom of this lesson about the "First Thanksgiving." Ask students to break into groups of five to read it. Each member of the group can read a paragraph, then students can talk for a few minutes.</p> <p>Bring students back together and ask whether there was anything that surprised the students or that they were hearing for the first time. What questions do the students have?</p> <p>Send around a basket with <a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/RethinkingThanksgivingRoles.pdf" target="_blank">slips of paper</a> in it that equal the number of students in the class. Each slip of paper has a different person/character on it: "male settler," "female settler," "male Wampanoag," "female Wampanoag," "Massasoit," "Tisquantum," "Edward Winslow."</p> <p>Hand out blank sheets of paper and pencils and ask students to write a tweet about the "First Thanksgiving." (That is, students should create a message for social media that is no more than 140 characters long.) They should write the tweet as if it were coming from the character named on their slip of paper. They can write the tweet and then sign it as "female settler," or whatever identity they picked from the basket. Give them a minute or two to put themselves in the mind of that person and think about what they would want the world to know in 1621.</p> <p>Give students tape to post their "tweets" on the wall. Have students do a "Gallery Walk" to read the tweets. Alternatively, collect them and read selections.</p> <p>After the gallery walk or reading, ask students for their thoughts and observations about the tweets. Did any particular tweet strike them? Why?<br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <h4>Closing circle</h4> <p><em>(10 min.)</em></p> <p>In recent years, more and more people have become aware of the complex history of Thanksgiving and have tried to honor that history. November is now Native American Heritage Month. Many places collect food and clothing for people who are hungry or do not have winter clothes.</p> <p>In a go-round, ask students to describe what they think would be a good way to celebrate the holiday.</p> <p>End with a go-round asking students to say one thing they are thankful for.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <h4>Resources&nbsp;</h4> <p><a href="http://www.beacon.org/All-the-Real-Indians-Died-Off-P1224.aspx">http://www.beacon.org/All-the-Real-Indians-Died-Off-P1224.aspx</a><br> <a href="http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/623">http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/623</a><br> <a href="http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/Teach-the-Real-Story-of-the-First-Thanksgiving.shtml">http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/Teach-the-Real-Story-of-the-First-Thanksgiving.shtml</a><br> <a href="http://www.firstnations.org/HeritageMonth2016?gclid=CjwKEAiAu6DBBRDDr6-e_6698E0SJACvuxnyk6tx7lhzV8G86eyHJWKUk4vNaIJ-llF89MHVo1lwvxoCo23w_wcB">http://www.firstnations.org/HeritageMonth2016?gclid=CjwKEAiAu6DBBRDDr6-e_6698E0SJACvuxnyk6tx7lhzV8G86eyHJWKUk4vNaIJ-llF89MHVo1lwvxoCo23w_wcB</a><br> <a href="http://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/about/">http://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/about/</a><br> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-price/behind-every-american-tha_b_1108655.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-price/behind-every-american-tha_b_1108655.html</a><br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4>A Few Facts about Thanksgiving</h4> <p><a href="/sites/default/files/files/Thanksgiving%20Reading.pdf" target="_blank">View as PDF</a><br> &nbsp;</p> <p><br> The Indians who lived near where the ship the Mayflower landed were called Wampanoag (pronounced WAMP-ah-nog). Even before the settlers arrived, the Wampanoag had met explorers. These Europeans brought diseases, and it is believed that because the Wampanoag had not built up resistance to these diseases, many died quickly from an epidemic. Some have theorized that the epidemic was like the plague that once wiped out almost half the population of Europe.<br> <br> The Wampanoag had farmed the land, but they had been so decimated by the epidemic that when the Mayflower settlers arrived, they found whole villages and fields with skeletons in them. So many people had died that there was nobody left to bury them. The settlers raided the graves that they found and stole food from supplies that the Wampanoag had stored for the winter. The Wampanoag were furious, but were no match for the settlers’ guns.<br> <br> The few Wampanoag who were left were worried about the enemies they already had, who were eager to defeat them. The Wampanoag needed allies, especially against another Native people known as the Narragansett. They saw that the settlers had guns that could be very useful.<br> <br> The settlers were a mixed group. About 37 of them were Separatists (who became known as Pilgrims), seeking religious freedom from the Church of England. Others were sympathetic to the Separatist cause and beliefs, but not members of the group. Others had skills that the Separatists knew they would need, such as barrel-making or soldiering.<br> <br> There were 102 people on the ship, of which 18 were adult women. Three of the women were pregnant. The settlers had arrived at the worst time of year, in winter. By the end of the first winter, about half the settlers had died. Four adult women and eleven teenage girls remained.</p> <p>The Wampanoag were willing to help the starving settlers because they could see that the settlers could be useful. The most famous person to help was named Tisquantum, often called Squanto. He had lived in Patuxet, but was captured in 1605 when he was 12 or 13 and taken as a slave to England. He managed to get back to the colony but was captured again as a slave and taken to Spain. He escaped again and again returned to his village. This time, he discovered that almost everyone was dead. He was the only male survivor. Tisquantum showed the settlers how to plant the traditional crops of corn, beans, and squash that saved the remaining settlers from starvation.<br> <br> The Wampanoag had a tradition of harvest festivals. So did the settlers. In fact, every farming culture has some version of a harvest festival. These festivals were not the same as days of thanksgiving, which both the Indigenous people and the Europeans marked as religious ceremonies.</p> <p>There are different versions of what happened on the "first" Thanksgiving. Some say that the Wampanoag, who also had a good harvest, prepared a feast (cooked by the women) and brought it to the settlers. Several weeks after the event, settler Edward Winslow wrote:</p> <div class="rteindent1">[O]ur harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that&nbsp;so we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit&nbsp;of our labors; they four in one day killed&nbsp;as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the company almost a week,&nbsp;at which time amongst other recreations, we exercised&nbsp;our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain, and others.<br> <br> And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty. We have found the Indians very faithful in their covenant&nbsp;of peace with us; very loving and ready to pleasure us: we often go to them, and they come to us; . . . . yea, it hath pleased God so to possess the Indians with a fear of us. . .</div> <p><br> This letter (full text at <a href="http://mayflowerhistory.com/letter-winslow-1621/">http://mayflowerhistory.com/letter-winslow-1621/</a>) makes us think that the Wampanoag weren’t even invited but came because they heard the gunfire. Once they were there, the settlers invited them to join the celebration. They went out and killed five deer as their contribution to the celebration.<br> <br> The settlers and the Wampanoag signed a peace treaty, and all went well for a while, but the settlers wanted more and more land. So by 1675, the Wampanoag decided to fight. The war was one of the bloodiest (per capita) in U.S. history and ended with almost all the Wampanoag being killed.<br> <br> During the American Revolution, there were some days of thanksgiving, but up until the Civil War, only George Washington’s birthday and the Fourth of July were national holidays. For 17 years, Sarah Josepha Hale, an influential editor from New England, wrote to five different presidents calling for a national day of thanks. Abraham Lincoln finally set aside the last Thursday of November in 1863, during the Civil War. Franklin Roosevelt changed it to the fourth Thursday in November.