Course IntroductionAmerican Government & Politics

Room 201B—Office 218Mrs. BertolaWEBSITE:

http://blue.wths.net/faculty/bertola/

Let’s Have a Great Semester, and Have an Interactive Class….With a lot of Participation….and Questions…..Something like this?!?!?!? SNL—History Class

American Government & Politics

• What should you expect?– To be challenged– Improve you reading, test-taking, and writing skills– Expect to be more and more political savvy and conscious

of what is going on around you• What I expect from you:

– Curiosity and question asking– Participation– Reading completion and hard work everyday

Skills and Content: After you’ve completed this course I’d like you to be able to:

• THINK THINK THINK • Carry on a rational conversation about current political events • Read, comprehend, and be critical of the media

– Interpret political cartoons • Know how to contact your elected officials with clear policy concerns • Be an active citizen • Understand the political process in the US • Know your legal rights and responsibilities • Understand your own unique political ideology and how you came to

these views• Be “up to par” on current events• Take organized and effective notes• Articulate your opinions in writing

Materials needed for this Class

– Textbook—Bring this Daily!!!

– Folder (or binder)—You NEED to stay organized in this class, keep ALL notes, handouts, etc.

– Notebook/Looseleaf Paper– Writing Utensil– Assignment Notebook

Essential Questions of Course:

• Upon completion of this course, all students should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What does it mean to live in a democracy?

2. How does the U.S. Constitution set up our framework of government?

3. What is federalism and why is it important?

4. What are your rights and responsibilities as a citizen?

5. What links you to government?

6. What are the primary institutions of government and what do they do?

Course Units

1. Unit 1—Introduction To American Democracy

2. Unit 2—The United States Constitution

3. Unit 3—Federalism and Illinois Government

4. Unit 4—Active Citizenship5. Unit 5—Politics & Government:

Linkage Institutions6. Unit 6—Institutions of National

Government (Three Branches and Bureaucracy)

REQUIREMENTS:

●Students must take this course to graduate.

●Students need to pass a U.S. Constitution and State Constitution test in order to graduate.

*Students will take both of these tests during this course

●A Participatory Citizenship Project is also a requirement of the course.

 

ACTIVITIES:

■ Reading of text, supplementary materials, primary documents

■ Written journal responses to critical thinking questions

■ Analysis of political cartoons, graphs, charts, etc.

■ Class discussions of current events

■ Individual and Group Projects

■ Class lecture, small and large group discussions

GRADES AND EXPECTATIONS DISCUSSION

“A republic, if you can keep it”

“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army”

--Edward Everett(1794-1865) American clergyman, politician and orator, who served as a US Congressman, US Senator, Governor of Massachusetts, US Secretary of State, and as President of Harvard University.

Democracy & Education

• “Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife”

–John Dewey, 1889

• What is Democracy?

• What is Education?

What is Democracy?• “Democracy is not

something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles” – Abbie Hoffman --1960’s-

70's Political Activist

What is Education?• Education is the progressive discovery and

understanding of the world around us.– Education allows us to separate truth from

illusion so that we can maintain a system of government run by the people (democracy).

• What makes someone “educated?” – Well-informed?– Capable of critical thinking and reasoning skills?– Civically active?

Thomas Jefferson on Ignorance

• If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be. --Thomas Jefferson

“A republic, if you can keep it”

Can you Label the U.S? Iraq?

Clip one

“A republic, if you can keep it”

• Clip two

• Clip three (9/11)Do You Know These PEOPLE?!?!

An Ignorant Nation??• How many U.S. Senators are there?

– 100

• House members?

– 435

• Who is the Speaker of the House?

– John Boehner

• British Prime Minister?

– David Cameron

• Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court?

– John Roberts

“Just How Stupid Are We?”

Rick Shenkman on CNN

Bill Maher Clip

1984 = 2010?

• “They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening.”--George Orwell– “1984”

Questions from Citizenship Test

Craig Ferguson takes Citizenship Test

Plato’s Cave and the Matrix v. Reality

"the world that was pulled over your eyes to hide you from the truth....As long as the Matrix exists, humanity cannot be free." –The Matrix

Students Living in “Plato’s Cave”

What are “Caves” Today

• The “Self” (smallest Scale)• Home• School• Community• Media• Illinois• United States• Earth (largest scale)

And even if we get out of “the cave”, we don’t always agree on what we see

One’s Perception can often be an illusion or distortion of reality

• Why is this relevant in a course on politics and government?

What is Government? Politics?

• Government = The institution that makes and enforces public policies

• Politics = the process of deciding who gets the benefits in society and who is excluded from the benefits– “Who get what, when, where, and how”

• Political science can be defined as the study of politics. It revolves around three questions: – Who governs? – For what ends? – By what means?

Perspective versus Perception

• Perspective = your position, outlook, view• Perception = one’s interpretation and understanding of the

world around them.• Your Perspective creates your Perceptions.

– “Where you stand depends on where you sit”

One’s Perception can often be an illusion or distortion of reality

• Why is this relevant in a course on Politics?

Is the world “just”?

There is no justice in the

world

There is some justice in the world

The world is just

Perspective influence Perceptions and thus Politics.

If the world were shrunk to 100 people with the same demographic proportions in place, then here is what we would have…

100 People (2006)• 61 Asians• 12 Europeans• 8 North Americans• 5 South-Middle Americans• 13 Africans• 51 Females• 49 Males• 70 Adults• 30 Children• 33 Christians• 67 Non- Christians

• 6 people would possess 60% of the entire world’s wealth and

• 80 Would live in substandard housing• 53 would live on less than 2USD per

day• 50 would suffer from malnutrition

while 20 would be overweight• 14 could not read• Only 7 would be educated at the

secondary level and only 3 at the college level.

• 12 would have a computer• If you keep your food in a refrigerator,

your clothes in a closet, sleep in a bed protected by a house, you would be richer than 75% of the village.

"State of the Village Report" 2005

Perspective Perception• Goal for this semester—see the world and

American politics through a variety of perspectives, understanding that your own perspective has been created by your own unique set of circumstances (Cave) and has thus created your perceptions of the world around you.

Discussion of Controversy• Will you hear controversial

statements and/or ideas?– My goal in this course is to

challenge your basic beliefs, arouse your intellectual curiosity, and encourage you to think for yourselves.

• “I am certain that when opinions are free, either in matters of government or religion, truth will finally and powerfully prevail.”– Thomas Paine,

Age of Reason, 1794.

How do we get out of “The Cave”• Understand what we know• Realize there is a tremendous amount that we do not

know• Try to learn what we don’t know by connecting it to

things that we already know in order to provide meaning (and retention) of new information.

Fish Cartoon on Justice

Obama—Victory Speech in Chicago: November 4, 2008

GO PACK GO!