Period 2: Revolution! Day 4 - Class Recap

I passed around my two passports for the class to look at today. My US passport has special privilege embedded in the chip - since I went in to an interview with the government and passed a background check, I am allowed to skip most US customs lines and sometimes go through a faster and easier security scan at the airport.

Dear class,

Another great day of discussion! It was cool to see how interested many people were in talking about the issues. Thank you for participating today - especially if you normally don't like talking in class! :-)

Essential Questions: What brings people together? What tears people apart?

Soundtrack: “Miss Independent” by Kelly Clarkson. Selected for today because we continued the "forced choice" activity, where you were expected to make independent stands on various different social and ethical issues. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 2/28/13:

News Brief

Forced Choice

Reflection

Homework: Read the blog! Finish the forced choice reflection if you have not already completed it (see below for instructions). Cassey, you have the next news brief.

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News Brief: Niko brought in this article to talk about today: CNN.com - Robbers breach gate, steal $50 million in diamonds at Belgian airport. This brought up an interesting discussion about what Belgian Waffles are (still so hungry from that!). I noted that there are many heist/robbery films that make you root for the bad guys to steal the diamonds. :-) 

Forced Choice: Again, I loved your thoughtful participation here and willingness to respect each other, even with different viewpoints. I noted that it is cheaper to keep someone in prison for life than to keep prosecuting them towards the death penalty. Here's the evidence to back that up: MSNBC.com - To execute or not: A question of cost? - the quote in the article is that the death penalty is 10 times more expensive than life in prison. A while ago the Oregonian newspaper had an article of the same nature about our state, which was really interesting. Check it out here: OregonLive.com - Can Oregon afford the death penalty?

Here are the questions we went over today (the questions with ** by them were what we talked about).

1) Giving up some of our rights (like our phones being listened to without a warrant) is a necessary for our own protection. 

2) I would always support my country, whether it’s right or wrong. 

3) There is only one correct religion in the world.

4)  Religion is worth fighting for.

**5) We have to have violence in order for there to be change and peace in the world.

6) Oppression of any type should not be tolerated anywhere. 

**7) The government of a country should have the power to make decisions that the majority of the people in it do not support.

8) Under no circumstances should someone take land away from someone else.

9) Someone is always at fault for beginning a conflict.

**10) Democracy is the best form of government, no matter where you are in the world.

**11) Killing a person for killing somebody else is not right.

12) I would be willing to fight and give my life to stand up to oppression.

13) Being patriotic, means having absolute loyalty to America; no matter what.

14) It is worth it to take the lives of a few to save the lives of many. 

**15) People in power are always corrupt in some way.

At the end of the activity, I had the class begin (some finished in class) this reflection on it. This is homework if you did not complete it in class.

Write a one page reflection on the activity. What was the most difficult or controversial question for you? Why? How could these sorts of questions make it so that people want to revolt against their government?

Please be ready to turn these in at the start of class on Monday. We will debrief a little and then move on to some actual history.

Definitely let me know if you have any questions about the homework, or final responses to the forced choice activity. See you on Monday! 
:-)