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>fionta</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-11-14T09:17:31-05:00" title="Monday, November 14, 2016 - 09:17">November 14, 2016</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Mon, 14 Nov 2016 14:17:31 +0000 fionta 369 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Dog-Whistle Politics: Talking About Race Without Talking About Race https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/dog-whistle-politics-talking-about-race-without-talking-about-race <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Dog-Whistle Politics: Talking About Race Without Talking About Race</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><h3><br> To the Teacher:</h3> <p>Since the victories of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, politicians in the United States have generally avoided making explicitly racist appeals to voters. Instead, they have sometimes used coded words and phrases — so-called "dog whistles" — that aim to speak to biases of race, religion, or ethnicity without saying so outright. Both Democrats and Republicans have been accused of using dog whistles. In the current political climate, some commentators argue that racist attitudes are not even hidden anymore, but rather are again becoming more explicit.</p> <p>This lesson will consider the history of "dog-whistle" politics, and it will ask whether the current campaign season marks a break from past practices. The first student reading below examines the history of dog whistle politics in the United States. The second reading considers statements from the presidential campaign and asks whether they cross the line from dog-whistle politics to overt prejudice. Questions for discussion follow each reading.<br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>Reading 1<br> Dog Whistles: How Politicians Speak in Code</h3> <p><br> Since the victories of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, politicians have generally avoided making explicitly racist appeals to voters. Instead, they have sometimes used coded words and phrases — so-called "dog whistles" — that aim to speak to biases of race, religion, or ethnicity without saying so outright. Both Democrats and Republicans have been accused of using dog whistles.</p> <p>Some people argue that the use of dog whistles is an inherent part of politics and does not necessarily imply prejudice. They highlight how the careful selection of phrases and gestures send subtle signals to different audiences. In this vein, journalist Nia-Malika Henderson noted in a March 3, 2009, article for <em><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2009/03/blacks-whites-hear-obama-differently-019538">Politico</a> </em>that President Obama could be seen as using targeted language to appeal to the black community. Henderson wrote:</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">On his pre-inaugural visit to Ben’s Chili Bowl, a landmark for Washington’s African-American community, President Barack Obama was asked by a cashier if he wanted his change back.&nbsp;<br> <br> "Nah, we straight," Obama replied.&nbsp;<br> <br> The phrase was so subtle some listeners missed it. The reporter on pool duty quoted Obama as saying, "No, we’re straight."</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">But many other listeners did not miss it. A video of the exchange became an Internet hit, and there was a clear moment of recognition among many blacks, who got a kick out of their Harvard-educated president sounding, as one commenter wrote on a hip-hop site, "mad cool."&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">On matters of racial identity, many observers in the African-American community say he benefits from what's known as "dog-whistle politics." His language, mannerisms and symbols resonate deeply with his black supporters, even as the references largely sail over the heads of white audiences....</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">Dog-whistle politics was hardly invented by Obama. One of its most deft practitioners lately was President George W. Bush. He regularly borrowed the language of evangelical Christianity and the anti-abortion movement to signal he was simpatico with their beliefs, even as he often avoided obvious displays of support that might turn off middle-of-the-road voters.</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">"The code words matter, how you dress matters, how you speak matters; it’s all subliminal messaging, and all politicians use it," said Michael Fauntroy, an assistant professor of public policy at George Mason University, who specializes in&nbsp;race and American politics.&nbsp;"Ronald Reagan used to talk about making America the shining city on a hill, which is about America as divinely inspired, and it has a deep vein in the evangelical conservative movement. It goes on all the time, and there are so many circumstances when only the target people get the message."<br> &nbsp;</p> <p>"Dog whistles" sometimes serve as a means of making racist appeals in subtle ways. As historian Robert Brent Toplin wrote in a December 10, 2015, article for <a href="http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161448">HistoryNewsNetwork.com</a>:</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">Richard Nixon won the 1968 presidential election by promoting a "Southern Strategy." That, too, was an example of dog-whistle politics. The Republican candidate blamed many of America’s problems on blacks, but not through specific language. H.R. Haldeman, Nixon’s close adviser, said "The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to." Rather than refer directly to blacks, Nixon promised "law and order" and respect for "states’ rights."</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">Many elements factored in Ronald Reagan’s presidential victories; indirect references to race were only part of the mix. Reagan defended his positions on principle, not prejudice. He had opposed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, arguing against federal intervention in states’ affairs. Reagan launched his 1980 campaign for the White House near Philadelphia, Mississippi, the place where three civil rights workers had been slain years before. During his visits around the United States, Reagan spoke often about an exploitative "welfare queen" in Chicago, and listeners understood that the lady was a black woman. Reagan convinced many white Democrats, including southerners, to abandon their party and register as Republicans.</p> <p>As law professor Ian Hanley-Lopez argued during an January 14, 2014, appearance on <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/14/dog_whistle_politics_how_politicians_use"><em>Democracy Now</em>,</a> such dog-whistle racism is becoming an increasingly large part of conservative political strategy. Hanley-Lopez states:</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">Politics now is occurring in coded terms, like a dog whistle. On one level, we hear clearly there’s a sense of racial agitation; on another level, plausible deniability—people can insist nothing about race at all. And so, classic examples: Reagan and welfare queens, or Newt Gingrich saying Obama is a "food stamp president." Now, on one level, that’s triggering racial sentiment, triggering racial anxiety. On another, of course, Newt Gingrich can turn around and say, "I didn’t mention race. I just said food stamps." In fact, he can go further and say, "It’s a fact," as if there isn’t a sort of a racial undertone there....</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">They’re using these sort of coded appeals to say to people two things: One, the biggest threat in your life is not concentrated wealth, it’s minorities; and two, government coddles minorities, and all these government assistance programs, it’s all about giveaways to minorities—oppose them—government is taking your taxes and giving it to undeserving minorities. So when we think about why it is that so many people would—in the midst of an economic crisis, would vote to slash taxes for the rich, to favor deregulation and to slash social services, partly—in fact, I’d say primarily—they’re doing so because of the sort of racial narrative employed with dog whistle politics....</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">[W]e’re not saying that race has entered politics recently; we’re saying racism has been central to American politics for centuries, but it has changed form. After the civil rights movement, you couldn’t use open slurs... It’s political suicide now for any politician to use an open racial slur, so that the new public racism is coded. It always operates on two levels—on one level, triggering racial anxiety; on another, allowing plausible deniability.<br> &nbsp;</p> <h4>For Discussion:</h4> <ol> <li>How much of the material in this reading was new to you, and how much was already familiar? Do you have any questions about what you read?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>According to the reading, what are "dog whistle politics"?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>Although all politicians use some type of coded and targeted language, there is a more disturbing history of using dog whistles as a way to invoke racist ideas. What are some examples of this?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>Have you heard "dog whistle" phrases in your own life? What have some of these phrases been? Who do you think they were meant to appeal to?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>Journalist Nia-Malika Henderson provides examples of presidents Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan using targeted language to convey identification with specific communities, such as the black community or evangelical conservatives. How is this use of targeted rhetoric different than the use of racist dog whistles? Why might some dog whistles be okay and others be hurtful and prejudiced?