Philosophy of Government, Day 3 - Class Recap

This is what the inside of the United States Capitol building dome looks like, in Washington, D.C. The Capitol is where Congress meets to debate legislation!

Hi everyone,

Today, we continued the Forced Choice activity, which took most of class. There were some really valuable discussions and insights that were shared about how we think the world should operate! Here's the class recap for the day:

Learning Targets: 
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

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: "Get Up, Stand Up" by Bob Marley. Selected for today because you were asked to stand up and move around for what you believed in, as related to the debate. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 2/14/18:
News Brief – Brooke
Forced Choice
Reflection
European Influences

Homework: Read the blog. The next news brief is assigned to Lucas.

News Brief: Brooke selected an article about this story to talk about today: CNN.com - Success for Harvard medical students in DACA could mean their parents are deported. We talked about this issue again and tried to deconstruct what is happening with the current debate around immigration. Thanks, Brooke! Lucas, you are next up.

Forced Choice: Again, a continuation of the activity that we started last class. This time, we hit a variety of questions from 2-10, here:

1. Giving up some of our rights (like our phones being listened to without a warrant) is necessary for our own protection.
2. People in the United States should be able to have firearms if they want.
3. It should be illegal for a baker to refuse to make a wedding cake for a same sex couple, based on religious grounds.
4. Marijuana should be legalized everywhere for recreational use.
5. Public schools should strictly enforce a standardized dress code.
6. Organized prayer in public schools should be allowed.
7. The government of a country should be able to make decisions that the majority of the people do not support.
8. Should the motto “In God We Trust” be removed from our currency?
9. The death death penalty should be an option for punishment of convicted murderers.
10. Confederate monuments should be taken down/removed from display.

I had the class answer the questions and choose YES or NO to each of them. Then, we split up the class so that two sides were facing each other. With each question, students moved to the side they felt best represented their opinion on the matter.

Today's class was interesting! One of the discussion points had to do with the cost of the Death Penalty, and I said it costs the taxpayers of Oregon roughly 10 times more to prosecute death penalty cases, over a murder without a death penalty possibility. Here is a link to that article: OregonLive.com - Can Oregon Afford the Death Penalty?

Thanks everyone, for your participation! We will finish this activity next class and move on. See you then!