The Building Blocks of a Functioning Democracy

This week, we are going to look at the very building blocks of what makes up a democracy - what do you need to have to be considered a democracy. What that will include is a look at the principles of liberalism and how they affected Enlightenment thinkers, whose ideas are the cornerstone of many modern democracies. However, in North America, there were already thriving democracies in existence when European philosophers were still spreading their ideas. As such, we need to look at both aspects that affected the creating of our democracies in North America. Part of that discussion will revolve around the political ideologies that were influenced by the principles of individualism (aka: liberalism), as well as looking at Indigenous democracies and how they affected our political structure. By looking at the basics of our political beliefs it will help to determine whether the system we have in place really is the most effective or not. 

When we think of democracy, the thing that most people think about is having elections and voting. But there are many different things that make up a democracy and knowing those helps to make you a more informed and contributing member of society. Like Montesquieu said, "The Tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so  dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy."

As citizens in a democracy, we have a lot of rights and freedoms. However, there is the obligation of being a contributing member of society, but not all people know what that looks like. So this week, we will look at what our roles are in liberal society, what values come with democracy, how North American democracies were created and compare the political structures of the United States vs Canada, as we have two different types of democracies. Hopefully, we can look at electoral systems this week as well, which will make next week an opportunity to look at the downfalls of democracy.

What are we up to this week?

Monday:

• 15 minutes to finish your "title page" for characteristics of Individualism and Collectivism
• Go through the pages and the notes on Individualism and Collectivism
• Notes on creating of Liberalism
• Renaissance, Reformation and Revolution

Tuesday: 

• 20 minutes to finish the Ideologies Worksheet you started Week 1 - categorizing as Individual or Collective in nature

• Characteristics of Democracies
• Notes
• Activity that will require Glue and Scissors
• Go through the answers to the activity

Wednesday: 

• What influenced North American Democracies?

Watch this video about the formation of American Democracy

• Look at the Handout: Who is Canada Modelled After. Use the following websites to help fill in the following information in the chart. This is to be done ON YOUR OWN.
• Enlightenment Democracy
• Influence of the Enlightenment on American Democracy
• Canada's System of Government
• Iroquois Confederacy
• Influence of the Iroquois Confederacy on American Democracy
• Next use BK, ?, I to interpret the two sources attached to the handout
• Debate: Which do you think had more of an influence on North American Democracy - the Iroquois or the Enlightenment? 

Thursday: 

• Rants by Emma and Harmony 
• Article Reading activity - Why is liberalism necessary for democracy?
• You will need different colours of highlighters or pens for this
• Different Types of Democracy - All the terms you need to know (notes)

Friday: 

• YOU NEED YOUR DEVICES SO YOU CAN WRITE YOUR WEEKLY PARAGRAPH
• Electoral Systems Compared - FIRST HALF OF CLASS ONLY
• US Electoral College
• Canada First Past the Post

• Google Classroom Writing Assignment - Paragraph 3, due midnight Friday, but you really should be aiming to write one paragraph in the 40 minutes given

What's in a Democracy?

As we finish talking about the basics of all ideologies, we will begin focusing on the political aspect of our course, which should take us roughly about a month and a half. We will be analyzing a few different types of democracy and how representation is selected, the purpose of having a democratic government to protect rights and freedoms (should this always be the case), and the opposite of democracy, which would be our different types of dictatorships. As we go through this unit, it is important to understand how and why a democracy upholds or doesn't uphold the values of liberalism. 

This week, you will be looking at the key values of a democracy and which are the most important. As well, you will be looking at what influenced the creation of democracy in Canada and the United States and why we value what we do.

So What's Up For This Week?

Monday:

• Worked on philosopher quote questions

Tuesday: 

• Notes on Spectrums - different types and the vocabulary - what does it all mean??

• Potentially a Multiple Choice Questionnaire....
• Notes on Individualism and Collectivism - the basics of all ideologies

Wednesday:

Watch this video about the formation of American Democracy

• Look at the Handout: Who is Canada Modelled After. Use the following websites to help fill in the following information in the chart. This is to be done ON YOUR OWN.
• Enlightenment Democracy
• Influence of the Enlightenment on American Democracy
• Canada's System of Government
• Iroquois Confederacy
• Influence of the Iroquois Confederacy on American Democracy
• Next use BK, ?, I to interpret the two sources attached to the handout
• Finally, write a paragraph that explains which you think had more of an influence on North American Democracy - the Iroquois or the Enlightenment. This should be at least 3/4 of a page long, double spaced. The paragraph can be handed in on Monday
• DON'T Forget: Your project is due on FRIDAY next week!

