Civil Disobedience

You have all heard the quote by George Santayana, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Perhaps it is equally true that those who learn from history know how to use it to predict and change the future. 



Step 1: Make sure you have written in your notebook the three main categories of strategies related to power: organization, communication, innovation.

Step 2: Watch Matt Damon's reading of Howard Zinn's speech during a debate on Civil Disobedience:



Step 3: Read the following articles and be prepared to discuss more recent acts of civil disobedience (Thank you, Chase Hites, for sharing these articles!). Remember, Civil Disobedience is a strategy to create change.

Protests in US Cities Against Police

Students Boycott State Mandated Exams

Police Arrest 12 Maunakea Protestors

Step 4: Find two more examples of civil disobedience--one in the United States and one internationally. Post these examples on your blog and discuss your own thoughts on civil disobedience.

Note: To earn a top score for Criterion A, you will need to demonstrate detailed knowledge. Therefore, I suggest you reference Matt Damon's speech and perhaps even extend into Thoreau's remarks in his essay, Civil Disobedience, as well as Gandhi's Satyagraha approach.

Standing Up and Story Corps

Story Corps Assignment
Assignment Prompt: Interview someone about a social movement they remember or were part of.

Assignment Steps:

1. Review Story Corps program and get App
https://storycorps.org/about/
Great Questions: Story Corps
Story Corps App

2. Create a set of questions for your interview (3-5 questions will be perfect).
Submit these questions via Google Classroom.

3. Anticipate the "I don't know" response. Most people don't consider themselves activists and they may not know what you mean by "social movement."
Create a list of social movements that might help spark memories and submit via Google Classroom.

4. Post interview on your blog.

Some Rad Resources for Education

Technology is on the Verge of Putting Many Office Jobs at Risk

Do It Yourself Dot Org

How Minecraft Prepares Kids for Jobs that Don't Yet Exist

Big Problem: Tiny Solution!

Connect with Hokulea

Big History

Just a reminder...

School Re-design

Waiting for Superman debrief.

Goals of this course (brainstorm, work with rubrics).

The Super School Project


Here are some points of inspiration to consider. Feel free to add your own in the comments.

Community Block in the Schedule:
http://www.derryfield.org/Page/Community-Life/Community-Block

Place Based Education (PBE):
https://www.bankstreet.edu/occasional-paper-series/33/learning-naturally/

Rethinking College Admissions:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/20/opinion/rethinking-college-admissions.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

So, I kind of have a thing against complaining. But, I think if we take out the negative spins, this guy has some awesome suggestions on content we might consider for our changes, additions, super course, etc. He also brings up some good questions about the purpose of education--worth discussing further. Thanks to sophomore, Chris Espino, for sharing!




Flexible learning requires flexible learning environments!
One idea I had was to knock down the wall between our room and Mr. Ward's room--what if it was one big learning space. We would have to schedule our classes at different times, but it would mean we could have more room to "workshop" ideas.

Re-Schooling

In this unit, our statement of inquiry is:

[Write the part in blue in your notebook if you haven't already done so.]

Students will understand that systems create and reflect culture through an inquiry into education models.

Over the course of this unit, we will explore teaching and learning in order to determine the impact that different education systems have on culture. Our goal is to design new, innovative models for the future.

Our unit will be guided by lines of inquiry (big questions), similar to the ones posted on the board last semester. Please write the following lines of inquiry in your notebook [each question needs its own notebook page, so you can treat it like a page heading]:

How do different cultures approach teaching and learning?

• Cross-cultural Comparisons

How has learning and teaching changed over time?

• Historical Context

Are there better ways to "do school"?

• Innovative Options

Who is responsible for culture?

• Rights and Responsibilities

How do different models of education create culture?

• Exploring Systems

What is the purpose of school? What is the impact of school? What is/isn't working?

• Exploring Systems

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Under each line of inquiry in your notebook, write your own specific question to add to the learning process (you can write more than one).

Take a look at the example below. You can use some of the questions I wrote if you want to; just make sure you also come up with some of your own questions. We will continue adding to these LOI's (lines of inquiry) over the course of the unit, so you don't need to come up with every question today. 

Example

How do different cultures approach teaching and learning?

• Cross-cultural Comparisons

What is school like in China?

Which country has the best education system in the world? How do we know (what's the measure)?

How has learning and teaching changed over time?

• Historical Context

What was school like in the 1930s in America? Did they have the same classes?

When did they invent Middle School? Why?

Are there better ways to "do school"? 

• Innovative Options

Are there schools where most of the learning is outside?

Is there any evidence that more physical activity would improve our learning?

Who is responsible for culture?

• Rights and Responsibilities

Who changes schools? Who is in charge?

Why doesn't everyone have an excellent education? Who should fix the system?

How do different models of education create culture?

• Exploring Systems

Why do some schools seem more inclusive? Are there schools where kids can't wait to get to school everyday?

What is the purpose of school? What is the impact of school? What is/isn't working?

• Exploring Systems

What happens when people don't go to school?
What is the big goal of school? Is it just to get a job?
Why do we have to take SAT's? 

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Once you have your own questions written, start answering them. Find articles, videos, interviews, statistics. You can look online or you can use the resources on the tables. You can spend the entire period learning about one question, or you might find answers to multiple questions. Either way is fine!

When there are 15 minutes left in class, post your findings on your blog with your own brief explanation about your thoughts.

Here is an example blog post:

LOI (line of inquiry): What is/isn't working? Why?

I was wondering about SAT's. They don't seem like a good measure of our ability to do well in college. I found this really powerful piece about how students feel about standardized tests. It got me thinking--what would happen if I just refused to take the SAT? What if I wrote a letter to the college I want to go to and told them why I was opposed? Would they read it?

I found this breakdown of the history of the SAT: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/sats/where/timeline.html
What concerns me is that in 1948 it became a business. That means that they make money from the test, which means that it may or may not be actually valuable to education. Perhaps it is just valuable to the Educational Testing Service. This led me to a new question, are there places where they don't require standardized tests? If not, how do they handle college admissions? What if every college had its own test? Would that just be way too much for students to handle?
I am going to research this further.