Philosophy of Government, Day 1 - Class Recap

The ball of yarn that we used in class today for the Class Unity Activity! Thanks for participating in this!

Dear class,

I enjoyed getting to know you all a bit better today! We had a productive time with the yarn activity and learning more about the philosophy of government. Here's what happened in class today:

Learning Targets Addressed: 

Knowledge LT 2: I can demonstrate an understanding of the role of governments in current issues.
Knowledge LT 4: I can explain how different ideological movements and philosophies shape politics.

Soundtrack: "Comin' From Where I'm From" by Anthony Hamilton. Because today, we talked about where we are from and how we got to be at Westview, via our family background. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/14/16:
News Brief - Max
Finish Fear
Class Unity Activity
Philosophy

Homework: Read the blog and post a comment (if you have not already). Jaden has the next news brief.

News Brief: Max had the news brief today and selected this article to talk about: NYTimes.com - Senate Democrats Block Zika Bill Over Planned Parenthood Provisions. We discussed why the Zika bill keeps failing and why Republicans would want to tie Zika research and funding to defunding Planned Parenthood. I also stated that the federal government is barred from providing funding for abortion services. Lots going on here and an important story to follow!

Jaden kindly volunteered to do the next news brief.

Finish Fear: This was left over from last class, in talking about September 11, 2001, and what fear does to people. It's good to try and process what happened after 9/11 with the US government in context.

Class Unity Activity: I always love this, for many reasons. One, because I love hearing about how everyone came to be in our classroom. Two, because of how the yarn connects us all. Three, because it helps the class (and me) learn names and a little about each other! Thank you for participating in this. It can get lengthy, I know, but I value it so much more than just lecturing for that time. :-)

Philosophy: After the activity, we watched this video (which had a LOT of concepts, I know) as another introduction to Government:

Quick, for sure, but good at asking some of the questions we will be looking into and stating the importance of government.

I wanted to start looking at some of the philosophers of government during the Enlightenment period. Here's the PowerPoint we went through (we only did slides 6-8 today - just focus on those for now):

Google Drive: Philosophers of Government PowerPoint

Again, please review and be responsible for knowing the basics of what Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Montesquieu thought about government.

Finally, we ended class with going over the political spectrum in class, which was most of this PowerPoint:

Google Drive - Political Spectrum PowerPoint

Please be familiar with the various different philosophies on the political spectrum, and where they are on the line from left to right, in relation to each other!

Here's the link to the Political Compass test at the end of the PowerPoint. Try it yourself!

See you on Friday! :-)