War and Civil Liberties

Strategies/Lesson Plans

I will introduce my students, through the use of lecture, visual displays, worksheets, and guided discussion, to an understanding of the following concepts:

• The purposes of government.
• The dilemmas posed to Americans in time of crisis.

I will then have my students utilize the tools first accessed in this introductory unit in the study of all wartime lessons encountered during the study of our country's history. Our discussion of the dilemma will lead to the development of a paradigm that will take on a life of its own. I expect my students to foresee the potential for government restrictions on freedom every time our nation faces a crisis. (One potential problem will be that some students, enthused at the power to anticipate events, may miss out on some of the more mundane, purely factual material that I need them to learn. But that is a problem I will gladly accept, as the price for having students enthused about participating in a history class.)

My first objective will be to teach my students about the fundamental purpose of government. I have an unusual notion of how I would like to do this.

To begin with, I will teach them the concept of Abraham Maslow's4 hierarchy of needs. (A bizarre thing, one probably thinks, to begin the first day of an American History unit by introducing students to the teachings of a humanistic psychologist.) It will not be necessary to teach the entire Maslovian pyramid, but students should at least get to know the first two or three layers. The foundational level of Maslow's pyramid is 'physiological needs', then come 'safety needs', followed by 'love needs' then, 'esteem needs', and lastly 'Self-Actualization.'

Students will learn that some needs take precedence over others. This will likely be non-controversial. Only a few will dispute that the need to have physical sustenance outweighs the need for designer jeans. And they will probably see that physical safety is more important than having freedom of speech.

I will explain that according to Abraham Maslow, the government protecting us (insuring Physiological Needs and Safety Needs are met) is more valuable to us than government's suppression or removal of our liberties (which would probably fall somewhere between Esteem Needs and Self-Actualization).

I will then introduce an element of disputation (although I will feign ignorance of the budding controversy) by introducing them to some of the central concepts from Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan5. I do not intend to go into much detail, and I certainly will not take time to explain about Hobbes' personal history (except in respond to some of the students' questions, which will inevitably arise once they understand—or think they understand—his philosophy on the Sovereign). I want them to understand the concept of the State of Nature (or State of War, as Hobbes more commonly called it); of the absolute insecurity that he says exists in the absence of government. Students, most of whom today have a negative perception of their fellow man, will have little trouble accepting this notion. But then I will introduce the Hobbesian solution: an absolute Sovereign. While Hobbes of course did not endorse the idea of a monarch who was cruel or even heavy handed, he did explicitly express the superiority of such a tyrant over the absence of government, and this, I believe, will spark the first emotional discussions in my class.

Then, once they understand the Hobbesian view of the purposes of government in general, to provide order and thereby to make other beneficial pursuits possible, I want them to understand the qualitative distinction of our system of government, that is, the essence of our government that makes it especially worthy of our protection. I will teach them not only about the Constitution in general, I will emphasize the Bill of Rights. I will have them learn the general purpose of each of first ten amendments, and then focus our concentration on the amendments that deal with specific individual liberties that are likely to be threatened in time of war (probably the 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th—though not all parts of all of them).

At this point I will introduce Benjamin Franklin and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to help represent the other side of the debate (that is, the anti-Hobbes). I am using these two to defend individual liberties, pretty much at all costs. Benjamin Franklin's6 quote that "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" fits in perfectly for representing this point. And the ACLU mission's to protect personal liberties is wonderful for this purpose. I hope to trigger similar discussions amongst my students regarding this other extremity of the spectrum. Again, I do not intend to allow any issues to be settled; the discussion must last for the remainder of the school year—and beyond.

Everything that I have done to this point is merely preparing the soil for planting. Once the field is made ready, I will begin to plant the seeds of the course-long theme, on the role of government in the preservation of our liberties during time of war.

During such times, as we know, there is usually a suspension (at best) or even an outright loss of rights or liberties. Students should know that this is an ancient theme; it was noted over 2000 years ago by Cicero7: "In time of war, laws are silent." When a threatening opposition presents itself, the government is forced to react to the threat by clamping down on individuals as a safety measure. And the way government clamps down is to restrict, remove, or trample the freedoms we have.

