A query for all...
The juniors I'm teaching are reading Lord of the Flies, and I was thinking that as an interesting discussion to have with them, we could talk about instances when people showed that they are, at heart, immoral like the book shows. I also want counter-examples. To frame this discussion in a thought-provoking way that any of the students can access, I will pose the following questions:
--In the last 500 years, what are the worst instances of humans showing cruelty to other humans?
--In the last 500 years, what are the best instances of humans showing kindness to other humans?
If nothing else, this will get them thinking of current events and history at a high level of Bloom's Taxonomy.
What are your personal thoughts of what should be on the list? I want to have some to share with my students, so your help will be appreciated. I'm leaving off ones I expect my students to list (e.g. the Holocaust, Sept. 11). Additionally, I am not including actions by those I consider truly insane. I want to include people who knew damn well what they were doing. But if you want to include the insane, go for it.
Here are my early thoughts for each list, unranked so far. CAVEAT LECTOR: SOME OF THESE ARE DISTURBING.
CRUELTY
--U.S. and U.K. forces firebomb Dresden. [I think this served even less purpose than Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so it was more ethically wrong even though it killed fewer.]
--warring factions in Sierra Leone amputate the hands of children.
--rape perpetrated by military forces [I'm lumping it all together, but plan to give the examples of U.S. soldiers raping an Iraqi teen and then killing her family, and rape during the Balkan conflict...I once read about a woman whom soldiers raped with their rifles.]
--religious persecution in Europe between Protestants and Catholics. [Once again, I'm lumping it all together. I read an article recently that mentioned Catholics, during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, killing two Huguenots and then "baptizing" their daughter in their blood as a warning].
--Lebanese militia slaughters unarmed Palestinians at Shabra and Shatila while the Israeli army, surrounding the area, either does nothing or assists vision for the militia by sending up flares (depending on who you're talking to).
--Leopold of Belgium exploits the Congo for ivory. [I would need to look up specifics.]
KINDNESS
--a $1 million winner in the McDonald's Monopoly sweepstakes sends the winning game piece to St. Jude's Children's Hospital and remains anonymous.
--Mother Theresa.
--Oscar Schindler saves the "Schindler Jews."
--Muhammad Yunus establishes Grameen Bank, giving "microcredit" to the poor of Bangladesh.
--In the last 500 years, what are the worst instances of humans showing cruelty to other humans?
--In the last 500 years, what are the best instances of humans showing kindness to other humans?
If nothing else, this will get them thinking of current events and history at a high level of Bloom's Taxonomy.
What are your personal thoughts of what should be on the list? I want to have some to share with my students, so your help will be appreciated. I'm leaving off ones I expect my students to list (e.g. the Holocaust, Sept. 11). Additionally, I am not including actions by those I consider truly insane. I want to include people who knew damn well what they were doing. But if you want to include the insane, go for it.
Here are my early thoughts for each list, unranked so far. CAVEAT LECTOR: SOME OF THESE ARE DISTURBING.
CRUELTY
--U.S. and U.K. forces firebomb Dresden. [I think this served even less purpose than Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so it was more ethically wrong even though it killed fewer.]
--warring factions in Sierra Leone amputate the hands of children.
--rape perpetrated by military forces [I'm lumping it all together, but plan to give the examples of U.S. soldiers raping an Iraqi teen and then killing her family, and rape during the Balkan conflict...I once read about a woman whom soldiers raped with their rifles.]
--religious persecution in Europe between Protestants and Catholics. [Once again, I'm lumping it all together. I read an article recently that mentioned Catholics, during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, killing two Huguenots and then "baptizing" their daughter in their blood as a warning].
--Lebanese militia slaughters unarmed Palestinians at Shabra and Shatila while the Israeli army, surrounding the area, either does nothing or assists vision for the militia by sending up flares (depending on who you're talking to).
--Leopold of Belgium exploits the Congo for ivory. [I would need to look up specifics.]
KINDNESS
--a $1 million winner in the McDonald's Monopoly sweepstakes sends the winning game piece to St. Jude's Children's Hospital and remains anonymous.
--Mother Theresa.
--Oscar Schindler saves the "Schindler Jews."
--Muhammad Yunus establishes Grameen Bank, giving "microcredit" to the poor of Bangladesh.