DeLay in Black Hat and White

Great Debates
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Note to mods: I’m not even sure if this thread is appropriate for the boards, or if it is, whether it’s appropriate to this forum. It is, after all, a request for help with my homework. However, I’ve got the structure of the homework assignment down, and what I’m looking for are pointers on resources from a buncha political hacks; I’ll do all the actual work myself. And it’s not really a Great Debate itself; however, it’s a thread about an active debate, and the debaters all tend to hang out in this forum. If someone wants to report this thread to the mods so they can decide whether I’m screwing up with it, I’d appreciate it.

So.

I’m studying to be an elementary school teacher, and one of my classes is Social Studies, grades 4-8. For this class, I’m putting together a presentation on using current events to teach social studies, and as part of this presentation, I’m designing a sample lesson plan. I could crib one from online and that would be kosher for the class, but I’d rather do my own.

My lesson plan is tentatively titled “Good Guys and Bad Guys,” and be for sixth or seventh graders. Students will divide into four groups of four students each, and each group will read an editorial dealing with a political controversy. After they’ve all read their editorials, each group will discuss the following questions:
-Who are the good guys and the bad guys in the story, according to the editorial?
-What is the author trying to convince you of?
-What grade would you give to the author’s effort, and why? You might want to consider the argument’s logic, accuracy, relevance, and fairness.
-Do you agree with what the author is trying to convince you of?

So the students read for comprehension, and then critique the author’s intent, and then reflect on their own stance.

In the second part of the lesson, we form new groups, comprising one student from each previous group–i.e., the new groups have four folks who have each read a different editorial. They simply report on their discussion in the first group.

And this is the point where they realize that they’ve read four different editorials giving different takes on the same political controversy, and hopefully have a good discussion about how the different authors succeeded or failed to make a convincing argument.

The only controversy that’s currently in the news and that’s likely to have different Good Guys and Bad Guys depending on who you read is the DeLay indictment (even folks who think Scooter did nothing wrong aren’t really calling Fitzgerald a bad guy). So I’m going to use this as my issue. And I want to have four articles:

A sane leftie article: maybe This one from The Nation?
A sane rightie article: any suggestions?
An insane leftie article: any suggestions?
An insane rightie article: any suggestions?

I really want to put my professor in the sane rightie group, just to see if I can make him squirm :). I’ll be looking for these articles, but I thought that some of you, in your blogosphering, might have run across resources that would be helpful. And if you want to debate something, you can debate the degree to which we should be discussing partisan politics in the public schoolroom.

Daniel

For the

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You might do better with some articles about the coming Summit in Argentina with Bush and Chavez as the protagonist and antagonist. Especially if you can get well translated articles from Spanish language publications.

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Ooh, interesting idea! I’ll see what I can find. Thanks!
Daniel

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A “sane rightie” editorial or comment piece on Scooter’s Excellent Adventure might be found in the Wall Street Journal.

Another current hot subject is whether or not big oil companies are earning unfair windfall profits, and whether new taxes should be imposed.

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Mmm, that might be even better, although ideally I’d like to find something with good guys and bad guys, actors that are clear to see. I think that might make this lesson good.

As an aside, my program doesn’t have a history requirement, just this social studies requirement. I didn’t worry about that much today until I had the following conversation with someone (after a professor, herself no Einstein, asked us to tell another student one thing we knew about “The Revolutionary War”–I assume she meant the successful American one):

Her: But I don’t know anything about the Revolutionary War! Who was President then?
Me: Err…[wondering if she was serious, and if so, whether I should laugh or cry] there WASN’T a president then. That was kind of the point.
Her: Oh. Okay, but, well, who was president after the War?
Me: You mean the first president?
Her: Oh, right, okay, so was that George Washington?

Remember: this woman is going to be teaching your children.

Daniel

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Okay, I’ve found some other possibilities.

For a sane rightie article, three choices:

  1. Tom Delay’s own statement
  2. Article in the Washington Times
  3. Article in the Wall Street Journal

I’m tempted to go with Delay’s statement, since it’s the most harshly worded and most opinionated; the WSJ article actually doesn’t seem to like him much, but maybe that’d be good (they basically say, “They all stink”). The Times article isn’t much of an editorial, but whoahoah, the slant!

For an insane rightie, I tried Googling “DeLay Socialist Earle,” and got this article. I’m not completely happy with its role as insane rightie–although it makes snarky comments about Liberals=Socialists, it’s otherwise written in a more-or-less sane manner–but it’s the best I’ve found.

FOr an insane leftie, I tried Googling “DeLay Earle Repuglican,” but all I’m getting are blog hits where some idiot has left a dumb comment. Any ideas on what to google for this?

Daniel

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You found a sane article in the Washington Times? Dear Og, please don’t expose anyone needlessly to that. Especially the young and impressionable. Use the Wall Street Journal one.