This restriction in of itself is troubling to most citizens. As students will now already understand, some will object to any curtailment of any kind to personal freedoms. But what most people fear is that the ostensibly temporary loss of their accustomed liberties will become permanent.

I expect my students to come to an understanding, on their own, that the sign of a good and righteous government is one that, during a time of serious threat, manages to strike a balance between personal liberties and the maintenance of social order in a way that will be beneficial to the people as a whole. While this might cause some individuals a temporary loss of freedoms, they will be able to resume living with freedoms intact once the threat has been lifted. The problem lies in 'evil' governments that are self-serving and fail to look after the needs or freedoms of the individual, in order to maintain their own power.

Having established this paradigm, I will start out teaching my class the rest of the year in much the same manner as I have before, with the understanding that units involving crisis will all contain a subsection on the "Dilemma of the Critical Balance." Students will feel empowered to initiate these discussions as soon as it becomes obvious within a unit that the necessary conditions for governmental restrictions exist.

If all goes well, and I have succeeded in creating sufficient enthusiasm for the subject of the Critical Balance, I will then raise the bar further, as I will detail further in the assignments section below.

Both in this specific, introductory unit, and in the follow-up applications of this unit, I will use lecture, guided discussions, worksheet on the model, written essays, and role playing. Not all strategies of course will be used for all units. But all will follow the same theme, that of the Critical Balance.

I hope to show my students that our rights and freedoms are the life blood of our country. The assignments I am planning will hopefully demonstrate to them the absolute necessity of maintaining these rights, even as we seek to ensure our country's survival in times of crisis. Some examples of planned activities:

• Acting for the "greater good"
• To demonstrate this principle of the Critical Balance in a concrete manner, in an early exercise, before we actually get to any American wars, I will post in my classroom the rights and liberties "due" to all students. Ostensibly this will be done just as an exercise in classroom democracy, where the students will work together to come up with their rights. One right they will specifically possess is the right to be informed weekly of their grades earned on tests and assignments. Within a few days after establishing this right in their minds, I will purport the need remove this "right" due to "the greater good." When pressured I will tell them that they can not know their grades because it takes too much too much time handing out papers and progress reports. I will also inform them that handing out papers also demoralized the students so I will refuse to show them any of their grades 'for their own safety.' I will go on with this for just a period of a few days. After I make a big show about this, I will endeavor to get them to understand that just because something is purportedly 'for their own safety' does not make it something they always appreciate, agree with, or even find nominally beneficial.

• Translating Madison
• Students often look at texts from 18th century and regard them as unreadable. And indeed, some of the vocabulary has changed. But when pressed, students can understand the vast majority of the material from the period of our founding. I will take large sheets of paper and write the individual Bill of Rights on them. Then, I will break the students up into groups and have them translate the Bill of Rights into their own vernacular onto these large sheets of paper. Next they will present their "translations" to the class, both to demonstrate that they can understand the 18th century text, and, more importantly, to provide them with a context in which they are more likely to retain the information. (I had a colleague who did this successfully with the Declaration of Independence—in my opinion, a more challenging task. As I observed this activity I saw that it provided his students with a lot of self-confidence when they saw what they could do.)
• The Paper Evaluation
• I have an open note quiz which I will give them half way through this unit on the Bill of Rights. A copy of this quiz is found at the end of this unit. An open-note quiz is not in my mind an effective evaluation of what a student knows. My purpose is not really to use this as a means of evaluation but more of a method of learning. I have often found that students will work harder when they know a quiz or test is looming in the future.
• Your speech or your lawyer—what do you hold most dearly?
• I will engage the students into higher-level thinking by having them debate the relative importance of individual portions of the Bill of Rights for issues of war and civil liberties—specifically the 1st, 4th, 5th, or 6th amendments. [1st Amendment issues dealing with the church are probably not germane. And 2nd Amendment issues bear the risk of getting into a whole new ballgame—namely the issue of overthrowing the government itself—certainly not the intended topic. 8th Amendment issues are critically important to individuals, but I do not personally see them as being relevant to this discussion. 9th and 10th Amendment issues are, strictly speaking, not individual in nature, and the 7th Amendment does not seem to have any importance to issues of national crisis either. Finally, the 3rd Amendment potentially could be seen as very critical in times of war, were it not for the sheer impossibility of its being violated, due to both the public will and the altered nature of the military today. This debate can start off as an informal classroom discussion. Assuming that it sparks enough talk, I will assign it as a debate topic, giving them a day or two to prepare.
• Unit Application
• I want students to seize every opportunity possible to apply these principles, so I plan to make every wartime unit an opportunity to engage the students in active discussions. For each period of war we cover I will have students research the conflict and have the students prepare a paper or poster on the war and discuss how the government dealt with issues of public safety and personal liberties. If two or more students would like to get together and hold a debate on these issues during this time period, this would be very acceptable.
• Freedom vs. Safety
• I will have half the students write an essay explaining the benefits of living in a "free society", and the other half write an essay explaining the benefits of living in a "safe and secure country." I am not certain yet whether or not to allow them to make their own choice. Then, having read the essays, I will have the students who have made the most cogent and compelling arguments organize and debate their point of view. Finally, everyone will have to write a second essay on the topic, only this time, everyone will have to take the opposite point of view from their original essay.
• The Abuse of Freedoms
• I will have the students write an essay on how personal freedoms can be abused both by individuals (e.g., someone selling military secrets on EBay) and government (e.g., screening private emails without individual warrants). While this is simple enough to describe, it will actually, I believe, be one of the more challenging assignments, needing a significant amount of research beyond which most of my students are able to do independently.
• War is Here and Now
• As a final assignment, I plan to provide the students with a detailed scenario in which our country finds itself under attack, on our own soil. The students will be required to provide a plan for how the government should respond to this threat and state in detail the impact that the government's response will have on personal liberties.

