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

Dictatorships. Keeping the Country Efficient by Ignoring You

This week, we will be analyzing how dictatorships worked, particularly in Nazi Germany in the 1930s to 1945 and in the USSR from 1924 to 1991. We will briefly touch upon the economic ideas of communism in the USSR, but in the context that shows how the Soviet Union used it as a means to control citizens. After we look at both rejections of liberalism and compare them, we will look at how these rejections led to a World War (namely World War II) and the Cold War, which lasted from approximately 1945-1990 with the fall of communism and eventual disintegration of the Soviet Union. Liberalism did not, and still does not, stand idly by as other systems reject its beliefs; in the case of fascism, World War II was fought and in the case of communism, it was the Cold War.

So what will we be doing this week?

Monday:

• Test re-take
• Work on projects or good copy of essay. Good copy of essay is due on THURSDAY - this includes people who haven't written a rough copy. I need a printed off copy by Thursday at 3:00 pm.  And when I say printed, I mean I don't want it emailed.

Tuesday:

• Start with looking at "communist" dictatorships as a rejection of liberalism

• Background to communism
• Russian Revolution

• Notes on what life was like under Stalin - his techniques of dictatorships used

Wednesday: 

• What is fascism

• Jigsaw - Life under Hitler
• How he gained power
• Techniques of dictatorships used
• Go through jigsaw
• If you are really interested in World War II and actions the Nazis took, here is a link that will get you to all of the episodes of Love, Hate and Propaganda documentaries

Thursday:

• Rants by  Russel, Sarah and Julie 
• Compare Fascism and Communism
• Interpreting Sources

Friday: 

• Start of the Cold War - Starts with the end of WWII
• Love, Hate and Propaganda - not only are there episodes about the Cold War at this site, but there's lots of explanations about people, places and propaganda used. If you are interested in the Vietnam War, Kent State shootings, Tiannemen Square incident, the Berlin War....There's a lot of information about it here, not just the documentaries
• How the Cold War started - Notes

Last Part of Democracies and then On to the Cold War!

This week, we will be finishing up the basics of democracies and then we will have about a 2 week stretch of looking at dictatorships and the Cold War. Meaning that we will start on economics before Christmas for about 2 weeks and finish up when we return from Christmas Break. Remember, there is a test THIS FRIDAY. What will be on that test?

• Basic features of democracies (characteristics)
• Know the philosophers and their views that impacting the creation of democracy
• Impact of the Enlightenment and Iroquois Confederacy on North American democracies
• How democracy works to balance will of majority with minority rights
• Individual and Collective Rights
• The ways in which democracy doesn't function well (disadvantages of democracy)
• Illiberalism 
• Balancing safety and security with rights and freedoms
• Dissent
• Imposition of liberalism

You should be familiar with the case studies, but  don't memorize those facts. You will never have straight recall questions on these facts, but you need to know the background knowledge of the case studies because they, or something similar, could show up as a source for questions.

What Will the Week Look Like?

Monday: 

• Finish Up with the Imposition of Liberalism
• White Paper and Red Paper

• What does imposition look like know?
• Source Interpretation
• Video Questions
• Go through what will be on your test (30-40 questions)

Tuesday: 

• Start with Dictatorships

• Different Types and the Techniques they use
• Similarities and Differences between dictatorships and democracies
• What liberal values do they reject and why?

Wednesday: 

• Communist Soviet Union vs. Fascist Germany
• Compare and contrast the two most prominent dictatorships of the 20th Century
• First two videos are on Stalin; second two are on Hitler

Thursday: 

• Rants by Traeton, Allison and Krista
• Review for test
• Continue working on comparing dictatorships

Friday:

• Test
• If you normally write your exam in the library, please just go straight there.

The Difference Between Rights and Wrong

"The USA was founded in the name of democracy, equality and individual freedom, but is failing to deliver the fundamental promise of protecting rights for all."

