course introduction general constitution room 235 mrs. fowler website: let’s have a great 1st...
TRANSCRIPT
Course IntroductionGeneral Constitution
Room 235Mrs. FowlerWEBSITE:
Let’s Have a GREAT 1st Quater, and Have an Interactive Class….With a lot of Participation….and Questions…..Something like this?!?!?!? SNL—History Class
General Constitution
• What should you expect?– To be challenged– Improve you reading, test-taking, and writing skills– Expect to be more and more political savvy and conscious
of what is going on around you• What I expect from you:
– Curiosity and question asking– Participation– Reading completion and hard work everyday
Skills and Content: After you’ve completed this course I’d like you to be able to:
• THINK THINK THINK • Carry on a rational conversation about current political events • Read, comprehend, and be critical of the media
– Interpret political cartoons • Know how to contact your elected officials with clear policy concerns • Be an active citizen • Understand the political process in the US • Know your legal rights and responsibilities • Understand your own unique political ideology and how you came to
these views• Be “up to par” on current events• Take organized and effective notes• Articulate your opinions in writing
Materials needed for this Class
– Textbook—Will use in class and the eText ( we will go over this more on Friday!
– Folder (or binder)—You NEED to stay organized in this class, keep ALL notes, handouts, etc.
– Notebook/Looseleaf Paper– Writing Utensil– Assignment Notebook
REQUIREMENTS:
●Students must take this course to graduate.
●Students need to pass a U.S. Constitution and State Constitution test in order to graduate.
*Students will take this test during this course
ACTIVITIES:
■ Reading of text, supplementary materials, primary documents
■ Written journal responses to critical thinking questions
■ Analysis of political cartoons, graphs, charts, etc.
■ Class discussions of current events
■ Individual and Group Projects
■ Class lecture, small and large group discussions
GRADES AND EXPECTATIONS DISCUSSION
“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army”
--Edward Everett(1794-1865) American clergyman, politician and orator, who served as a US Congressman, US Senator, Governor of Massachusetts, US Secretary of State, and as President of Harvard University.
Democracy & Education
• “Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife”
–John Dewey, 1889
• What is Democracy?
• What is Education?
What is Democracy?• “Democracy is not
something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles” – Abbie Hoffman --1960’s-
70's Political Activist
Thomas Jefferson on Ignorance
• If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be. --Thomas Jefferson
An Ignorant Nation??• How many U.S. Senators are there?
– 100
• House members?
– 435
• Who is the Speaker of the House?
– John Boehner
• British Prime Minister?
– David Cameron
• Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court?
– John Roberts
1984 = 2010?
• “They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening.”--George Orwell– “1984”
Plato’s Cave and the Matrix v. Reality
"the world that was pulled over your eyes to hide you from the truth....As long as the Matrix exists, humanity cannot be free." –The Matrix
What are “Caves” Today
• The “Self” (smallest Scale)• Home• School• Community• Media• Illinois• United States• Earth (largest scale)
What is Government? Politics?
• Government = The institution that makes and enforces public policies
• Politics = the process of deciding who gets the benefits in society and who is excluded from the benefits– “Who get what, when, where, and how”
• Political science can be defined as the study of politics. It revolves around three questions: – Who governs? – For what ends? – By what means?
Perspective versus Perception
• Perspective = your position, outlook, view• Perception = one’s interpretation and understanding of the
world around them.• Your Perspective creates your Perceptions.
– “Where you stand depends on where you sit”
One’s Perception can often be an illusion or distortion of reality
• Why is this relevant in a course on Government?
Is the world “just”?
There is no justice in the
world
There is some justice in the world
The world is just
Perspective influence Perceptions and thus Politics.
If the world were shrunk to 100 people with the same demographic proportions in place, then here is what we would have…
100 People (2006)• 61 Asians• 12 Europeans• 8 North Americans• 5 South-Middle Americans• 13 Africans• 51 Females• 49 Males• 70 Adults• 30 Children• 33 Christians• 67 Non- Christians
• 6 people would possess 60% of the entire world’s wealth and
• 80 Would live in substandard housing• 53 would live on less than 2USD per
day• 50 would suffer from malnutrition
while 20 would be overweight• 14 could not read• Only 7 would be educated at the
secondary level and only 3 at the college level.
• 12 would have a computer• If you keep your food in a refrigerator,
your clothes in a closet, sleep in a bed protected by a house, you would be richer than 75% of the village.
"State of the Village Report" 2005
Perspective Perception• Goal for this quater—see the world and
American politics through a variety of perspectives, understanding that your own perspective has been created by your own unique set of circumstances (Cave) and has thus created your perceptions of the world around you.
Discussion of Controversy• Will you hear controversial
statements and/or ideas?– My goal in this course is to
challenge your basic beliefs, arouse your intellectual curiosity, and encourage you to think for yourselves.
• “I am certain that when opinions are free, either in matters of government or religion, truth will finally and powerfully prevail.”– Thomas Paine,
Age of Reason, 1794.
How do we get out of “The Cave”• Understand what we know• Realize there is a tremendous amount that we do not
know• Try to learn what we don’t know by connecting it to
things that we already know in order to provide meaning (and retention) of new information.