Why Should Someone learn about Civil Liberties and Civil rights?
When I set out to create this unit I had one over archiving theme in mind: I wanted students to have a deep understanding of what it means to be free. In pursuit of this goal I wanted students to be exposed to a series of lessons which framed the complexities of the freedoms afforded by their legal civil liberties in relevant and meaningful experiences prevalent in student life. Each lesson in this unit is designed to provide students opportunities to develop a distinct understanding of civil liberties and civil rights, an understanding cultivated in honest sharing, discussion, and heated debate of their own experiences and historical examples. The unit’s lessons allow my students opportunities to participate in the greatest debates of our time. My first and last lesson embedded in this digital unit plan deal with the legal struggles of promoting equality among races and orientations. My second lesson speaks about my students’ rights as an accused party of a crime as outlined in the amendments listed in the Bill of Rights. My third lesson asked my students to critically look at the Bill of Rights to discover through thoughtful interpretation and analysis on how the right of privacy could be embedded in our legal fiber. Finally in my fourth lesson I have my students exercise the skills necessary to defend such civil liberties and civil rights by providing them an in-class simulation playing a lawyer or judge within the U.S Supreme Court embodying the type of hard and good work one must go through to ensure the protection of freedom. Majority rule vs individual liberty, the right of privacy in the 21st century, marriage and racial equality are only a few out so many issues which have tested the U.S constitution’s ability to protect the freedom of its citizens, however these issues both lay at the center of civil liberties and civil rights, and at the forefront of student interests providing the best jumping board for students to learn about civil liberties and civil rights. An understanding of our civil liberties and civil rights helps students engage in the political landscape in a profoundly significant way. The freedom to say what you want, act how you wish in the privacy of your home, the degrees of justice avowed by our constitution, and the right of equality under the law are the cornerstones of our democracy, these are freedoms too important to be taken for granted, but if students go throughout their entire educational experience without developing a deep understanding of them, taken for granted is the fate of these freedoms. My responsibility is to ensure that the next generation doesn't just know of these freedoms but to grasp them so intimately they would fight to last breath to protect them in order to conceive a more egalitarian society. To never let come to past what Abraham Lincoln once prophetically warned...
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” |