Objectives
This unit will accomplish the following critical tasks. First, it will highlight the history of struggle for recognition, inclusion, enfranchisement and equal rights - both defeat and victory - of historically disenfranchised communities, particularly, 1 st Nations (American Indians or Native Americans), Africans (Negros/Colored/blacks or African-Americans), women, Latinos (Hispanics), and Asians (Orientals/Asiatics/Chinese/Japanese/ or Asian Americans). We will examine examples of non-European, democratic practice within the Iroquois, the Civil Rights Movement, and the New Left. Second, it will build foundational knowledge of the basic principles of democracy according to Western - ancient to modern - discourse. Lastly, we will develop a democratic plan of action to address local, immediate, relevant change in the communities of my students.
Part 1 -Beyond Words on a Page: The (mal)Practice of Democracy and Freedom in America
In The Story of American Freedom, Eric Foner examines the long standing relationship between liberty and slavery, between the exploited and the privileged, between democracy for a few and tyranny for the many. Foner states, "For some, freedom has been a birthright taken for granted." Citing philosopher Samuel Dubois Cook, he adds, "For others, it is 'not a gift but an achievement….Historically speaking, [freedom] is the fruit of struggles, tragic failures, tears, sacrifices, and sorrow'(Foner 1998)."
All too often, the study of these "tears, sacrifices, and sorrow", has either been suppressed or has been taught piecemeal and out of context. On the one end, the telling of history has led to an un-spoken conclusion, a "meta-narrative" of non-white inferiority. On the other end, I have witnessed these fragmented and incomplete pictures of our past lead people in my community to a disempowering anger, targeted at an abstract, distant and all-powerful racial group - the white, "them". These two sides of the same coin create divisions within our communities and between communities. This unit will seek to bridge these gaps by helping our students see their own humanity - to see each others value and contributions to society.
In his "West Indian Emancipation" speech, escaped slave turned abolitionist, Frederick Douglas, embodies the spirit of this section. His words recognize the agency of the oppressed to transform, through a determined effort, their reality.
The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters….This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will (Douglas 2008).
This collective awareness of the need for change and the commitment to fight for it in the face of economically powerful and racist interests, is an inspirational lesson for all my students, regardless of racial background. It is this "thunder and lightning" that I seek to help unleash, fuel and drive my students to action.
This land was made for you and me?
The intention of this lesson is to teach my students about the development of democratic theory and practice, via their respective communities struggles, as they asserted their rights to freedom and participation in a just and democratic society, or in the case of the Iroquois, in their actual contributions to the practical and theoretical development of the US Constitution.
In Bruce Johansen's book Debating Democracy, he presents what has been commonly identified as the "influence theory." Johansen quotes Seneca elder Oren Lyons observation of the bicentennial of the US Constitution. "If Americans are going to celebrate the anniversary of their Constitution, we figure that we had better tell them where the idea came from," Lyon states. Furthermore, "What made colonists American as opposed to English was their experiences with the Indians (Johansen 1998)."
This interaction is key to understanding history beyond the institutional narrative that represents a belief that all good things American as being either products of Western European thought and practice, or homegrown by the European settlers and their descendents. This view unjustly and incorrectly limits the historical discourse to a handful of brilliant white men. To accept this is to assert the notion that the American Indian, the African slaves, women and non-landed whites, had no significant contribution to democratic theory and practice - extending this belief to the present relegates too many of my students to the sidelines of history.
The text, Indian Givers, by Jack Weatherford, as well as those of Foner and Johansen will be woven together to provide my students with a positive point of entry into a critical discussion of American Democracy - A discussion that all too often has left them out, or has marginalized their respective communities to the fringes. The contribution of the "America" in the broadest sense, towards a democracy reflective of all people, is where our journey begins.
Part 2 - Democracy According to "the Man"
With the inclusion of the fight for democracy and freedom by non-Western people established, the unit will then provide foundational knowledge of the basic theoretical principles of democracy, according to Western - ancient to modern - discourse. Again, rather than starting with the likes of Plato, Rousseau, Jefferson, Hamilton, and other great western thinkers as our classroom textbook suggests, I will bring them in only after hooking my students with the above mentioned information.
