Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” would be an ideal primary source to teach the theme of obedience. I could use the Albert Einstein conversation before introducing the letter to get students reflecting on how they …
When looking at Rosa Parks’ contribution to The Civil Rights Movement it makes sense to explore the theme of obedience. Even though she knew she might be arrested, Parks sat in a whites-only bus section and inspired a movement of …
Students are in the midst of figuring out who they are and how they can influence the world. Some feel helpless because it seems that they were born into a difficult situation or have experienced an unfair share of pain and heartache. Others feel almost superhuman and think they have the power to change anything they want. And for so many others, the truth of one’s power of self-determination is unclear and revealed slowly, over time and experiences.
Students must make decisions in life about how to treat themselves and others. There is a tension here in deciding whose needs should assume greater importance. Sometimes the selfish instinct takes over, other people are shut out and there is a laser-like focus on individual needs. Other times the selfless attitude leads the way. Making wise and balanced decisions about when to serve the self and other people is an important component to living a good life.
Whether at home, in the classroom or in society, everywhere a student goes there are rules. The effectiveness of these rules depends on people’s willingness to obey them. But students like to question the rules, especially when they feel the rules to be unjust or intrude on their happiness in some way. Students must engage in hard intellectual work in deciding when to follow rules and what criteria to use to determine fairness.
Students must learn how to solve all kinds of problems. Some problems are academic; others are emotional. Perhaps the hardest problems involve communication and the navigation of complex human relationships. What makes these types of problems even more difficult is that anger often intervenes. Anger is a wild variable that can either diminish or enhance the capacity to find creative solutions.
In Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, the main character loves her unique name until she goes to school, where she is embarrassed and bullied about her 13-letter moniker. Chrysanthemum never stands up for herself; only when a beloved teacher celebrates her beautiful …
Students are fed the consistent message that they can achieve anything in life if only they just work hard at it. They are in control of their future. But students are also aware of the fact that much of their future is out of their control and that no matter how hard they try, they will never achieve certain things. These two forces– the internal force of their own desires and the external force of the world acting upon them– conspire to shape their life experiences.
Students are told to follow the path of empathy and forgive those who do them wrong. This mandate is relatively easy to follow when their friends slip up and do something bad to them. Forgiveness in these cases often results in stronger friendships. But they are hurt by their enemies as well and must decide whether or not forgiveness is really worth it with them. This is a vexing ethical dilemma for which there are no easy answers.
Theodore Roethke states, “In a dark time, the eye begins to see.” Does suffering disillusion, or does it reveal? Is there a choice? When still young, Phillis Wheatley was kidnapped and enslaved, educated and published as a poet (after 17 …
Sometimes good teaching involves misdirection. You start with a topic that seems unrelated to the class, drift to another activity and then to another. If all goes well, (a big assumption!) your students are emotionally and intellectually invested in learning. …
The events of January 6th afford the opportunity to take on the issue of media censorship. Individual companies like Twitter are taking action to censor speech. Those companies are not obligated to protect 1st Amendment freedoms in the same way …
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