<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> </ol> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>Reading 2:<br> Has the 2016 Campaign Gone Beyond Dog-Whistling?<br> &nbsp;</h3> <p>In the current political climate, a variety of commentators have argued that racist attitudes are not even hidden anymore, but rather are again becoming more explicit. <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/22/critics-trump-speech-signals-shift-to-coded-race-l/"><em>Associated Press</em></a> reporters Russell Contreras and Jesse Holland write in a July 22, 2016, article, that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's rhetoric has pushed the boundaries of dog-whistle politics. They write:</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">During the primaries, Donald Trump threw red-meat rhetoric to supporters, pledging to build a wall on the Mexico border and to ban Muslim immigrants. He even told at least one crowd that he wanted to punch a demonstrator who disrupted an event.</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">Now that he’s the GOP presidential nominee, who needs to appeal to the whole country instead of just Republicans, some observers say he’s turning to code words to gin up racial animosity and fear among America’s white voters.</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">Ian Haney Lopez, author of "Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class," went further, saying Trump’s [convention] speech surpassed even the coded racial language of Richard Nixon in 1968.</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">In addition to appealing to whites’ racial anxieties about crime, the celebrity businessman added immigrants to the mix and said refugee families with unknown backgrounds threaten to transform the nation unless drastic measures are taken, Lopez said.</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">"This was a speech that said essentially that the barbarians are at the gate," he said.</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">Samuel LeDoux, a Republican delegate from New Mexico who is Hispanic, said he didn’t hear racial overtones in Trump’s speech.</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">"I think people are reading too much into it," said LeDoux, 24, who agrees with Trump’s call to reduce illegal immigration because it is affecting wages. "He comes from New York, a very diverse city."</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">Trump "didn’t get on stage and issue a bunch of racial epithets," said Emory University political scientist Andra Gillespie, who watched his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. "We didn’t hear the N-word, and we didn’t hear other words that may offend many people. But just because he didn’t use racial slurs doesn’t mean he didn’t frame issues in a way that people in racial and ethnic groups find problematic."</p> <p>Vincent Hutchings, a&nbsp;University of Michigan political science professor, told&nbsp;<em><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/trump-race-wedge-issue-494601">Newsweek</a></em>&nbsp;that academics have found that "politicians don’t really employ explicit racial terms anymore because it turns people off, it’s not very strategic." But, he says, Trump has gone further than most modern politicians, talking openly of race and ethnicity, labeling Mexican immigrants rapists and proposing a ban on Muslims entering the country. "Since the advent of the civil rights movement, we haven’t seen anything like this," said Hutchings.</p> <p>Trump has <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/25/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-bigot/">defended himself</a> against the charges of racism, declaring that "people who want a secure border are not racists" and that people who "speak out against radical Islam and who warn about refugees are not Islamophobes... They are decent citizens who want to uphold our value as a tolerant society and who want to keep the terrorists the hell out of our country." Trump added that "those who support the police and who want crime reduced and stopped are not prejudiced... They're concerned and loving citizens and parents whose heart breaks every time an innocent child is lost to totally preventable violence."</p> <p>Trump said that "to accuse decent Americans who support this campaign... of being racists, which we’re not" is "the oldest play in the Democratic playbook...When Democratic policies fail, they are left with only this one tired argument. ‘You’re racist. You’re racist...’ It’s a tired, disgusting argument. And it is so totally predictable. They’re failing so badly. It’s the last refuge of the discredited, Democrat politician."</p> <p>Clinton herself has come under fire for her use of the term "super-predators" during&nbsp;a 1996 speech in support of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which her husband, Bill Clinton, had signed in to law. The fact-checking website <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/aug/28/reince-priebus/did-hillary-clinton-call-african-american-youth-su/">Politifact</a> notes that while in her speech Clinton did link children and superpredators, "nowhere in the speech does she directly label African-American youth this way." Nevertheless, during the campaign, Black Lives Matter activists urged Clinton to apologize for the statement. The following day, she expressed regret for her choice of words.</p> <p>In an April 29, 2016 op-ed, for the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/opinion/campaign-stops/the-upside-to-overt-racism.html">New York Times</a> entitled "The Upside to Overt Racism," journalist Jenee Desmond-Harris argued that the open controversy over race in this campaign may actually make it easier to have discussions about the reality of persistent of racism in American life. Desmond-Harris wrote:</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">In a world where racism and discrimination — both personal and systemic — shape opportunities and can even determine life or death, but are often denied, they’re rarely owned so boldly as they have been during this campaign....</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">At a March rally for Mr. Trump in Louisville, Shiya Nwanguma, a student, says she was called the n-word and other repulsive slurs. Video of the event shows her being pushed and shoved. Another protester there, Chanelle Helm, told Vibe magazine in March: "In my entire life I had never had anyone look at me with such hate. It was like the videos and photos we’ve seen from the Little Rock 9 and other school integration moments from the 1950s and ’60s where the fury was palpable in the eyes of the white women."</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">At a high school basketball game in Indiana earlier this year, CNN reported that students chanted "Build that wall," at an opposing team made up predominantly of Latino players.</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">The expression of racist views in this campaign has been so undeniable that even politicians — notoriously careful and diplomatic — are stating it as fact.</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">"America’s long struggle with racism is far from over, and we are seeing that in this election," Hillary Clinton said at the National Action Network convention in April. She didn’t say racial tension, or community-police relations, or inequality, or issues faced by black and Latino Americans. She said: racism.</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">For once, nobody is pretending that racism is at a frequency so high they can’t make it out. Racism is no longer being treated as a feeling, an allegation, a matter of opinion, or something that can be negated by the announcement of a black friend....</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">When Barack Obama was first elected president in 2008, a question bubbled up: "Is America on its way to being post-racial?" It was always laughably optimistic, but now we have a clearer answer than ever: no.</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">... If diversity is going to cause racial anxiety, it’s better to accept that than to lie to ourselves about the inevitability of a harmonious multiracial melting pot. It’s good to know the truth. And Mr. Trump’s supporters seemed to have provided a reality check.<br> &nbsp;</p> <h4>For Discussion:</h4> <ol> <li>How much of the material in this reading was new to you, and how much was already familiar? Do you have any questions about what you read?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>Critics of Donald Trump argue that not only has he used dog whistle appeals but has also made overtly racist appeals. But Donald Trump has countered that his stances on immigration and crime are not racist, but an effort by his opponents to divert attention from their failed policies. What do you think?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>In the New York Times, Desmond Harris notes that explicitly racist statements on the campaign trail give us the opportunity to talk more honestly about racism. What do you think about this argument? Is there a positive side to racism coming out into the open?