|
|
|
|
|
The Democratic Process
Teacher's Student Activities
|
- To initiate student explorations and growing understanding of the impact of individual
votes in the democratic process in the United States
- To explore the impact of the individual in other arenas, times, and under different
conditions
- Examine these guide materials
- Have students complete the pre-program activities so they will be ready and able to
participate in discussions regarding the program.
SENATOR ROBERT KERREY
Robert Kerrey has been the Democrat Senator from Nebraska since 1988, and serves on
numerous committees.
WYNTON MARSALIS
Wynton Marsalis is a musical genius leading a renaissance of pure, mainstream jazz.
The self-assured son of a New Orleans jazz pianist, he got his first trumpet when he was
12. At 14, Wynton made his debut with the New Orleans Philharmonic. He graduated
from high school with honors and entered the Juilliard School of Music on scholarship.
CBS Records signed the young Marsalis at age 19, and Wynton quickly became a trail-blazing hybrid, fluent in both jazz and classical fields. His debut album Remained on the
charts for 39 weeks and was selected "Record of the Year." Wynton has received
numerous Grammy Awards and nominations and five consecutive "Musician of the Year"
awards. He is heralded as the most critically acclaimed jazzman of the decade.
ANTONIA C. NOVELLO, M.D.
Dr. Antonia Novello was the Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service,
and is the conscience of the nation's health establishment. Dr. Novello grew up in a small
town in Puerto Rico. She struggled with chronic illnesses throughout her childhood, never
knowing a year without a hospital stay. Dr. Novello's triumph over her illnesses instilled in
her a profound compassion and "the dream of becoming a doctor for the little kids in my
hometown." Later, as a teenager, Dr. Novello did not tell her mother that she applied to
medical school until after she was admitted "because of deep fear of failure." She
graduated from the University of Puerto Rico Medical School in 1970, and earned a
master's in public health from Johns Hopkins University, where she also completed her
training in pediatric nephrology. Dr. Novello joined the National Institutes of Health as
deputy director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. As
deputy director, Dr. Novello was responsible for the coordination of pediatric AIDS
research. This inspiring physician and administrator was sworn in as the nation's 14th
Surgeon General; the first woman and the first Hispanic ever to hold that position. Dr.
Novello has launched major campaigns addressing the special problems of America's
youth, overseeing the health of an entire "generation at risk."
NEIL SHEEHAN
Neil Sheehan is one of the nation's greatest reporters. He obtained the Pentagon Papers,
which brought The New York Times the Pulitzer Prize gold medal for meritorious public
service. Mr. Sheehan was an honor student at Harvard University before joining the Army
as a newsman in Korea and Tokyo where he edited the Seventh Infantry's newspaper. Neil
Sheehan moonlighted for United Press International and later took a full-time job with
UPI in Vietnam at a salary of $100 per week. Mr. Sheehan became an award-winning
Vietnam War correspondent In 1962, while serving as bureau chief, he met a dedicated
career officer by the name of John Paul Vann. Sheehan used the life of Col. Vann as an
essential metaphor for America's experience in the war, blending history and biography. A
Bright Shining Lie took 16 painstaking years to complete, and is a brilliant and powerful
work of enormous substance and ambition that earned Sheehan the National Book Award,
the Robert F. Kennedy Award and the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.
The Constitutional Convention was called in 1787 to amend the existing Articles of
Confederation. Instead, of course, a new Constitution was born. One of the strenuously-argued matters at the time of the Convention was the issue of representation. James
Madison's Virginia Plan suggested a new Constitution with a president, a bicameral
legislature, a supreme court, and a system of checks and balances.
William Paterson's New Jersey Plan suggested that the proposed bicameral legislature be
based entirely on population. Gunning Bedford of Delaware, speaking for less-populated
states, argued forcefully for an equal vote for each state. The Compromise Solution is
found in Article 1, sections 2 and 3 of the Constitution: A bicameral legislature with votes
in one house based on population and in the other based on equal representation.
Individual Votes for President
The Electoral College was established by the Framers in response to their fears that the
people could not be trusted to make a wise choice for president. They believed the
average citizen was ill-informed and easily misled. Many possible solutions to the problem
of electing the president were suggested. James Madison's Virginia Plan called for
selection of the president by Congress; Roger Sherman agreed. John Rutledge believed
that only the Senate should select the president. James Wilson, the most democratic
delegate, called for direct election by the people and was immediately voted down. But he
offered this compromise: let the people choose "electors" to pick the president. This
arrangement was set down in Article 11, Section I of the Constitution. As a result, the
Presidential electoral decision today reflects the popular vote.
Individual Votes in the U.S.
Today's Constitution never states who can vote, only who cannot be barred from voting.
The Framers avoided the issue of citizenship and gave the states power to decide about
voter eligibility. But those who had fought the Revolution had fought for their rights, and
property demands for enfranchisement within the states eroded. After the Civil War, a
citizen was defined by the 14th Amendment, but it required the 15th Amendment to give
black "citizens" the vote. The amendments had minor impact as literacy tests and poll
taxes effectively barred blacks from elections. Fighting in WWII and Korea prepared
blacks to fight for their rights at home too. In 1964 the 24th Amendment eliminating the
poll tax was a victory for the black electorate. As early as 1848, the long fight for women's
suffrage began, but not until after women entered the workplace in WWI did the 19th
Amendment make women's suffrage a reality. The Vietnam War and a more aware youth
caused passage of the 26th Amendment, once again broadening enfranchisement by
lowering the voting age to eighteen.
Bicameral:
Based on or consisting of two legislative chambers.
