Section 4: Social Disparity

This can be a very humbling and emotional section to look into, we want to make sure the kids understand what they are looking for so that it does not get overwhelming.

There are four headings in this section, Very Poor or Very Rich, No Social Programs, No Rights for Women and Racism and Discrimination. These are huge inequalities that impacted everyday living in the early 20th century.

Social Disparity means that things are not equal on a social level. We have looked into inequalities in unit 4 and can now apply that information we know to more minority groups.

We want to find out what caused these issues to be prominent (very poor or very rich, etc.,)!

An activity that can be done in this section could be keeping a journal, one day you can write about being the richest while you have music lessons, and an abundance of food. While the next day, you can write about being poor and look up some of the conditions that poor would have lived through in the early 20th century and reflect in a journal. This can be done for each of the sections in this chapter and can help the students start to see through the eyes of the disadvantaged.

Some prompts for the journal entries are listed below

These prompts can be used to research through the textbook or online, or just share stories of what you think life would be like. Pages of the textbook are 218-221.