</li> </ol> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>fionta</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-10-30T13:29:51-04:00" title="Sunday, October 30, 2016 - 13:29">October 30, 2016</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Sun, 30 Oct 2016 17:29:51 +0000 fionta 372 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org 25th Anniversary: Fall of the Berlin Wall https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/25th-anniversary-fall-berlin-wall <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>25th Anniversary: Fall of the Berlin Wall</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><h4>To The Teacher:</h4> <p>In this lesson and a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/25th-anniversary-polands-nonviolent-revolution">companion lesson on Poland’s nonviolent revolution</a>,&nbsp;students explore two major upheavals that signaled a new era in global relations that began 25 years ago.</p> <p>For almost three decades, the Berlin Wall stood as a central symbol of the Cold War. This conflict pitted the United States and Western European countries against the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe and Asia in a geopolitical struggle for military, economic, and cultural supremacy. The fall of the Berlin Wall in the autumn of 1989 is widely viewed as a watershed moment in modern world history.</p> <p>Some interpret the destruction of the Berlin Wall simply as a victory for the United States over the forces of communism. However, there are several reasons to adopt a more nuanced view. First, this Cold War triumphalism tends to devalue the work of local grassroots movements in Eastern Europe, which had long struggled for greater democracy in their own countries. Second, it ignores the negative impact of the cold war, including a massive military buildup that sapped resources for addressing humanitarian concerns and a nuclear showdown that almost eliminated the human species. Third, this triumphalist view doesn’t reflect the need for a continued struggle for genuine democracy and economic justice in Eastern Europe and Asia.</p> <p>This lesson is divided into two student readings. The first reading provides a general history of the Berlin Wall, its collapse, and German reunification. The second reading considers the legacy of the Cold War. Questions for discussion follow each reading.</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <h4>Student Reading 1:<br> The Rise and Fall of The Berlin Wall</h4> <p>For almost three decades, the Berlin Wall stood as a central symbol of the Cold War, which pitted the United States and Western European countries against the Soviet Union and its allies in a geopolitical struggle for military, economic, and cultural supremacy. The fall of the Berlin Wall in the autumn of 1989 is widely viewed as a watershed moment in modern world history.</p> <p>The Cold War has its roots in the immediate aftermath of World War II. In the wake of Germany's defeat, political and military tensions mounted between the United States and the Soviet Union, which had been allies in the war. In contrast to a "hot war" involving direct battlefield engagement, analysts dubbed the geopolitical struggle between these powers a "Cold War." Germany, because of its industrial infrastructure and its central location in Europe became a key contested location for the Eastern and Western Blocs.</p> <p>At the 1945 Potsdam Conference, leaders of the former Allied forces divided Germany into two parts. West Germany fell under the Western Powers' sphere of influence while East Germany fell under the Soviet Union's sphere of influence. Germany's largest city and capital, Berlin, was divided along similar lines. However, because the city was surrounded by East German territory, the Soviet-controlled East German government constructed a wall around the entirety of West Berlin to socially and economically isolate the population of West Berlin, as well as to prevent its own citizens from defecting.</p> <p>A website entitled <a href="http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Start/Index/id/943775">Chronicle of the Wall</a>, a cooperative project of several German media outlets and public organizations, provides a detailed account of the wall and its construction:</p> <p class="rteindent1">In the night of the 12 to the 13 of August, Walter Ulbricht, as SED (Socialist Unity Party of &nbsp;Germany) party leader and Chairman of the National Defense Council of the GDR, (German Democratic Republic [East Germany]) gave the order to seal off the sector border in Berlin. Having obtained the agreement of the Soviet Union a few days previously, and with the support of the Soviet troops in the GDR, the regime closed off the last route for escape from the Party dictatorship: in the early morning of August 13, border police started ripping up streets in the middle of Berlin, pieces of asphalt and paving stones were piled up to form barricades, concrete posts were driven into the ground and barbed-wire barriers erected. A few days later, in the night of August 17 to 18, groups of construction workers stared replacing the barbed wire by a wall made of hollow blocks. On August 24, 1961, the first refugee, the 24-year-old tailor Günter Litfin, was shot by GDR border guards as he tried to escape from East Berlin into West &nbsp;Berlin.</p> <p class="rteindent1">The Wall cemented the political division of Germany and Europe; it became a worldwide symbol of the Cold War, which split the world politically into an eastern and a western &nbsp;hemisphere - and a symbol of the failure of a dictatorship that was only able to secure its existence by walling in its population.</p> <p><br> In the decades following the partition of Germany and the construction of the wall, the resistance of ordinary East Germans against the undemocratic, Soviet-influenced ruling regime steadily grew. Escalating dissent in the 1980s coincided with the growth of resistance movements in other Eastern Bloc countries such as Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. In the summer of 1989, after nearly ten years of organizing and protest, Poland's Solidarity labor union movement was finally successful in bringing free elections to that country. This was the first domino in the series of what have been called "the Revolutions of 1989."</p> <p>The year 1989 was a momentous one in East Germany as well. The fight against the authoritarian East German government coalesced around the issue of freedom of movement, with the Berlin Wall standing as a stark reminder of the control the government exercised over peoples' lives. When Hungary disabled its border defenses with Austria in the summer of 1989, thousands of German tourists in Hungary took the opportunity to escape to Austria. Not long thereafter, the East German government disallowed travel to Hungary, sparking a wave of increasingly large protests throughout the summer and fall. By November, protests in Leipzig had spread to Dresden and East Berlin.</p> <p>On November 9, 1989, authorities who had planned to allow limited passage through the wall were overwhelmed by citizens demanding that the wall be opened altogether. With none of the East German authorities willing to authorize the use of lethal force, they were left with no choice but to allow the protesters to pass. East Berliners and thousands of allies in West Berlin descended on the wall with sledgehammers to begin the process of physically destroying it. The full-scale demolition was not completed for nearly two more years.</p> <p>Early in 1990, further protests resulted in the first free elections in East Germany since 1933. At that time, the ruling regime was swept out of power. On August 23, 1990, politicians voted to dissolve the East German state. As journalist Uwe Hessler wrote in a 2005 article for the German news site <a href="http://www.dw.de/the-end-of-east-germany/a-1687204">DW.de</a>:</p> <p class="rteindent1">The answer was clear: 294 parliamentarians were for the dissolution of East Germany. Only 62 were against it.</p> <p class="rteindent1">"Parliament today decided nothing less," said Gregor Gysi, then head of the PDS party, the successor of the former ruling SED party, "than the destruction of the state of East Germany to take place on Oct. 3, 1990."</p> <p class="rteindent1">In hindsight, the vote of Aug. 23 was nothing but a rubber stamp for about 16 million East Germans. The protest wave that had begun in the autumn of 1989 had unleashed a series of events leading to the resignation of the country's ruler Erich Honecker....</p> <p class="rteindent1">The pressure on the parliamentarians had reached a head. The majority of the people had tasted freedom after Nov. 9, 1989. The time to carry the German Democratic Republic to its grave had neared.</p> <p class="rteindent1">&nbsp;</p> <p>For almost 30 years the Berlin Wall stood as a physical manifestation of the "Iron Curtain" that divided the United States and Western Europe from the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. The destruction of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent reunification of Germany represented a devastating blow against the Soviet Union's influence in Europe. It foreshadowed the collapse of the Soviet Union itself and the end of the Cold War.