With a positive understanding of their own community's role and contribution to our democratic society, students will be encouraged, guided and supported to learn about the contributions of Plato, Rousseau, Jefferson, Hamilton and Mill to the foundation of American democratic theory and practice - a practice that would ultimately lead to numerous reforms that have become more inclusive to people regardless of class, race, gender and national origin.
Today, democracy is almost indisputably seen as the "one-size-fits-all" political system best suited for every society. Using excerpts from Plato's Republic, my students will be guided through a discussion of his understanding of the principles of "justice" and "the good" for the individual and society and explore his scathing critique of democracy as a lower grade of government. Following Plato, a discussion of Tocqueville's observations and concern's about the viability of American democracy and its challenges. Together, they will be used to highlight some of the long-standing criticisms of democracy as a political system.
Building off of these views, we will then explore the attempt to actualize democracy in America by exploring Rousseau's Social Contract and the Federalist Papers. We will use these texts to contrast the tension between the republican and direct democracy frameworks as a jumping off point to an analysis of our country's founding documents. We will investigate the form and content of the following documents: Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.
Lastly, a discussion of John Stuart Mill's, On Liberty, will wrap up this portion of the unit to highlight the significant contribution of Mill to the distinct and ever evolving American democratic thought and practice. His notion of the "market-place of ideas" as the means to preventing tyranny, will be analyzed and critiqued to deepen student understanding.
Part 3 - "We, the People"
Next, the unit will engage students in a comparison of the basic principles of democracy, in relation to their actual application/non-application, focusing on contemporary analyses and criticisms.
In a collection of alternative and supplementary "Declaration's" published by Philip Foner in his text We the Other People, highlights the long-standing awareness of the poor, working-class and disenfranchised, as well as their organized efforts to make the statements embodied in the document, a reality. Several of these alternative/supplementary documents will be studied to understand the particular struggles of workers, tenant farmers, women and African-Americans have fought and how things have changed over time.
Other texts to be discussed will be the series of organizational "point" programs that emerged during the period of the New Left. Students will analyze and compare the platforms of the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords Organization, the I Wor Kuen, the American Indian Movement and the Port Huron Statement of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
Part 4 - Critical Framework: A tool for Liberation
"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor, is the mind of the oppressed."
-Steve Biko
"Who Wants Change?", "Who would Benefit from Change?", "How does change happen?" are often questions that go unasked in our understanding of current issues. Building a critical lens from which our students can uncover the social, political and economic interests underlying various issues is an essential tool to guide their participation. Identifying and then defining these systems will help students differentiate the various issues as well as see the many and complex overlapping and contending interests. A key point will be that students understand that issues cannot be categorized in so general a way as "good" vs. "evil", or "right" vs. "wrong".
Students will learn that these positions are relative to each individual and that underlying one's position on any issue, are the interests they have in relation to the issue, based on the predominating system they are viewing the issue from, ie. politically, socially, economically. Students will be guided to see things from their own interests and be conscious about what they believe and why.
Paolo Freire, in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, discusses the process by which the oppressed internalize the worldview of the oppressor. Many of our students have a deep self-hate that has been developed long before they were born and have this false consciousness deeply embedded in their psyche. Sharing this framework for critical self-reflection for liberation runs in the Platonic tradition. Using Freire to further develop their understanding of hegemony as a system of ruling class control that actively trains people to be complicit in their own domination, will be used.
Building Critical Youth and Student Participation
Closing this unit will be a component I have had little success in actualizing up to this point in my 10 years of teaching. I believe that education should be useful and relevant to my students. Information for information's sake is not the reason why I am in the classroom. This course allows me the opportunity to develop an organized system by which my students can apply what they have learned and focus their participation in a meaningful way.
Students will engage in local politics (both in the school and immediate community) through the outreach and organization of a townhall meeting for this November's local San Francisco election. Following the townhall, students will organize and implement a version of James Fishkin's deliberative poll, on campus, to maximize the school community's awareness of the issues for the upcoming election and beyond.
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