INDEX

Reading Revolutions: Ideas for Teaching



Learning Activities:  Freedom in Different Countries

Different Countries

To understand the context of an essay or book students should investigate the zeitgeist or spirit of the times.  Students should be given appropriate original sources to read.  The length and complexity will depend on the age of the students and the difficulty of the material.  It's better to read five pages of Machiavelli than to read a summary in a textbook.  Students will remember the concepts better and the author can be brought to life for them so they can hear his or her voice.  The assignment is to find out what was happening in the author's country at the time he or she lived and to investigate what was happening in other countries at the same time.

When John Adams was writing A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America what were the ideas of freedom and government in Spain, Russia, India, Africa, or South America?  What was life like for the ordinary person?  What types of government were common at this time?  For the more advanced student, a consideration of the differences between John Adam's culture and the culture of another country and the role that difference played would provide quite a challenge.  Students with different interests can look at culture in unique ways.  How did people dress?  How many lived on farms?  What were the farming practices?  What kind of entertainment was popular in different countries?  What could you buy in a store?   How many people in the country could read the text?

When using a text devoted to discussions of freedom, you can consider slavery.  Many authors while passionately defending freedom were silent on the subject.  What different countries have practiced slavery?  What process led to the cessation of the practice in each country?  Did the different countries have different laws to protect the slaves?  Did slaves have rights?

Constitutions

Have the students collect the constitutions from as many different countries as possible.  Assign four constitutions to each subgroup of students.  The students should analyze the constitutions, compare the provisions, research how the constitution is used in law and by the legislature, and see if there are ideas that would work well in this country.

Freedom

Are the ideas of freedom different in different cultures?  How?  Here you might start out with the idea of freedom on the basketball court and then bring it into the school setting before you talk about freedom within and between countries.  The students should begin to discover that there are differences between individual freedom and the freedom of the individual within a group.

You can talk about different kinds of freedom...freedom from hunger, freedom from fear, freedom of choice.  Is political freedom worth giving up the freedom from fear or freedom from hunger?

How have these concepts changed over time?  Did the people in the 14th century have the same ideas about themselves as we do?

Marilyn Shea
Professor of Psychology
University of Maine at Farmington