<br> &nbsp;</p> <h4>For Discussion:</h4> <ol> <li> <p>How much of the material in this reading was new to you, and how much was already familiar? Do you have any questions about what you read?</p> </li> </ol> <ol> <li value="2"> <p>What was the Berlin Wall? Why was it constructed?</p> </li> </ol> <ol> <li value="3"> <p>Why was the Berlin Wall a focal point in the Cold War?</p> </li> </ol> <ol> <li value="4"> <p>What brought about the collapse of the Berlin Wall? What was the significance of its collapse?<br> <br> &nbsp;</p> </li> </ol> <hr> <h4><br> Student Reading 2<br> The Legacy of the Cold War</h4> <p><br> Some interpret the destruction of the Berlin Wall simply as a victory for the United States over the forces of communism. However, there are several reasons to adopt a more nuanced view. First, this Cold War triumphalism tends to devalue the work of local grassroots movements in Eastern Europe, which had long struggled for greater democracy in their own countries. Second, it ignores the negative impact of the cold war, including a massive military buildup that sapped resources for addressing humanitarian concerns and a nuclear showdown that almost eliminated the human species. Third, this triumphalist view doesn’t reflect the need for a continued struggle for genuine democracy and economic justice in Eastern Europe and Asia.</p> <p>In 1999, Edward Teller, who helped invent the hydrogen bomb, defended the Cold War, arguing that ''work on weapons during the cold war did not put a particularly heavy burden on the American economy,'' and that ''at any rate, the cold war had the distinction of not costing any lives." But atomic scientist <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/20/opinion/l-cold-war-s-heavy-cost-770728.html">Stephen I. Schwartz</a> disagreed, writing in a 1999 New York Times letter to the editor:</p> <p class="rteindent1">The term ''particularly heavy'' is rather subjective; in fact, United States expenditures for &nbsp; nuclear weapons and weapons-related programs between 1940 and 1996 consumed nearly $5.5 trillion in adjusted 1996 dollars. That is 29 percent of all military spending and 11 percent of all Federal Government spending.</p> <p class="rteindent1">As for lives lost, while the United States and the Soviet Union did not fight on the battlefield, hundreds of thousands of American and Soviet citizens were exposed to the radioactive and toxic byproducts of nuclear weapons production and testing in their own countries. The human toll of these activities is only now beginning to be quantified.</p> <p><br> The Cold War had other costs. In the name of combating communism, the U.S. fought deadly wars in Korea and Vietnam, and supported brutal dictatorships in Latin America and beyond. It also opposed figures such as Nelson Mandela in South Africa.</p> <p>The struggle for genuine democracy has involved popular movements in both the East and West—and these efforts have continued even after the Cold War. In a 1999 article for <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/how-we-ended-cold-war?page=full#">The Nation</a> foreign policy, expert John Tirman argued that the peace movement and its demand for nuclear disarmament created the conditions for the negotiations the ended the Cold War:</p> <p class="rteindent1">As the apparent winner [of the Cold War], the West has tended to regard its triumph as a vindication of cold war policies or, more modestly, as a case of Soviet "exhaustion." Neither of those views is satisfying because each discounts the role played by the peace and antinuclear movements. Evidence is mounting that their influence on events was more important than most historical accounts admit--perhaps even decisive. Recounting this influence is imperative for two reasons. The dominant view of the right and center is that military intimidation was the root of victory, a dangerous axiom then and just as foolish today and tomorrow. Second, the history demonstrates the ability of popular movements to effect change, a lesson that sharply diverges from the habits of historians and news media alike, which generally give far more attention to the actions of elites....</p> <p class="rteindent1">The rise of the nuclear freeze campaign in the early eighties was... a spur that galvanized further public outrage. Thousands of freeze chapters sprang up overnight all over the country; the movement's scale was apparent in the June 12, 1982, demonstration in Central Park, the largest ever, when 750,000 people gathered to protest the arms race. News media coverage of the movement and its proposals was almost a daily occurrence...</p> <p class="rteindent1">At first, the White House mobilized every means possible to defeat [grassroots nuclear] freeze referendums, but it gradually abandoned its bellicose rhetoric and moved steadily toward serious negotiations with the Soviet Union. "Ronald Reagan came into office on a Republican platform explicitly pledging the new government to achieve 'technological and military superiority' over the Soviet Union," explains David Cortright, a leader of SANE and SANE-Freeze in the eighties. "Popular culture became increasingly antinuclear as the freeze movement swept the country. Faced with this unreceptive political climate, the Reagan Administration largely abandoned its harsh rhetoric and quietly dropped the concept of superiority."</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The collapse of the Soviet Union and of single-party rule in Eastern Bloc states did not solve all of those countries' problems. &nbsp;In some cases, the introduction of an unregulated market economy resulted in crises of corruption and inequality that themselves have been threats to democracy.</p> <p>Those pushing for true democracy in the Soviet Union and other states now contend with oligarchs who use their connections to corrupt state officials for their own profit. As Andrew Mueller writes for <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/dec/03/tvandradio.russia">The Guardian</a>:</p> <p class="rteindent1">[I]n the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the state-owned assets and resources of the superpower were snapped up by a tiny group of smart, ruthless, ambitious and well-connected men, who abruptly joined the ranks of the very richest people in history....</p> <p class="rteindent1">The rise of the oligarchs was one of many grotesque results of Russia's transformation to capitalism—a shift managed so ineptly that many Russians ended up nostalgic for communism. The oligarchs, idiotically rich in a country that was largely poor, and given to parading their wealth in a manner that makes American hip-hoppers look like an especially reticent community of Amish farmers, could certainly have given any former Soviet citizen pause to wonder, as he queued for beetroot, what the proletarian revolution had been for.</p> <p class="rteindent1">The oligarchs, not content with buying companies, villas, yachts, planes and the most beautiful of Russia's beautiful women, also bought power. In 1996, they connived to engineer the re- election of the politically and physically ailing Boris Yeltsin. In 2000, they helped steer Yeltsin's successor into power—Vladimir Putin, a saturnine former spook with the KGB.</p> <p><br> For residents of the former East Germany, a transition to multiparty democracy faced fewer obstacles. German reunification meant that the East was reabsorbed by a country with a strong, stable economic base and a social democratic political tradition. As a result, Germans have fared better than many others in the former Soviet bloc, who today, a full 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, continue to struggle for genuine democracy and economic justice.<br> &nbsp;</p> <h4>For Discussion:</h4> <ol> <li>How much of the material in this reading was new to you, and how much was already familiar? Do you have any questions about what you read?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>What are some of the things left out of conventional American accounts of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>John Tirman argues that anti-nuclear activists played a critical role in slowing the nuclear arms race and facilitating the Cold War's end. What do you think of his argument?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>Despite the end of the Cold War, a struggle for genuine democracy and economic justice persists in many former Eastern Bloc countries. What challenges are residents of these countries now facing?</li> </ol> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>fionta</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2014-11-10T12:36:01-05:00" title="Monday, November 10, 2014 - 12:36">November 10, 2014</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Mon, 10 Nov 2014 17:36:01 +0000 fionta 505 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Colorado Schools Debate: Who Decides History? https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/colorado-schools-debate-who-decides-history <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Colorado Schools Debate: Who Decides History?