“What creates crisis cannot solve it.” ---The Red Nation, The Red Deal[1]
Introduction
“Hey Mr. Lopez, do we have to do this?” “Why do we have to do that?” “Do we have to write?” “Do we have to write this again?” “Why can you do that, but we can't?” “Why do all the teachers get to do that?” “This is so unfair” “Why do we have this rule?” “Why?”
These are the types of questions I receive on a daily basis from 10-11-year-old students in fifth grade who are constantly questioning rules, expectations, procedures, and the limitations adults impose on them. As a fifth-grade teacher, I usually just give them short answers, ignore them, redirect them, or just move on with the curriculum. Year after year, I notice this pattern and taking this seminar has given me the opportunity to approach to it from a different perspective: Fifth grade students are not constantly questioning just to challenge adults. They are transitioning from a concrete operational way of thinking to a more formal operational stage through a cognitive developmental phase that Piaget names as the stages of development.[2] I used to think that most of the times, they just want to avoid doing the activities. However, according to this developmental stage, the most probable thing is that they are learning how to navigate a world that they no longer view through a set of rigid facts; they start formulating alternate possibilities and questioning the logical consistency of the adults reasoning with these questions. They start understanding abstract concepts like justice, fairness, and hypothetical scenarios.
Students encounter power every day not only in a classroom setting, with the classroom expectations, but with family responsibilities, friendships, online spaces (texting), and the video games they play. Lawrence Kohbergs, in stages of moral development, says that children at this age are moving away from preconventional morality toward conventional morality.[3] What this means is that they begin to recognize that rules are “co-constructed” by humans, rather than absolute universal truths. Students in general evaluate the intent and fairness behind a responsibility rather than just the consequence of breaking it. A classroom's expectation feels sometimes arbitrary for them, or unfair, and they use their developing verbal skills to challenge them or transgress them.
Erik Erikson’s stages talk about the individuation process and autonomy and how pre-teens are starting to navigate the tension between industry, and identity, and how they fit in a world that has inconsistent expectations between parental or adult rules, and the growing pressure to fit in with their friends.[4] Students are constantly asking whether rules are fair, whether adults listen, whether leaders (they admire like youtubers, gamers, famous people in music or in sports) keep promises, and whether a person should obey when obedience harms their reputation or their “tribe.
The vocabulary used to discuss these experiences ---authority, power, resistance, justice, and legitimacy --- is usually reserved for older students, but fifth graders might experience them more than we think. The creation of this unit is designed for an English Language Arts classroom and brings those ideas to an elementary appropriate language level for their discussion through the exploration of a fantasy novel that students consistently choose and check out from the library.
Voices of Resistance: Letters from the Dragon World uses Tui T. Sutherland’s Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy as the principal text to review.[5] This novel follows five young dragons (dragonets) who have been raised in isolation and trained to fulfill a prophecy that adults claim will end a devastating war. The dragonets are told that their confinement, training, and sacrifice are necessary for the good of the world. Their story creates an accessible space in which students can ask difficult political questions: Who has the right to decide another person's future? When does protection become imprisonment? Does a noble goal justify imposed methods? Why do some characters obey while others resist? What responsibilities do people have when someone else is threatened?
The unit is grounded in some of the seminar readings on tyranny, political authority, resistance, abolition, empire, and revolution. These texts will serve as the intellectual framework rather than direct readings for the students and will support the structure of the activities to plan and develop with students as well.
Jonathan Wolff’s Introduction to Political Philosophy clarifies questions about the state, authority, liberty, and justice.[6] Plato’s Republic presents tyranny as both a political condition and a disorder of desire, in which the ruler is no longer governed by reason.[7] Sophocles, Livy, and Tacitus offer contrasting representations of conscience, emergency power, empire captivity, and abuse of rank. The Red Deal, David Walker's Appeal, and The Life of John Lewis broaden the creation/inquiry of the unit by establishing that resistance may be collective, abolitionist, revolutionary, environmental, disciplined, and nonviolent.
The primary goal is not to teach students that all authority is bad, or that refusal is always heroic. The goal is to teach students how to evaluate power and reflect on how it is gained, justified, limited, and experienced. Students will learn to distinguish power from legitimate authority, strong leadership from domination, protection from control, and impulsive defiance from purposeful resistance. They will practice supporting interpretations with evidence and listening to competing viewpoints. One of the unit’s central questions will be: When is it right to say no?
Writing is the vehicle through which students will make these ideas their own. Students will write letters from the perspectives of the characters in The Dragonet Prophecy, choosing an audience, purpose, tone, and message. Some letters will be private reflections, some will be warnings or petitions, and some will become public appeals. The letters should move beyond simply summarizing the plot, although plot summaries may serve as an appropriate scaffold for students who are still developing their writing skills. Through planning, drafting, feedback, revision, and publication, students will use character voice to show how power feels from the inside and how resistance can begin with language before it becomes action. The unit is designed for approximately four to five weeks and can be taught with selected chapters, or excerpts from the book and integrates literary analysis, writing, speaking protocols, listening, and civic inquiry.
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