Rationale
To no one Man in America belongs the Epithet of Saviour. -Abigail Adams
Today it is hard to escape the criticism that the media aims at the President. According to Abigail Adams we should not be placing all of our hope in one man. Our government is meant to be a balance of 3 branches of equal power yet I often hear people saying "can you believe Obama did...". I want to challenge this thinking in my classroom by clarifying the powers of the Presidency and the intricacies of our government.
Some may argue that 10 and 11 year olds do not need to know the foundation of our government. They aren't old enough to vote or truly grasp the political rhetoric of today. I argue that we must prepare our students to critically think about the world around them. The more we challenge our students to analyze and reason through their opinions the better we have prepared them for a productive life. Many of the controversial issues of politics today are not appropriate for a 5th grader but the basics of our government are important to understand in order to begin to understand the political world we inhabit.
Much of what 5th graders believe about government stems from what they learn from their parents. This is not necessarily negative but my students are capable of beginning to form their own opinions about political issues. My students need the facts about the intention of the Constitution, the arguments for and against the Constitution, and what it has outlined for our government to prepare them to critically think through the opinions they hear. It will also expose them to the idea that differing opinions create discussion and there is not necessarily one "correct" opinion. For 5th graders who believe mostly what their parents tell them it is important to open mind their minds to analyze ideas from different points of view.
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