</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><h4>Learning Objectives</h4> <p>Students will</p> <ul> <li>analyze the controversial Jefferson County (Jeffco) School Board statement</li> <li>apply the board’s proposed evaluation guidelines to selected events in U.S. history included in a history book they use</li> <li>determine what effect, if any, it would have on them if stories of these events were told differently or omitted</li> <li>read quotes from protesters and consider what led them to protest<br> &nbsp;</li> </ul> <hr> <h4>Background</h4> <p>In the fall of 2014, several members of the Jefferson County, Colorado, school board expressed concern that the school district’s Advanced Placement U.S. history curriculum emphasized the "negative" aspects of U.S. history, and that it encouraged civil unrest. The board decided to set up a committee to review the curriculum. &nbsp;What happened next surprised the board.</p> <p>Students and teachers in Jefferson County were upset by the board’s decision to review the curriculum. They didn’t want the school board deciding what was acceptable—and unacceptable—for students to learn as part of U.S. history.</p> <p>Students turned their feelings into action: They walked out of classes and held demonstrations protesting the board’s decision. Meanwhile, teachers staged a "sick-out"—meaning that they called in sick as a protest. Teacher absences led to four schools closing in the last weeks of September. The local Parent-Teacher Association and a group of local college professors supported the walkouts. Ten national anti-censorship organizations and the College Board, which designed the AP history curriculum, added their support.</p> <p>What was it about the board’s decision that upset so many people? Why does the content of your history classes matter? That’s what you’ll explore in this lesson.</p> <p>(Note: For further exploration of the Jeffco board's point of view, see this interview with <a href="http://kdvr.com/2014/09/25/school-board-member-at-center-of-jeffco-ap-history-explains-what-she-has-in-mind/">board member Julie Williams</a>&nbsp;by Denver Fox News.)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <h4>Introduction</h4> <p>Tell students that in this lesson they will be learning about how a group of teachers and students protested a decision by their local school board about what should be taught in their classrooms. Either have them read the Background above or read it aloud to them so that they will have the information they need to complete the activities.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <h4>Does it matter what you study in history class?</h4> <p><strong>1.</strong> &nbsp;Have students, working in pairs, read the statement that caused the conflict, and highlight the parts of the text that they believe caused the problems. Ask a few students to tell the class what they highlighted and explain why they thought it was perceived to be controversial.</p> <p class="rteindent1"><a href="http://coloradopols.com/diary/62806/right-wing-jeffco-school-board-seeks-review-of-history"><strong>Board Committee for Curriculum Review</strong></a><br> <br> The committee [to review the curriculum] shall be seated by the Board. Each director may nominated <em>[sic] </em>up to three candidates for the committee and the entire board then will vote to select the nine (9) members of the committee. The charge to the committee is to review curricular choices for conformity to JeffCo academic standards, accuracy and omissions, and to inform the board of any objectionable materials. The committee shall regularly review texts and curriculum according to priorities that it establishes, however, at any time, the Board may add items to the list for review. The committee shall report all comments (majority and minority) to the board in writing on a weekly basis as items are reviewed. Board members may move for discussion or action on items reported when matters warrant public discussion or action. The committee’s initial projects will be a review of the AP US History curriculum and elementary health curriculum. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p class="rteindent1">Review criteria shall include the following: instructional materials should present the most current factual information accurately and objectively. Theories should be distinguished from fact. Materials should promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free enterprise system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights. Materials should not encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law. Instructional materials should present positive aspects of the United States and its heritage.&nbsp;Content pertaining to political and social movements in history should present balanced and factual treatment of the positions.</p> <p><strong>2.</strong> &nbsp;Give student pairs a chance to look over a U.S. history book and find topics there that they have studied that the Jeffco school board’s review committee might question. Have student pairs share the events they have identified with the rest of the class and explain why they think they might be up for review. Make a list on chart paper or the board of what students share.</p> <p><strong>3.</strong>&nbsp; Have each student pair choose one of the events to explore in more depth. Each pair will consider together:</p> <ul> <li>How might this event be told differently to conform to the Jeffco committee’s proposed guidelines?</li> <li>How would this different version of the story affect students’ understanding of the event?</li> <li>What might the effects be of omitting the topic entirely?</li> </ul> <p>Give students the following example. What might happen to the story of Rosa Parks if it were reviewed by the committee? Perhaps the story would be omitted because Parks broke the law. Or perhaps a different way of telling the story would emphasize that her action was criminal, and deemphasize the fact that she consciously broke a law that she considered to be unjust as part of a movement to change that law. How would they feel about Parks’ action depending on each telling of the story?</p> <p>After pairs discuss the bulleted questions above, ask them to share their analyses of the event they chose with the class.</p> <p><strong>4. &nbsp;</strong>Give students a chance to think about what they and their peers have presented. Have them answer the following questions in writing: Do you think it’s important that the events the pairs selected be taught? If so, why? If not, why not? You may collect the writing or have students share their answers.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <h4>Why protest?</h4> <p>Have students read the following quotes from protesters.</p> <p>Student quotes:&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">"Students at my school plan to walk out of classes in protest of the Jeffco school board’s new proposed Advanced Placement U.S. History Curriculum Revision Committee which aims to teach students to become more ‘patriotic’ and less ‘rebellious’ by portraying the history of our country in a better light."&nbsp;<em>- Jack Shefrin, Arvada West High School senior</em></p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">"I don’t think my education should be censored. We should be able to know what happened in our past."&nbsp;<em>-Tori Leu, 17-year-old student&nbsp;</em></p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">"Everything that [Americans have] done is what allowed us to be at this point today. And if you take that from us, you take away everything that America was built off of."&nbsp;<em>- Tyrone G. Parks, Arvada High School senior</em></p> <p>Five professors from the University of Colorado at Boulder wrote the <a href="http://blogs.denverpost.com/eletters/2014/10/06/protests-students-jeffco-school-board-2-letters/33896/">following</a>:</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">"We applaud the students of the Jefferson County School District for their civic engagement in demanding an honest and balanced curriculum in U.S. history. They are insisting that their education not erase important struggles to hold this nation accountable to its principles of liberty, equality and justice. Their participation in the cherished American tradition of civil disobedience, advocated and practiced by figures such as Nathan Hale, Henry David Thoreau and Rosa Parks, demonstrates their commitment to the often-contentious practice of American democracy. They know that learning a whitewashed version of American history will not provide them with the historical knowledge or critical thinking skills to effectively address the problems that they, and our nation, will face going forward."</p> <p><a href="http://coloradopols.com/diary/62806/right-wing-jeffco-school-board-seeks-review-of-history#sthash.C2WxEnuv.dpuf">Response</a> from Jeffco PTA President Michele Patterson</p> <p class="rteindent1">"My board voted unanimously to oppose the formation of this Curriculum Review Committee. Jeffco Schools employs professionals, educational experts, who should be making these decisions. Additionally, Jeffco Schools has a Curriculum and Text Book Review Committee which includes a variety of community participants. I have participated in the text book review process myself and find it to be thorough and adequate and I believe it would irresponsible of the school board to form a committee of citizens chosen solely by a board majority vote." If the board moves forward with this committee, they will be wading into dangerous territory. Censorship is not an issue parents or our Jeffco community will take lightly."