Introductory Material

“Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: 'You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself — educating your own judgements. Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society.”

― Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook

We want to develop citizens who can do more than use the formal procedures of a democracy [elections, etc.]; we want citizens who respect their interdependence and can work cooperatively across groups with whom they share some values but have different central interests...But if we agree with Dewey that democracy is primarily a mode of associated living...can we teach democratic values without living them? It is one thing to use democratic procedures within a closed group; it is quite another to work across groups in a genuine pattern of democracy...Is it enough to insist that students be “taught” democratic values or must schools be organized to provide opportunities for students to practice democracy as a mode of associated living?

• Noddings, Nel. Education and Democracy in the 21st Century (p. 24). Teachers College Press.

How can we design our classroom to "provide opportunities for [you] to practice democracy" as a way of living not just something that happens at a voting booth? What would a classroom that "practices democracy" look like?

Let's start by dividing up into groups and designing a set of "essential agreements" for a democratic classroom.

Add your thoughts to this Jamboard

Upon completion of the above activity we agreed on the following essential agreements:

• we will demonstrate respect for one another at all times throughout the course. We have purposely left this open to interpretation but will discuss for clarification either individually or as a class if necessary.

• We are committed to modelling democracy within the classroom. This includes, but is not limited to, due dates, working together to arrive at grades and collaborative deliberation on how the class is conducted on a day-to-day basis.

Please complete this survey so I can get to know you a little better.

Here are my answers to the "getting to know you" quiz. Hopefully, this will help you get to know me.

• Find your card and name tags (tags will just be for the first couple of weeks)

• Current Issues:

  • While I take attendance you should be reading the CFR daily newsletter or another story related to Global Politics and be prepared to tell the class one thing something you read that reasonated with you. Click here to consider possible news sources

  • Be sure to subscribe to the Council on Foreign Relations newsletter

  • Often at the start of class we will use a thinking routine to consider a current issue that is taking place in the world.

• Open:

  • your digital notebook (see below)

  • Google Classroom

  • Our website

  • Open any homework

Why Notetaking?

First, you need to read around the topic we will discuss in class. I can't provide you all of the details and examples of the theories and ideas that you need to know for the course. Plus, the writers are the pros, they study politics for a living and likely the particular topics they are writing about. In short, they know much more than I do.

Second, you need to prepare yourself for class. If you don't have some background in what we are discussing you will be lost when we begin discussing the topics in class. You will be expected to have some familiarity, though your readings, of the topics discussed in class.

Third, you can figure out before you start class the questions you have/the things you don't understand and already be looking to have those things clarified before class even starts.

Finally, you will read the material, take notes in your own words, I will review it with you in class and then you can study for the test from your notes and my presentations. That is a total of four times that you'll encounter the ideas prior to the test and will make it much more likely that it will be embedded in your mind for both the test and to be able to apply to further discussions as we work our way through the course.

How to Take Notes

• Put your most recent work at the top of your notebook

• Summarize readings, use quotes sparingly

• Indicate where the reading is from next to "source"

• Indicate the topic(s) of the reading

Let's give it a try by taking notes on this article on care and politics

This is a sample of a notebook, please do not use it, I have created an individual copy for each of you as an assignment in Google Classroom

Pick up a textbook and sign out your copy by filling in this document.

These two videos offer a good introduction to geography that sets the stage for our global political world