Thursday:

• Rants by Chelsea and Molsen
• Finish going through the basics of ideologies - you will potentially need scissors and glue, if the rants do not go too long...

Have a great long weekend!

The Beginning of Social Studies 30 aka: All you ever wanted to know about life :)

Social 30...that wonderful course that you have anticipating for for the last 12 yeara is finally here, AND it's first thing in the morning! In all actuality, I love Social 30 and it really does have a lot to do with what you will encounter for the rest of your life. It is a great course to get into, if you want to, and can really help you understand how our society functions and to question whether or not how we run things is the best way possible.

I will be doing a "Modified Flipped Classroom", where there will be opportunities for you to deepen your understanding of the course content. What that means is that each week, I will try to put a new blog posting up by Sunday night to outline what we will be doing in the coming week. I will put links to powerpoints, slides, videos, websites, updates into Google Classroom and so on that, over the course of the week, you can look at to enhance your learning of the content. Once my projector is up and running, it is up to you to print off your notes if you want paper copies or to download digital copies to follow on your device. Ideally, the large portion of the intricate content would be what you look up on your own. Now, I know that looking up history is not everybody's cup of tea. However, by doing the background knowledge at home, it allows us to use the time in class to work on your skills to understand the knowledge = you will practice skills that will help you to be successful on your diploma in class, rather than focusing on knowledge. This is not to say that there won't be specific knowledge presented in class; it simply means to gain a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the course, I will provide you with information to help better prepare you.

Videos, such as the one below, are great background knowledge to what life was like before individualism came around that we are definitely not going to be able to cover in class. So, it is up to you whether or not you watch it.  But I really think you should :)

This blog will also let you know what we will be doing for the week, so it will be an agenda for what we are to get through.

So what's in store for the rest of this week?

Wednesday

• Philosophers of the Enlightenment - the European men who greatly influenced the development of Classical Liberalism
• Adam Smith
• John Locke




•  Jean Jacques Rousseau


• John Stuart Mill






• Thomas Hobbes
 


•  Voltaire






• Monstesquieu 

• Karl Marx




• Class notes on Philosophers
• Activity - placing philosophers on the spectrum
• Matching time! Fun! As always! Don't deny it!

Thursday

• Vocabulary: Radical, Reactionary, Liberal and Conservative
• Spectrum notes
• How do we interpret sources? BK, ? and I
• What is a political system and why do we need one?

Friday

• Individualism vs. Collectivism

• Parts of each of them
• How do they affect a political system/government structure
• Second Half of Class - Second Writing paragraph so you NEED your computers/iPads/something you can write on and access google drive from

Philosopher Videos

For each of the philosophers, you are going to watch the videos and determine the important information about them by filling in the slides provided for you. Once you have finished that, we will go through any additional things to add about these men and their ideas and how they relate to liberalism.

Your Last Week of Social 30 - I Know It's Hard to Hold Back the Tears

This is our last week of classes, and we've got four days to fill in a lot of last minute information about economics.

Some important dates to remember:

1. Tuesday afternoon from 1:30 - 4:00 (unless you are in Religion, you can come after Religion is over) - Review class 
2. Wednesday - I have basketball until 5, and a meeting at 7 - please let me know if you want a review session between 5-7.
3. Thursday - PART A of your diploma. You will be getting a free breakfast in the foods lab in the morning before it starts, be at the school by 8:30. You can leave after your diploma, but if you have classes in the afternoon, you still must go to them

Last week, we looked at all the downfalls of capitalism and what makes the system inefficient. From that we saw some of the changes that happened to alleviate the issues. For example, welfare capitalism was introduced to help prevent factory owners and employers from taking advantage of their workers and to pay them a decent wage, have safe working conditions, among other laws that were put in place to ensure all people received a Square Deal (Theodore Roosevelt). Then, we looked at how pure, un-restricted capitalism led to the Stock Market Crash in 1929. For 6 years, the government did very little to try to kick start the economy. Then, Franklin D. Roosevelt, based off of Keynes economic theory of Demand Side Economics, introduced more social programs and initiatives by the government to kick start the economy, which is what shifted the United States into a Welfare State.

This week, what we are going to look at is what are alternatives to the Welfare State and Capitalism (aka: Communism and Socialism), how the Welfare State struggled in the 1970s and the subsequent implementation of Reganomics in the United States and then a looked at two mixed economies - Canada and Sweden.