</p> <p>Suggest that students use the quotes from protesters to help them answer the following questions:</p> <ul> <li>Why did so many students, parents, and teachers protest the school board’s proposed committee?</li> <li>What would you have done in the same situation?</li> </ul> <p>Allow students to answer the question with a partner or in small groups. Then have each pair or group report out to the whole class. Summarize what students have concluded.<br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <h4>Conclusion</h4> <p>Ask students to write down the most important thing they learned from this lesson. Ask them what issue would move them to protest the way that Colorado students did?</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>fionta</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2014-10-16T15:09:21-04:00" title="Thursday, October 16, 2014 - 15:09">October 16, 2014</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Thu, 16 Oct 2014 19:09:21 +0000 fionta 512 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Columbus and the Clash of Cultures https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/columbus-and-clash-cultures <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Columbus and the Clash of Cultures</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><h4>Objectives:</h4> <p>Students will&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li>Share knowledge about Christopher Columbus and his voyages</li> <li>Learn about competing opinions of the impact of Columbus</li> <li>Learn about ecological and political results of the encounter&nbsp;</li> </ul> <h4>&nbsp;Skills:</h4> <ul> <li>Research</li> <li>Critical thinking&nbsp;</li> </ul> <h4>Materials needed:&nbsp;</h4> <ul> <li>Today's agenda on chart paper or on the board</li> <li>Chart paper (or space on the board) for writing</li> <li>Map of the world showing longitude and latitude (if possible, maps from the 1400s)</li> <li>Individual chart paper for small groups, plus markers</li> </ul> <h4>&nbsp;Agenda</h4> <ul> <li>Gathering (10 min.)</li> <li>Agenda Review (1 min.)</li> <li>Small groups on facts, myth, and various interpretations (15 min.)</li> <li>Poster reports (15 min.)</li> <li>Evaluation and Closing: Something that surprised me (4 min.)</li> </ul> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4>Gathering: What do we know about Columbus?&nbsp;</h4> <p>(10 minutes)<br> &nbsp;<br> Ask students to go around the room and say one thing they know about Christopher Columbus (also known as Cristofer Colombo or Christopher Dove).<br> &nbsp;<br> Students may have very different kinds of responses: Lessons on this subject for the lower grades tend not to dwell on the cruelty and genocide of the European invaders, while lessons for the upper grades usually do include it. Students from other countries will probably have a different view than those who went to school in the United States. In Latin America, "Columbus Day" is celebrated as La Dia de la Raza and highlights the multicultural composition of Latin America. In Italy, Columbus is celebrated as a great explorer. In Spain, the day has been folded in to other holidays to celebrate Hispanic culture. In the United States, four states do not mark it, and some localities have changed the name to "Indigenous Peoples' Day."<br> &nbsp;<br> Accept all responses and chart them succinctly on chart paper.&nbsp; Once key words such as "national holiday," "explorer," "discoverer," "slave trader," "navigator" and so on are on the chart, ask the remaining students for more information (Italian, sailing under Spanish flag, Catholic, single-minded, Fernando and Isabel).<br> &nbsp;<br> <strong>Check agenda and objectives<br> &nbsp;<br> Review the agenda and check off the first item</strong><br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4>Activity: Small-group discussion and Report-back</h4> <p>(30 minutes)<br> &nbsp;<br> Explain to the class that there are many myths about Columbus. None of the portraits of him were painted while he was alive, so we do not even know what he looked like.<br> &nbsp;<br> History books used to say that Columbus "discovered" America. But, of course, there were people living there who had already discovered it. Now, we speak of the Columbian Exchange, for Columbus brought Europeans to this "new" world as well as livestock, grain, and diseases previously unknown, and he took people, food, and diseases back to Europe. Other Europeans had landed on the land mass, but Columbus arrived at a time when Europe was in a position to seize resources from the Americas - and had the guns it needed to do it.<br> &nbsp;<br> Almost everyone agrees that Columbus had unbounded determination and single-mindedness in achieving his goals. It is also well known, and was even at the time, that he was a terrible administrator who could not establish well-run colonies, and that he was cruel toward the indigenous people he encountered. After one voyage, he was brought back to Spain as a prisoner because of his incompetence. A contemporary, Father Bartolome de las Casas, wrote about Columbus's inhumane treatment of the indigenous population.<br> &nbsp;<br> Divide the class into groups and give each group one of the attached 1-page pdf background sheets on one aspect of the exchange. Ask the students to read the papers together, talk about what questions they have, and then make a poster describing the most important points they want their classmates to know. They should list their questions on a separate piece of paper.<br> &nbsp;<br> Give students 10 or 15 minutes to read their sheets and make posters.<br> &nbsp;<br> Then allow about 15 minutes for students to report back to the class.&nbsp;As students are making their presentations, they should evoke questions from the group.&nbsp; You might answer any questions that are simple and direct. If&nbsp;there are questions on the group's list, or raised in discussion, that require further study, ask for volunteers to look into them and give poster reports back.<br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <h4>&nbsp;Evaluation/Closing</h4> <p>&nbsp;Ask for several students to say something surprising that they learned today<br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4>SMALL-GROUP READINGS</h4> <p>&nbsp;<br> <a href="/sites/default/files/files/1-Columbus%20in%20Context.pdf">Reading 1: Columbus in Context.</a>&nbsp;Synopsis: Time of ferment, upheaval, leading to the Renaissance. Italy is on the verge of becoming a major financial power. Portugal is a great sea power, with Spain hoping to catch up. All educated people knew the world was round but didn't know there was a land mass between Europe and Asia to the west. Columbus miscalculated the distance and got lucky. Globalization was already underway, but the new area opened up a fertile and deadly exchange.</p> <p><a href="/sites/default/files/files/2%20-%20Spain%20in%20%201492.pdf">Reading&nbsp;2: Spain in 1492</a>. Synopsis:&nbsp;Defeat of the Moors; unification of Spain: expulsion of all Jews from Spain at a great cost of life and fortune. The expulsion of Jews also deprived many Christian Spaniards of sources of money to borrow, since usury was forbidden to Christians.<br> &nbsp;<br> <a href="/sites/default/files/files/3%20-%20Ecology(1).pdf">Reading&nbsp;3: Changing Political, Economic, and Biological Ecology.</a> Synopsis:&nbsp;Impact of disease on the indigenous population, possible introduction of syphilis to the Old World (wiping out five million people in Europe in the next four centuries). Introduction of horses, new grains, carrying of fruits and grain to Europe and Africa.<br> &nbsp;<br> <a href="/sites/default/files/files/4%20-%20Exchange%20of%20Populations(1).pdf">Reading&nbsp;4: Exchange of Populations: the Slave Trade.</a> Synopsis:&nbsp;Introduction of the African slave trade in a major way. Columbus had not found gold, so he wanted to bring back slaves, at least. Disease quickly wiped out huge portions of the indigenous population, and when gold was discovered later, the Spaniards needed slaves to work the mines and plantations (Columbus brought sugar cane, which adapted well to the climate).