Checks and balances:
The maintaining of separation and a balance of power between various branches of
government.
Constitution:
A statement that specifies the powers, the limits, and proper actions of a government.
Federalism:
Principle of government that divides power between national and state governments. The
national government is supreme.
Gerrymandering:
To divide an area into political units in an unnatural, unfair way with the purpose of giving
special advantages to one group.
Popular sovereignty:
The independent authority and power of the people over their government.
Republican government:
A government that derives its powers from the people and is administered by
representatives of the people.
Separation of powers:
The distribution of power among three independent branches of government the
executive, the judicial, and the legislative branches.
Regardless of what curriculum you are teaching, your students will benefit more from the
program if they complete the pre-program activities. Review the biographies of featured
guests and the reasons they are on the program.
Discuss the following with your students:
What voting rights do you have: in your school at home in the United States Who can
vote in the U.S.?
Is it fair to decide an issue on the basis of the greatest number of votes?
Curriculum Connections Civics Education, U.S. History and Government
1. Ask the students to vote on several issues facing the class, school, or community. Tally
results and post the outcome. Next, disenfranchise one group within the class: all males,
all females, all football players, etc. Do this several times and keep a record of the voting.
Does disenfranchisement affect the outcome? Are certain issues affected more than
others? Have students write about how disenfranchisement of minorities might keep the
"status quo" in a society.
2. Have students research poll taxes, grandfather clauses, literacy tests, democratic
primaries, and gerrymandering. How did each of these effectively keep more well-to-do,
educated blacks from voting but not poorer, less educated whites? How did
gerrymandering ensure that the black vote was ineffective?
3. In spite of the long hard fight for the right to vote, in 1980 only 53 percent of those
eligible to vote cast their ballots. And in 1984, after an extensive registration and voting
campaign, only 55 percent voted. Have some students find the voting percentages and
statistics in different areas and/or socio-economic groups and compare these to the
national norm. Have other students find statistics for years past and make comparisons to
the present. Have the groups present and discuss their findings.
4. From research data such as that above, have groups of students write proposals of
methods to get Americans to the polls: ad campaigns, changing voting days or times,
mandatory requirements. Have the class create a presentation to advance its ideas before
local political leaders.
5. To ensure that, as soon as they become eligible to vote, your students will know how to
make decisions, have them look up an issue for referendum or research the stands of the
two front-running candidates in the upcoming Presidential election.
Curriculum Connections Mathematics
The use of polls is very common in monitoring every aspect of the democratic process. A
number of math activities arise naturally from this program.
1. Create a list of statements, such as; "Radio and television broadcasts should be
censored;" "Governments can regulate the sale and viewing of books, magazines, movies
and recordings;" "Obscenity is in the eye of the beholder and cannot be legislated." Have
students mark their opinions on each statement on a scale of one to five, where one is
"highly agree" and five is "highly disagree."
Help students create a data base of their information and have a group of students report
on the findings of the class, including a statement about the general feelings of the class on
legislating "morality."
2. Ask other classes from various age groups and locations around your community to
participate in a study similar to the one above. Gather the data, make correlations based
on age and area, and create a map of opinions on legislating "morality." Share the class
report with local media and/or the city council. Then discuss the impact of your "vote."
3. James Madison explained the need for checks and balances in this way: "Ambition must
be made to counter ambition." Using a variety of sources, (see the Correlated Curriculum
Material section of this guide) have students create a chart or data base on the number and
type of presidential vetoes and overrides since 1789. Include in the data base these other
categories: Accidental President, Dominant Political Party, and the State of the Nation
(peace or war). Have students use their data base to analyze the potency of the veto: the
effect of political alliances, changes in frequency of use over time, effect of national crises,
and the effect of precedent and "habit."
Curriculum Connections Language Arts
Public Speaking, Debate A number of classroom activities in language arts and
communications arise from the issues that will be raised in the program on The
Democratic Process: Why Every Vote Counts.
1. The Electoral College was created because of the Framers' fears that the people could
not make a wise choice for President. Discuss this opinion with groups of students. Do
they agree? Have students, working in groups, investigate this strongly-held opinion of the
Framers and come to a recommendation of how they think the President should be
elected. You might duplicate the Issue Analysis Form for students to use as they formulate
their opinions. Have each group present a report with its recommendations.
2. As an extension of the above activity, have a class debate. Have two groups that arrived
at different recommendations about how to elect the President debate their respective
opinions.
3. Communication has often been used to influence the way people think (and ultimately,
vote). Have groups of students research and report on different examples of this general
principal; Radio Free Europe, Inherit the Wind. What examples can students cite of
current communications designed to influence votes? Are all of these examples "paid
political announcements"? For the next week, suggest students collect examples of
television, print and other forms of communication designed to influence votes.
Curriculum Connections-Global Issues
1. In the last few years there have been great changes of political boundaries and in the
structure of government in many parts of the world: in the former U.S.S.R. and in Eastern
Europe, for example. Have students (working in pairs or in small groups) select one of
these countries and analyze the voting rights of its citizens before and after the changes in
government.
2. Are any students (or their immediate families) from other countries? Encourage
students to do an "oral voting history" project. Ask them to interview people with first-hand experience of the political systems of other countries. Students can take notes and/or
record with permission of their interviewees, of course information from the people they
interview. The results of these "Oral Voting History" projects should be shared, perhaps in
the school library or media center.
3. As an extension of Activity 2, ask students to display their data on a world map by
creating a code for each type of voting system they have discovered during their
investigations. The code might use color or pattern to designate differences on the map.
|
| |
|
