MORE DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS:
Rights, Liberties, & Limitations:
A Timeline & Evaluation of the Progress of Liberty
Objective: to trace the actors for and against civil rights and/or civil liberties in our country, including the movements themselves, the institution, the individuals, parties, etc. that worked for and against rights/liberties.The goal is to improve our historical literacy about critical civil rights issues. This will enable us to better understand what advanced and thwarted them. This, in turn, enables us to make informed decisions and policies that contribute to the ongoing causes of liberty and equality.
Disclaimer: this assignment contains controversial, sensitive topics of historical and contemporary importance. The readings address polarizing issues that divide our society today. Higher education, however, should equip students to engage students in contradictory ideals, ideas, methodologies, and disciplines in order to increase critical thinking skills. Why have we become so angry and afraid to engage ideas with which we disagree? If “our ideals” are “so great,” why are we so afraid to have others question and examine them? We must address arguments, theories, methodologies, and evidence. All sides agree on many of our problems; all sides seek solutions; they just seek different solutions. So, let’s commit to studying the evidence and engaging it with humility in order to improve our historical literacy and contemporary competency. Avoid ad hominem attacks on authors and classmates and instead seek to understand their arguments and evidence. You know what, why not commit to researching the side you like least and arguing honestly for that side based on the evidence you earnestly analyze? Who knows? Maybe you’ll strengthen or change your position if you do this.
My View: Hopefully, you will not be able to discern my personal views related to anything other than the Constitution from our class together. (If you attend a Roundtable, this may not be the case.) I will argue for and against all positions and with evidence from various perspectives and methodologies. Whatever you argue, I will argue something else. What if instead of thinking (or caring that) we are “right” about a topic or “more righteous” than others, including those of the past, we instead commit to learning and understanding more deeply? What if we instead see our current opinions simply as a reflection of our current understanding? In other words, I don’t think I am right or wrong, I just hold an stance based on the evidence I’ve been able to examine so far? Instead of working to prove ourselves right, we work instead to learn more so we can understand more; whether or not our position/opinion changes overtime does not matter. What matters is that we understand the past (or whatever topic) more deeply and more broadly. Sometimes this will affirm our current beliefs; other times it will contradict them, as education should. (I also want to mention that while I am grateful for InQuizitive and that the publisher provides a free temporary textbook trial, I am not a huge fan of the text itself. It’s been impossible to find objective history textbooks. They are very ideologically driven, so please try to juxtapose the textbook with the audio and other lectures I provide, as well as additional readings. The book focuses almost exclusively on the weakness of the country and very seldom focuses on the progress achieved.)
Instructions:
- Watch videoLinks to an external site.on defining and comparing civil rights and civil liberties (I must confess I’ve never defined civil rights the way contemporary scholarship does. I’ve always perceived civil rights and liberties as a combination of natural rights and political rights. However, it would seem contemporary political science defines civil rights as positive things the government is supposed to do for people. We could have an entire debate civil liberties and civil rights.)
- Complete reading and listening to lectures (For week 1 and 2 that’s the Civil Wary & Reconstruction)
- Brain storm the tensions for and against civil rights and/or civil liberties for the week’s topic (for week 1 & 2 that is the Reconstruction era)
- Choose 6 examples of an individual, group, institution, etc. working for and against civil rights/liberties, 3 for and 3 against
- Create a timeline and summary using google slides that explains the act/event, the actor and their defining characteristics, and the outcomes. (I’ve provided a text (although not a timeline example) below
- You should work on this weekly. I’ve set a weekly reminder to do the timeline, but the timeline itself is due at the end of the semester, along with the accompanying essay. You should complete this as small weekly assignments, but you’ll combine the timeline all together and submit the timeline in a final discussion about the topic
- In the private reflection assignment, state which side of the scholarly arguments explained here convinced you and why. For this assignment going forward I’ll post two videos/essay contradicting each other on difficult to discuss topics (Some times they will focus on race and class (like this week); other weeks will focus on gender, sexism, or sexuality; sometimes we will look at immigration. I know these are raw times, but we must know the history and learn to examine evidence so we can better solve the challenges we face. All sides care about the problems and want solutions to the problems, we just disagree on the solutions. So let’s examine evidence so we can find solutions. You need to watch them/read them and provide a quick post about what side convinced you and why, citing evidence etc. You may end up choosing parts from both sides that convinced or failed to convince you, etc. Education is about critical thinking, and critical thinking requires engaging diverse ideas and methodologies, so we will engage many, respectfully and with integrity, always. For example, with the chapter 15 reading we consider the debate between Thomas Sowell, an economist, and Nikolas Kristof, a columnist, about modern inequalities and their relationship to slavery and/or liberalism.