<br> &nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4>&nbsp;<br> RESOURCES</h4> <p>Books by Charles C. Mann put much in perspective:<br> <em>1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus</em> (2005)<br> <em>1493:&nbsp;Uncovering the New World Columbus Created</em> (2011)</p> <p>By Felipe Fernando-Armesto: <em>1492: The Year the World Began</em>&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;<br> <a href="http://www.strongnet.org/cms/lib6/OH01000884/Centricity/Domain/257/Seeds_of_Change.htm">http://www.strongnet.org/cms/lib6/OH01000884/Centricity/Domain/257/Seeds_of_Change.htm</a><br> &nbsp;<br> <a href="http://teachinghistory.org/nhec-blog/22951">http://teachinghistory.org/nhec-blog/22951</a><br> &nbsp;<br> <a href="http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr167.shtml">http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr167.shtml</a><br> &nbsp;<br> <a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/1492.exhibit/Intro.html">http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/1492.exhibit/Intro.html</a><br> &nbsp;<br> <a href="http://www.lascasas.org/">http://www.lascasas.org/</a><br> &nbsp;<br> Dia de la Raza&nbsp;: <a href="http://zedillo.presidencia.gob.mx/welcome/PAGES/culture/note_12oct.html">http://zedillo.presidencia.gob.mx/welcome/PAGES/culture/note_12oct.html</a><br> &nbsp;</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>fionta</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2014-10-05T09:37:08-04:00" title="Sunday, October 5, 2014 - 09:37">October 5, 2014</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Sun, 05 Oct 2014 13:37:08 +0000 fionta 515 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Reflecting on National Hispanic Heritage Month https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/reflecting-national-hispanic-heritage-month <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Reflecting on National Hispanic Heritage Month</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><h4>To the Teacher:<br> &nbsp;</h4> <p>September 15 was the start of this year’s National Hispanic Heritage Month.&nbsp; Like American Indian Heritage Month in November, Black History Month in February, Women’s History Month in March, and Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May, this is intended to be a time to reflect on, acknowledge and celebrate contributions to our society by groups of people who have often been underrepresented in our history books.<br> &nbsp;<br> But these months can also be a good time to pause and question why we dedicate a month to teaching material that should be incorporated throughout the school year.<br> &nbsp;<br> This lesson uses Hispanic&nbsp;Heritage&nbsp;Month as a jumping off point for discussing how "history" is shaped and what we can do together to include a larger variety of voices and narratives in our study of history.<br> &nbsp;<br> (See also, <a href="http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/black-history-month-how-do-we-change-history">Why Black History Month?</a>)&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <h4>Gathering or Opening Ceremony</h4> <p>Read the following quote out loud:<br> &nbsp;<br> "History is written by the victors."<br> &nbsp;<br> Mention that though the quote is often attributed to English statesman Winston Churchill, its origins are unknown.<br> &nbsp;<br> Ask students:&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li>What do you think this quote tells us about most official and mainstream histories that are used in schools across the country?&nbsp;</li> <li>How do you see yourself and your people reflected in history books? Is "your" story being told in mainstream American history books?</li> </ul> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4>Whose (Mainstream) History?</h4> <p>Historian, playwright and social activist Howard Zinn tried to counter the histories "written by the victor" with his book<em> A People’s History of the United States, 1942-Present,</em> which was published in 2003.&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;<br> Though some have debated whether Zinn’s book is "good history," it has become a popular alternative and counterweight to other more mainstream histories. Zinn himself stated that "with all its limitations,"<em> A People’s History </em>is "a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people’s movements of resistance."&nbsp; This, he said, is what sets his book apart from the other historical accounts often used in schools, which he called "the mountain of history books under which we all stand." &nbsp;He felt this mountain "leans so heavily in the other direction - so tremblingly respectful of states and statesmen and so disrespectful, by inattention, to people’s movements - that we need some counterforce to avoid being crushed into submission."<br> &nbsp;<br> Tell students that National Hispanic Heritage Month began on September 15. Ask students:&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li>Based on Howard Zinn’s quote, why do you think National Hispanic Heritage&nbsp;Month might be needed?&nbsp;</li> <li>What does National Hispanic Heritage Month (as well as Black History Month and other such months) try to achieve?&nbsp; What does it try to counter?&nbsp;&nbsp;</li> </ul> <p>One argument against Black History Month was made by <a href="http://forwardtimesonline.com/2013/index.php/editorial/jboney-speaks/item/852-black-history-more-than-a-month-to-me">Jeffrey L. Boney</a> in January 2014: "Black history should be celebrated and acknowledged in America, 365 days a year-7 days a week-24 hours a day; the very same way the founding fathers are heralded and celebrated daily." &nbsp;</p> <ul> <li>Do you think the same argument could be made against National Hispanic Heritage Month (and other heritage months)?</li> <li>Does that mean we shouldn’t celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month?&nbsp; Why, why not?</li> <li>Can you think of other ways to ensure that the history of Hispanic people and Hispanic perspectives are included in our history classes and other classes?</li> </ul> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4>His &amp; Her Story; Our Story</h4> <p>In small groups ask students to read and discuss one of the two poems below. Ask each group to consider the following questions:&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li>What are your thoughts and feelings about this poem?</li> <li>How does it relate to today’s lesson?</li> <li>What parts of your identity (Hispanic or other) can you find in the poem?</li> <li>What experiences described in the poem are you able to relate to?</li> </ul> <p>Back in the large group, ask students to share what they discussed in their smaller groups.&nbsp; Ask:&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li>Are the kinds of experiences described in these poems reflected in our history books in any way?&nbsp;</li> <li>What voices might we want to see acknowledged and amplified in our current historical narratives?</li> <li>How can we work toward including these voices in our history class this year?</li> <li>the poem Legal Alien, refers to "Anglos."&nbsp;&nbsp; Who are the Anglos the poem refers to? Why do you think we don’t have Anglo-American history month?</li> </ul> <hr> <h4>Closing or Closing Ceremony</h4> <p>Ask students to share one identity that they feel is minimized or disrespected (in the words of Howard Zinn) in mainstream history books. &nbsp;Record students’ responses on the board, and ask students to think about ways to counter this inattention as a class over the course of the year.&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4>Legal Alien</h4> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>by Pat Mora</p> <p>&nbsp;<br> Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural,<br> able to slip from "How’s life?"<br> to "Me’stan volviendo loca,"<br> able to sit in a paneled office drafting memos in smooth English,<br> able to order in fluent Spanish<br> at a Mexican restaurant,<br> American but hyphenated,<br> viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic,<br> perhaps inferior,<br> definitely different, viewed by Mexicans as alien,<br> (their eyes say, "You may speak Spanish but you’re not like me")<br> an American to Mexicans<br> a Mexican to Americans<br> a handy token<br> sliding back and forth<br> between the fringes of both worlds by smiling<br> by masking the discomfort<br> of being pre-judged<br> Bi-laterally.<br> <br> &nbsp;</p> <h4>Child of the Americas</h4> <p>by Aurora Levins Morales*<br> &nbsp;<br> I am a child of the Americas,<br> a light-skinned mestiza of the Caribbean,<br> a child of many diaspora,<br> born into this continent at a crossroads.<br> I am a U.S. Puerto Rican Jew,<br> a product of the ghettos of a New York I have never known.<br> An immigrant and the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants.<br> I speak English with passion: it’s the tongue of my consciousness,<br> a flashing knife blade of crystal, my tool, my craft.<br> &nbsp;<br> I am Caribeña, island grown. Spanish is in my flesh,<br> Ripples from my tongue, lodge in my hips:<br> the language of garlic and mangoes,<br> the singing of poetry, the flying gestures of my hands.<br> I am of Latinoamerica, rooted in the history of my continent:<br> I speak from that body.<br> &nbsp;<br> I am not African.<br> &nbsp;Africa is in me, but I cannot return.<br> I am not taína.<br> &nbsp;Taíno is in me, but there is no way back.<br> I am not European.<br> &nbsp;Europe lives in me, but I have no home there.<br> &nbsp;<br> I am new. History made me. My first language was spanglish.<br> I was born at the crossroads<br> and I am whole.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>fionta</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2014-09-28T08:11:12-04:00" title="Sunday, September 28, 2014 - 08:11">September 28, 2014</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Sun, 28 Sep 2014 12:11:12 +0000 fionta 517 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org