SUBJECT AREA: American History and American Government

GRADE LEVEL: 11TH-12TH

SUBJECT AREA: American History and American Government

TIME REQUIRED: 50-100 minutes

AUTHORS NAME: Erik Iverson, Churchill and America Institute, Summer 2006

I.  INTRODUCTION:

The purpose of this lesson is for students to begin to discover the meaning of the word “democracy” by using compilations of writings and quotations for Sir Winston Churchill. Students will engage in a Socratic Seminar; a structured, student-centered discussion format. The protocol maximizes student participation, requires students to read, think and listen critically, and facilitates the clear and convincing development and articulation of ideas. The Seminar places the burdens, responsibilities, and rewards of intellectual inquiry squarely on the shoulders of the students.

II.  GUIDING QUESTIONS:

Why do Governments exist? What does it mean to be a democracy?

III.  LEARNING OBJECTIVES;

By the end of the lesson the students will be able to:

-describe the various government forms of constitutional democracy, dictatorship, and monarchy.

-analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the different forms of government.

IV.  BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR THE TEACHER:

The following lesson is designed as an opening activity for students in an alternative high school setting with no more than sixteen students in a class. The classroom is a self-paced environment with curriculum normally designed with ample time for one on one teaching between student and teacher. All students in class are working on either American History or American Government. The theme of democracy is significant to both subjects.

V.  SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES/PROCEDURE:

SET-UP:

Align student desks in either a square or a circle, whichever lends itself best to the situation. If more than sixteen students are in class create an inner/outer circle/square. If more than sixteen students take two days to do this activity, with the first day having one group in the inner/outer circle and the next day switch.

HANDOUT AND REVIEW THE RULES FOR DIALOGUE AND DEBATE:[1]

HANDOUT AND ALLOW TIME FOR STUDENTS TO READ THE COMPILATION OF WRITINGS AND QUOTATIONS: [2]

Ten minutes.

PRE-PLANNING TO BE DONE BEFORE SEMINAR BEGINS:

Prepare at least 10-15 open-ended questions in advance to guide student discussion. Examples for this lesson could include;

-I’m curious, what does Churchill mean when he says “the more things change the more they stay the same”?

-Why does Churchill say “it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”? Note that Churchill does not claim to be saying this himself.

-I’m confused as to why Churchill would say that the best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter?

START DISCUSSION:

Students at first may be apprehensive, but once the first student responds usually the teacher just needs to keep the conversation relevant to the topic.

ADVICE ON RUNNING A SOCRATIC SEMINAR:

Do not be in a hurry to ask a follow-up question. Wait at least 10 seconds before trying to ask another question.

Do NOT force anyone to answer questions or call on a student who appears to be not paying attention. Often time’s quiet students produce the best writings on the assessment. The more Socratic Seminars a teacher does, the more the quiet students will feel comfortable and will eventually participate in the discussions.

VI.  ASSESSMENT:

Written response to the following directions:

Based on Churchill’s writings, quotes and what was discussed in the Socratic Seminar answer the following questions in essay form:

Why do governments exist?

What are the types of governments that have been tried throughout history? What are their strength’s and weaknesses? Which government would you like the best to live under? Which government would you like the least to live under?

NOTE: After students have arrived at their definition of democracy, they might compare it with “Encouragement for the Italians,” part of a message issued by Churchill at the end of his visit to Italy, August 1944.

Dialogue and Debate-- What is the Difference?

·  Dialogue is collaborative: multiple sides work toward shared understanding.
Debate is oppositional: two opposing sides try to prove each other wrong.

·  In dialogue, one listens to understand, to make meaning, and to find common ground.
In debate, one listens to find flaws, to spot differences, and to counter arguments.

·  Dialogue enlarges and possibly changes a participant's point of view.
Debate defends assumptions as truth.

·  Dialogue creates an open-minded attitude: an openness to being wrong and an openness to change.
Debate creates a close-minded attitude, a determination to be right.

·  In dialogue, one submits one's best thinking, expecting that other people's reflections will help improve it rather than threaten it.
In debate, one submits one's best thinking and defends it against challenge to show that it is right.

·  Dialogue calls for temporarily suspending one's beliefs.
Debate calls for investing wholeheartedly in one's beliefs.

·  In dialogue, one searches for strengths in all positions.
In debate, one searches for weaknesses in the other position.

·  Dialogue respects all the other participants and seeks not to alienate or offend.
Debate rebuts contrary positions and may belittle or deprecate other participants.

·  Dialogue assumes that many people have pieces of answers and that cooperation can lead to a greater understanding.
Debate assumes a single right answer that somebody already has.

·  Dialogue remains open-ended.
Debate demands a conclusion.

Dialogue is characterized by:

·  suspending judgment

·  examining our own work without defensiveness

·  exposing our reasoning and looking for limits to it

·  communicating our underlying assumptions

·  exploring viewpoints more broadly and deeply

·  being open to disconfirming data

·  approaching someone who sees a problem differently not as an adversary, but as a colleague in common pursuit of better solution.

http://www.studyguide.org/socratic_seminar.htm#Guidelines

WINSTON CHURCHILL AND GOVERNMENT

"The more things change, the more they are the same," say the French. Certainly, the efforts at human government attempted by the various nations of the world very largely confirm this profound and challenging paradox. Out of anarchy, indefinite, intolerable and threatening to become interminable, sprang kings, given all power and almost God-like status.