Last week, we finished class by looking at illiberal practices. As we discussed in class, sometimes a government justifies the means of limiting rights and freedoms to protect the maintenance of that democracy. Like we discussed in class, if you don't have a democracy, then your rights and freedoms are never EVER going to be guaranteed. But do you have a democracy if the government can pick and choose when it "needs" to limit rights and freedoms. This week, we are going to look at how citizens can battle those illiberal actions, and the right ways of doing that and the wrong ways.

Monday: 

• Illiberal practices in democracies
• Legislation for safety - War Measures Act, Patriot Act, Emergencies Act, Bill C-51
• Legislation for morality - Prohibition, Universal Suffrage
• Legislation for responsibility - Cell phone, Smoking Ban    
• Legislation for liberalism - Residential Schools, Indian Act 
• Vocabulary: Illiberalism
• Justification charts are due on TUESDAY
• Practice interpreting sources
• Video Questions on Illiberalism

Tuesday:

• Vocabulary: Dissent, Civil Disobedience
• Notes on Dissent and its role in a democracy

dis·sent

dəˈsent/

verb

1. 1.

   hold or express opinions that are at variance with those previously, commonly, or officially expressed.

   "two members dissented from the majority"

noun

1. 1.

   the expression or holding of opinions at variance with those previously, commonly, or officially held.

   "there was no dissent from this view"

   synonyms:

   disagreement, difference of opinion, argument, dispute; More

• Acceptable vs unacceptable

• The use of dissent in democracy and it's importance

Thursday:

• Rants by Keaton and Krista
• The use of dissent in democracy and it's importance
• We will be in the computer lab doing research
• Categorizing the events: Acceptable or Unacceptable dissent

Friday: 

• Remembrance Day Ceremony 

Is It Wrong to Not Have All of Your Rights?

In  democracy, rights are one of the most important things. However, to maintain those rights, there needs to be some limitations of rights. But is that the purpose of democracy? To limit rights to maintain the democracy? Or is it to maintain your rights at all costs? Every government needs to decide what action they take to determine this point. In Canada, one of the proposed laws to counteract terrorism is Bill C-51.

This week, we will be looking at several different types of legislation and how they attempt to keep people safe and if limiting the rights is worth risking never getting them back.

What are we doing this week?

Monday: 

• Finish talking about collective rights as there was less than half the class to talk about them on Friday.
• Vocabulary: Individual and Collective rights 
• Safety and security vs. Rights and Freedoms

Tuesday: 

• Safety and security case studies in the Computer Lab. You can meet in the computer lab. Topics will be selected in class. EACH person will be researching two different case studies. Research does NOT include copying and pasting parts from articles on the website. If you don't finish it in class, then the assignment will be for homework.

Wednesday: 

• Balancing rights and freedoms
• Vietnam War
• Residential Schools
• War Measures Act in Canada
• Patriot Act in the US
• Bill C-51
• What's more important - Safety and security or rights and freedoms?
• Right action vs. being Illiberal
• Vocab: Illiberalism 

Thursday: 

• Rants by Britney and JP 
• What can be considered illiberal
• Assignment: Classifying events as illiberal or justifiable (Due Friday)
• Start talking about dissent

Friday: 

• Dissent is the highest form of patriotism - why?
• How can you dissent
• Examples of dissent

Is it more important to have rights or preserve the democracy you have?

Last week in class, we analyzed what some of the drawbacks were to a democracy. A large setback to having an efficient democracy is to have EDUCATED citizens. One of the things that John Locke really focused on was the accountability of your government. If people are not active participants who are informed and engaged in the democratic process, it becomes extremely easy for the government to do things that are not always what the people want; hence, they are not accountable. (Go back a couple weeks ago and watch the Ukraine video if you haven't yet - that unaccountable government led to MONTHS of protest). When people think of democracy, the cornerstones that most frequently come to mind are voting and rights and freedoms. We've looked at voting. Now, we will be looking at rights and freedoms. This brings us (sort of) back to Mill's ideas of balancing rights and freedoms for the good of society. Democracies limit individual freedoms in the name of the greater good. But WHAT IF that limitation is unjustifiable? Is preserving that democracy in a time of crisis more important than preserving the ideals of that society? What if you are in a time of crisis? Does that change anything? 