Monday:  

• Basics of Communism

• Implementations of Socialist Ideals:
• Robert Owen
• Karl Marx
• USSR
• War Communism
• New Economic Policy
• 5 Year Plans
• Perestroika
• The good and the bad of Communism

Tuesday : 

• The Failure of the Welfare State

• Ronald Reagan and Trickle Down Economics
• AKA Supply Side Economics
• AKA Reaganomics

Wednesday: 

• The Welfare State in Sweden vs. Canada's mixed economy

• How Taxation works in different countries and the theory behind them

Thursday: 

• DIPLOMA

Friday: 

• Discussion on aspects of the economy (ie: increasing minimum wage)
• Finish any other notes we haven't yet
• Practice interpreting sources

The Crash Course on Capitalism BEGINS!

As of this week, there are only 9 classes that we have left, as one of those classes will be taken for writing Part A next week - which is your writing assignments. We will be doing a crash course this week on capitalism - it's benefits and its pitfalls, which have caused us to develop new economic theories or modify capitalism to protect the majority of citizens. Remember when we learned about John Stuart Mill and a large part of his theory was the balance of rights - yes, you have the rights but within reason; that being that you are not infringing on the rights of others. Before Christmas, we were looking at the implementation of the capitalist theory in the Industrial Revolution, and many great things came about because of it. Look at this case study:

However, following along with Hobbes' view on humanity, when given complete economic freedom, some people used that freedom to better only themselves and did not think of the repercussions of pursuing self-interest would have on others, particularly their workers. In the early industrial era, it really became about the almighty dollar and the means of getting it were not often questioned. It wasn't until the early 1900s where the ideas of workers rights really started to be considered. Traditional capitalists saw this as an infringement on their rights to run a business as they wanted. This week will be dedicated to learning about the inefficiencies of capitalism and how they have been attempted to be corrected.

Homework: Watch Capitalism: A Love Story by Michael Moore - great documentary about capitalism!

Monday:
ISSUE #1 - MONOPOLIES (Not the board game)

• Notes on Monopolies
• Case Study 1: John D. Rockefeller
• Government Reaction
• Case Study 2: Eyeglass Industry
• Government Reaction

Tuesday: 

ISSUE #2 - TREATMENT OF WORKERS

• Workers and rights movements during the Industrial Revolution
• Chartists, Factory Acts, Luddites, etc
• Case Study: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
• Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Movement
• Government Reaction: The Square Deal

Wednesday: 

ISSUE #3 - UNPREDICTABILITY OF THE MARKET

• Unregulated market growth - The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression

• How the Stock Market Crash helped to create a decade of poverty
• First Shift to the Economic Left: Keynesian Economics
• How this would solve the problems from the Great Depression

Thursday:

• The Quickest Rants Ever (ie: limited discussion): Ryan F and Dustin
• Implementation of Keynesian Economics after the Great Depression
• Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal

• The creation of the WELFARE STATE

Friday: 

ISSUE #4 - INCOME GAP

• How capitalism leads to the income gap
• Socialism and communism as a solution to this problem

• How communism works and solves the issues of Capitalism

Finally Starting Economics - a Crash Course!

This week marks our official THIRD LAST WEEK!!! Which means, you should start reviewing things for your diploma over the Christmas break. Our last unit deals with economics, so we will be looking at how capitalism developed (a bit of a review from the beginning of the semester), how it evolved into modern capitalism, how communism attempted to solve the issues of capitalism, and key historical events that have led to the evolution of modern capitalism.

Some things to remember this week:

1. Your Dictatorship for Dummies project is due on Thursday
2. You will be having your Dictatorship and Cold War exam on Friday - probably between 25 and 30 multiple choice questions.
3. Rough copies of essays will be returned tomorrow - final draft is due on FRIDAY by 3:00 pm
4. Dates for doing your final writing assignments (in either a 2.5 hour or 3 hour time setting):
• Monday, January 4 - starting in your spare 
• Wednesday, January 6 - Starting in your spare (you should finish earlier as it is early dismissal)
• Thursday, January 7 - starting in your spare
• PLEASE SIGN UP WITH ME FOR WHICH DAY YOU ARE DOING THIS SO I KNOW HOW MANY COMPUTERS TO SIGN OUT BY FRIDAY!!!!

This Week In Social...

Monday:

Some videos about the Cold War....

Tuesday: 

• Aspects of Classical Capitalism that led to the Industrial Revolution
• How did the British government React to Classical Capitalism? 
• Pros and cons of the ideology
• Case Studies: Henry Ford vs. John D. Rockefellar
• When does self-interest become too much?

Wednesday

• Citizen and government responses to industrialization
• Responses in the Industrial Revolution
• Roosevelt's Progressivism
• Debate: Is it the government's responsibility to check industrial growth and protect workers in a capitalist economy?

Thursday:

• Rants by Corbin, Andrei and Ryan F
• Problem 2 with capitalism: The Roaring Twenties and the Stock Market Crash

Friday:

• Dictatorship and Cold War Exam