Today's Assignment

HERE'S AN IDEA for you teachers, all grade levels, Social Studies, English, or Science. Hand out an essay question to everyone. Half of them ask: "Do you love this country? Why or why not?" The other half ask: "Do you love your country? Why or why not? Make them answer on paper, maybe 250 words or less, maybe just a sentence or two, your choice or theirs. Whatever works. Then, all kinds of beneficial exercises and activities become available. Everyone can read his or her own aloud to the class. Small cooperative learning groups are an option. They can all trade and grade. The vote can be counted as to who loves and who does not love country. Then of course, classroom discussion, with intermittent factual comments and guidance from the teacher can be quite interesting, revealing, thought provoking, educational. The social studies component is, of course, the citizenship government cultural issues. They are innumerable. In terms of English class, its simply a matter of writing well, and can even include the penmanship factor. Science can be involved from a sociological, psychological, and logical reasoning viewpoint; using the scientific method to arrive at a well reasoned conclusion. The juiciest part, of course, is the fact that half of the students are responding to "this country", and the other half are responding to "my country". Big difference there, of vital importance. Is your opinion based on objectve analysis of the country's characteristics, or upon a more emotional, subjective concept, personal bias, love of the self? That's the truly revealing educational part. It might even be something we could all do...