Scenarios

1. An Arabic terrorist group sets up an autonomous authority somewhere in Mexico—most likely Sonora, Chihuahua, or Coahuila—and begins to work in concert with the Anzalduanistas, a Mexican rebel group whose slogan refers to the lands of the southwestern US, from California to Texas, "This land was Mexican once, was Indian always and is, and will be again". The Arabs agree to help the Mexican group regain the territory lost to the US in the 1840s, with the understanding that the urban areas will first become morgues, possibly radioactive. The Mexican government, belatedly learning about the group operating in the Sonoran desert, professes incapacity to act, as the group claims to be prepared to turn its weaponry on Mexico City if its activities are disturbed. The group makes its first move just across the border, in San Diego. So-called "dirty bombs" are released in the general lobby of Lindberg International Airport, on the streets of downtown San Diego, and a small nuclear bomb is exploded on Shelter Island, just across the channel from Naval Air Station San Diego.
2. The President of the United States is delivering his State of the Union address in January. A suicide bomber plummets to the Capitol from several miles above Washington. The nuclear bomb he is carrying detonates automatically, destroying virtually the entire center of Washington, including the President, the Vice-President, all of the members of the Supreme Court, all the members of Congress, and all the members of the Cabinet except the Secretary of Transportation. In a statement released to al-Jazeera simultaneously with the attack, the terrorists promise to continue the attacks on America until all American troops are withdrawn from every country in the world, whether those countries want the Americans present or not.
3. In an obviously coordinated attack, China crosses the Formosa Strait and invades Taiwan, while North Korea invades and occupies South Korea. Pyongyang threatens to nuke Tokyo, and China threatens to do the same to a major city in India, if the US takes military action against either of the renewed allies. Finally, China threatens to destroy oil fields in the Middle East if the US does not immediately withdraw from the region. In response, oil jumps to $155 per barrel, and gas in the US goes up to an average of $7.85 a gallon.

I will have my students individually work on these scenarios for about 30 minutes. I will then have them get into groups of 3 or 4 with other students. They will use this time to compare and comment on the three scenarios. At which point they will collaborate on a final course of actions that should take place to protect the citizens all the while trying to reduce the restrictions on the citizen's rights. I will then have each group present to the class the three action plans that they collaborated on.

My goal for this activity is that my students will grasp the difficulty the government has in protecting its citizens while insuring the continuation of freedoms.

Having completed all of these activities it is my goal that my students will have developed an understanding of government's purpose, understand their personal freedoms, and understand the balance between their safety and their freedoms.