Of course, the kings governed well, or misgoverned, according to their circumstances and their characters. At any rate, they seemed far better than the hitherto unending anarchy and terror which had preceded them. But the risk of entrusting the entire fortunes, not merely of a group of tribes but of the great nations which developed under the kings, to the accident of an individual birth, weighed heavily upon the spirit of mankind. At one period Pericles or Augustus, at another Draco or Caligula!

After the old primeval anarchy had been suppressed society set itself to try to restrain their kings. They invented constitutions of many different types, designed to average the risks. Here they might hamper a great lawgiver, a prophet, a true leader of the race; there, on the other hand, they fitted a strait-waistcoat on a monster, a crack-pot, an idiot, or perhaps only a worm. …

The forms [of government] were often varied, but the idea was the same. Sometimes, as in the United States, through historical incidents, an elected functionary replaced the hereditary king, but the idea of the separation of powers between the executive, the assemblies and the courts of law spread widely throughout the world in what we must regard as the great days of the nineteenth century. …

Let us have a look at these figures who now wield ten times the power of the old kings, with none of their restraints of constitution, tradition, or dynastic outlook. …

It is not possible to form a just judgment of a public figure who has attained the enormous dimensions of Adolph Hitler until his life work as a whole is before us. Although no subsequent political action can condone wrong deeds of men who have risen to power by employing stern, grim, wicked, and even frightful methods, but who, nevertheless, when their life is revealed as a whole, have been regarded as great figures whose lives have enriched the story of mankind. …

We cannot tell whether Hitler will be the man who will once again let loose upon the world another war in which modern civilization will irretrievably succumb, or whether he will go down in history as the man who restored honour and peace of mind to the great Germanic nation, and brought them back serene, helpful and strong, to the European family circle. …

He has succeeded in restoring Germany to the most powerful position in Europe, and not only has he restored the position of his country, but he has even, to a very large extent, reversed the results of the Great War. When Hitler began, Germany lay prostrate at the feet of the Allies. He may yet see the day when what is left of Europe will be prostrate at the feet of Germany.[3]

Excerpts from “THIS AGE OF GOVERNMENT BY GREAT DICTATORS” by

Winston Churchill, News of the World, 10 October 1937 (Collected Essays IV, p. 393)

* * * * * * * * *

“You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. Yet in their hearts there is unspoken-unspeakable!-FEAR. They are afraid of words and thoughts! Words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home, all the more powerful because they are forbidden. These terrify them. A little mouse, a tiny mouse, of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

Winston Churchill, Blood, Sweat and Tears

“Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry”. Winston Churchill, Step by Step

“No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”[4]

Winston Churchill, Europe Unite

At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man,

walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross

on a little bit of paper—no amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.

Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 31 October 1944

How is that word “democracy” to be interpreted? My idea of it is that the plain, humble, common man, just the ordinary man who keeps a wife and family, who goes off to fight for his country when it is in trouble, goes to the poll at the appropriate time, and puts his cross on the ballot paper showing the candidate he wishes to be elected to Parliament—that he is the foundation of democracy. And it is also essential to this foundation that this man or woman should do this without fear, and without any form of intimidation or victimization. He marks his ballot paper in strict secrecy, and then elected representatives and together decide what government, or even in times of stress, what form of government they wish to have in their

country. If that is democracy, I salute it. I espouse it. I would work for

it. Winston Churchill , House of Commons, 8 December 1944

“Encouragement for the Italians”

excerpt from a message by Churchill at the end of his visit to Italy, August 1944

from The Second World War Vol. VI , Triumph and Tragedy p. 127

It has been said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. The question arises, "What is freedom?" There are one or two quite simple, practical tests by which it can be known in the modern world in peace conditions - namely: -

Is there the right to free expression of opinion and of opposition and criticism of the Government of the day?

Have the people the right to turn out a Government of which they disapprove, and are constitutional means provided by which they can make their will apparent?

Are their courts of justice free from violence by the Executive and from threats of mob violence, and free of all association with particular political parties?

Will these courts administer open and well-established laws which are associated in the human mind with the broad principles of decency and justice?

Will there be fair play for poor as well as for rich, for private persons as well as Government officials?

Will the rights of the individual, subject to his duties to the State, be maintained and asserted and exalted?

Is the ordinary peasant or workman who is earning a living by daily toil and striving to bring up a family free from the fear that some grim police organization under the control of a single party, like the Gestapo, started by the Nazi and Fascist parties, will tap him on the shoulder and pack him off without fair or open trial to bondage or ill-treatment?

These simple practical tests are some of the title-deeds on which a new Italy could be founded.

[1]· See attached page entitled Dialogue and Debate

[2] See attached page entitled Winston and Government

[3] All text above can be found on the handout “This Age of Government By Great Dictators”, News of the World, 10 October 1937.

[4] All quotations can be found on the following website: http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Sir_Winston_Churchill/