What does "equal" mean?

What does "equal" mean?  Does it mean EVERYONE should be exactly the same? OR Does it mean that EVERYONE should have the same opportunity?  That is what we are going to be looking at over the next few weeks.  As Americans we believe in equality, but how exactly do we define equality?  I am going to present the students with articles, speeches, music, poetry and artifacts, like the one below, to determine what they think is right and wrong and what equality means to them.

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political band which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earrth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

-The Declaration of Independence

Who's the Witch?

Meet Elphy...she is my beloved bobble-head that sits on my desk at school.  I am always teasing that the kids do NOT want to see me angry because there is no telling which Disney villain I might become.  This week, Elphy caused a little bit of a stir.  I decided to do a "social experiment".  Because we will be reading about the Salem witch trials of 1692, I felt the students needed some background knowledge.  Enter Elphy....Someone knocked her off my desk and broke her.  They didn't even tell me...they just stuck her broken head back on and left her! (not really...this was the premise of the experiment.)  When I told the students, I, of course, played the most distraught and upset teacher.  I told each class that morning, "I am just hurt that someone would do this!  I need you to confess or I will be forced to give everyone a mark in the book today since I have no idea who did it." Just to clarify, I NEVER intended to give a consequence, and I planned to tell them that a confession was made so that they were off the hook before they went home.

As I expected, the children had many theories about how it was broken.  They at first accused my daughter since she comes in my room every afternoon.  Then as the day progressed, they slowly began to turn on each other.  They had many ideas about different students that they saw near my desk.  They had even "heard a loud noise" after that person left the room.   By the last period of the day, I had arranged some co-conspirators to either "tattle" or pretend to confess, when low and behold a lone student walked up to me and confessed to committing the non-existent crime.  She was selfless taking the consequence (whatever it may be) to keep the others from suffering.  A very sweet and selfless action!  As I kept the act up, I told this martyr that I would discuss it with her tomorrow because the day was over.

The next day I "fessed up and told the kids that Elphy was not really broken.  I explained that I did this experiment to give them a little taste of hysteria and what can happen when people become very fearful.  As we went on to discuss the events surrounding the Salem witch trials, the students seemed to understand how superstition and fear of the unknown can affect a "community".

I hope you, as parents, understand that this was not an attempt to upset the children.  It was simply a way for me to try to help them understand a very foreign and abstract concept.  No permanent damage seems to have been done. :)

Happy reading-
Mrs. Tipton