LESSON PLAN: Freedom
Video Segment
Objectives
- To help students think about the meaning of freedom to different people.
Table of Contents
- Ask the class for examples of principles that people live by. What are some principles that people have been willing to defend? (Freedom; civil rights; equality; states' rights.)
- Conduct a word association exercise with the class. What comes to students' minds when they think about the word "freedom?" Write students' responses on the board. What are students free to do? What are they not free to do? What will they be free to do when they are older? How are money, gender, race, geographic location, and other factors constraints on freedom? How do they contribute to freedom? What were people free and not free to do in 19th century America? Which people were more or less free than others?
- Review the segment on Lincoln's election in Volume #142, Chapter 8. By the time of the Civil War, freedom had come to mean different things to many northerners and southerners. To these northerners, freedom meant the abolition of slavery. To these southerners, freedom meant states' rights. Discuss this disparity with the class. How did each side consider the other to be in violation of freedom? How was the Civil War a conflict over freedom? Why couldn't both sides be free to do as they pleased at the same time?
Discuss freedom with the class. What does freedom do? What does it cost? How is it achieved? Who has it? How is it preserved? What is the difference between "freedom from" and "freedom to?" Is it the same for everyone? Is it possible to be free in one regard and not in another? Ask students to give examples.
Have students look at the Free and Not Free graph. What point does it make about freedom? What can happen when a small number of people rules a large number of people?
- After viewing Volume # 142, have the class take notes on the causes of the war. Discuss the individuals and events that illustrate the importance of freedom. What were some different perspectives on freedom at the time? Who held them? Who voiced these perspectives? Who felt that freedom was being threatened, and how? Who felt that freedom was being achieved, and how?
- Debate the issue of states' rights and secession. Explain to the class that, from the North's point of view, the United States was formed by the people, and only the people had the authority to change it. From the South's point of view, states had the right and option to secede from the Union at any time because it was they (states) which had joined to form the Union in the first place.
- Dred Scott was a slave when he traveled with his owner from Missouri (slave state) into Illinois (free) and the territory of Wisconsin (free). He believed that since he had lived on free soil he had won his freedom. The Supreme Court disagreed. Review Volume #142, Chapter 6. What do students think of Scott's situation? Do they agree or disagree with the court's decision?
- Students might make a time line of "freedom acts" throughout world history. Place the events on one time line along the classroom wall. What events brought freedom to people around the world? Focus the activity on slavery around the globe. Research the years in which enslaved people became free.
Empathizing with Personal Experience
- Ask students to think of people in the local community who have had experiences unlike those students have today. These might be people who remember the Depression, Second World War, the Korean War, the Civil Rights Movement, or perhaps who were immigrants or lived through some other defining historical moment. Ask students to interview those people. Students should ask them what they think about freedom. How did their experiences shape how they view freedom? What sacrifices do people make for freedom? How do past sacrifices help them appreciate freedom today?
- Have students research Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad. What was her notion of freedom? How did she make it real for herself and for others? Discuss ways in which the underground railroad embodies the notion of freedom. Students might write a rap or song about the underground railroad from the perspective of escaping slaves.
Explain to students that they are to imagine that their class is a "station" on the underground railroad. Nominate several students to be "conductors," three to be fugitive slave catchers, and the rest to be escaping slaves. Ask the fugitive slave catchers to plot a scheme by which to capture escaping slaves (they might do this during the class period, in between classes, or at a later date). Slave catchers are to keep their slaves long enough only to identify them and list them as captured. You might get all of your classes in on the activity, allowing them several days to "round up" fugitive slaves. Students might wear name tags (slave, conductor, and slave-catcher) for the duration of the activity. Upon being caught, slaves might appeal to others in the hallway to help them.
Discuss the activity. What did it feel like for students playing the different roles? What did they learn? Did the idea of freedom become more concrete?
- Monuments were erected across the country after the Civil War to commemorate those who lived and died in it. Have students work in groups to create monuments to people or events of the Civil War. The monuments' theme should be "freedom." Monuments can be constructed out of easy-to- find materials, images, or text.
- Divide the class into groups and have each create a human sculpture about freedom. Invite them to create similar sculptures for the following terms: equality; compromise; dignity; fairness; justice; liberty.
- Have students express their feelings about and attitudes towards freedom by making a fashion statement. Options are: a fashion logo; a T-shirt design; a clothing outfit design; a magazine ad. Call the activity "Fashion for Freedom." What are some different ways in which trends in clothing might express the importance of freedom? How might they express freedom for people around the world? Does fashion ever express enslavement?
- Choose from the following topics (or use similar topics of your own) for an in-class debate on freedom: censorship; movie ratings; song lyric ratings; comic book ratings; curfews; and driving age. Allow students to prepare cases for and against limiting freedom in one of the issues. Encourage them to talk to other people and to find evidence to support their arguments.
What would happen if every person were free to do as he or she wished? Why is individual freedom also of concern to society? Ask students to use what they see around them in local stores, on television, in magazines, and elsewhere, to find examples of different kinds of freedom. For example, do stores offer the freedom of choice? Is everyone in the store given the same freedom (are there minimum age requirements for certain purchases?) Who is free or not on television? In magazines or comic books? In the audiences of these media? Are any of the "free" stepping on the freedoms of others? Is this something they are allowed to do, or are they abusing their freedom?
- Ask students to think about how they value freedom. Have them list ten objects, people, principles, or events they take for granted that nonetheless mean freedom to them. Ask them to imagine that they had to purchase these ten "items" on a limited budget. Now have students rearrange their lists in the order of most to least valuable. Discuss the exercise as a class. Do students take different freedoms for granted? Is freedom the same to everyone?
- Have students write a declaration of youth rights that specifically identifies the nature of freedom for people their own age. Discuss the issue of human rights with the class. Are "youth rights," and more generally, human rights, difficult to define? Why might they be difficult to enforce or defend? In what ways are "youth rights" different from those of adults?
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