Look at 9/11:

The US has legislation that was passed after 9/11, following the terrorist attacks, that allowed the government to have increased power of surveillance and gave authorities more power to determine if Americans or others were threats to the security of the nation. To preserve the democracy, rights need to be limited, which makes sense. If you can't protect the very institution that will preserve your rights and freedoms, then you risk losing it. But is that right? Or is there limitation?

SO how will we look at that this week?

Monday: 

• Writing your rough copy in the computer lab. You can go directly to the computer lab to write. YOU MUST COMPLETE THE ASSIGNMENT IN THE TIME GIVEN.
• If you are absent TIME YOUR SELF - no more than 90 minutes and bring in your rough draft the day after.

Tuesday: 

• Rights
• Individual Rights
• Universal declaration of Human Rights
• Should there be limitations in Canada?
• Father Michael will be with us for the last 30 minutes of class for discussion

Wednesday:

• Collective Rights
• History behind them
• Do we still need them?
• Are they unfair?

• Are collective rights against the ideas of democracy?

Thursday: 

• Rants by Darian, Quintin and Crystal 
• Safety and security vs. Rights and freedoms - which is more important?
• A look at the life of Omar Khadr
• Look at our legislation - what can our government do?
• Look at Bill C-51 and where it came from
• Start watching video on Patriot Act rights restrictions

Friday

• Finish watching the video
• Computer lab - Rights restrictions in democracies in times of crisis

What do you do when democracy sucks?

Last week, we started to look at some of the set backs of democracy such as - what do you do when people don't vote? Is that an accurate representation of what your democracy is? Or, if people aren't really informed on the issues, do you want them to make decisions that will affect YOUR life? For example, girls, what if you had Redneck as your grad theme this year, just because there happened to be more boys in your class and they ALL VOTED.......just like we almost had Nascar Under the Sea as a theme last year; the boys thought it was hilarious because it wasn't something that mattered to them. But the girls did not want their input because it was a horrible theme. That's where the elite theory of democracy would come in - the boys don't care about grad, so they shouldn't be voting. But is that democracy??

This week, we are going to continue looking at things that affect the efficiency of the democratic system. One way that our system is affected is by lobby groups or special interest groups. If we have such groups, does that make us more or less democratic? We will also be looking at how we can change our democracy if it isn't reflecting what the people want. Remember, one of the first things that we went through about democracies is that there needs to be SOME WAY that it can change - viewpoints and values change and the democracy needs to change with it. Finally, we will start looking at human rights in democracy, both individual (this week) and collective next week.

What's this week looking like?

Tuesday: 

• We are going to have a contest in class. By Friday, anybody who wants to participate, can forecast what they think the outcome of the election next week will be. That will include who they think will win, how many seats each party will get, and if there is a majority or minority government. The closest guess will win a basket of goodies! Only play if you want to. Guesses need to be in by FRIDAY.
• Finish notes about interest groups

 

• HOMEWORK: Watch the following ed-Ted video. There is a video with 9 questions (8 based on the video and one discussion). You need to create an account on Ed-Ted, answer the questions and I will be getting your answers online. This shouldn't take much more than 20 minutes (more if you don't pay attention to the video and need to keep rewatching it). But you need to complete this at home.

Wednesday: 

• Reform in a democracy
• Pros and cons
• How does it occur in Canada and the US
• Next writing assignment

Thursday:

• Rants by Payton, Darian and Neela 
• Reforming things in Canada: Yay or Nay
• Senate
• Partisan Politics

Friday: 

• Human rights in a democracy
• What's more important: Safety and security or Rights and Freedoms
• What are you entitled to in Canada and the United States
• Assignment: Individual Rights Infringements