So, Teeming Millions, I am going to be teaching a class to gifted 7th/8th graders entitled “Cause for Conflict.” For two weeks, I am going to be discussing conflict with regards to race, class, gender, and religion.
So far, I’m planning on leaning on my English teacher background and looking at these topics through literature, such as
Sold by Patricia McCormick
Buried Onions by Gary Soto
Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin
The Sniper by Saki
X: A Fabulous Child’s Story by Louis Gould
I’d like some ideas for more non-fiction, as well as anything that would fit one of the causes for conflict. Any ideas running around out there? I’m open to activity ideas as well!
I feel like I have a pretty good start on a solid course, but I would just like to hear other ideas… I want to offer these kids the best I can.
Is the Correlates of War project too advanced for these kids? They might be interested to know what variables have scientifically been shown to cause the most armed conflict.
ETA: I might also add something about different philosophers’ opinions on the matter of conflict. It’s never too early to introduce the state of nature.
To Kill a Mockingbird might be good for race. For non-fiction, perhaps a discussion of the Emmett Till lynching, or the Rosa Parks incident (bonus points for non-violent resistance).
For religion, perhaps have them read a play called Inherit the Wind, and compare to the actual events of the Scopes Monkey Trial.
I’d like to see some mention of McCarthyism in there, too, but I dunno that it meets your criteria.
Ok maybe not for 7th graders but just tell them that one kid will get an A, the second best kid gets a set of steak knives and the rest will be expelled.
Are you designing a class on conflict, or one on conflict in literature?
if the former, lay off all the literary stuff. Make it real & practical.
The causes of conflict are petty straightforward: different people (& different groups) have different goals. In the real world this often leads to tradeoffs since the world isn’t infinite in size or resources. When handled nicely we call this compromise. When handled poorly we call it conflict. And when handled very badly we call it genocide.
So areas to discover / discuss are: why do people form groups? Is there a way for a disinterested observer to adjuidcate / arbitrate some confilicts? All conflicts? Can there really be such a thing as a disinterested observer? Can we generate at least some rules of thumb for what are legit versus illegit desires & demands? Can we derive a hierarchy of desires, where insterest from level 3 should always trump interests from level 4?
This can be real participative. If the kids are up on current events at all, the news certainly provides plenty of conflicts ranging from Irsael / Palestine to some local political bickering on your city council.
If they’re not current events hounds, just offer two very different exploratory activities and watch them naturally choose up sides, then declare that the real activity for today is analysing how they all just divided into two factions & chose up sides.
The more free rein you give the group, the more the natural personality differences will come out. Then you can explore the idea of the extroverts domineering over the introverts. Is that right? What can we do to change it? If nothing, what can we do to live with it?
etc.
Modern conmmercialism teaches heedless self-interest seeking. Showing the kids through their own actions how this leads to conflict and therefore the need to be at least somewhat aware of the problem and some solutions is huge.
Facing History and Ourselves is an educational entity/curriculum that uses major conflicts in history to teach morality. My wife did a two year program with them for her middle school class. I think their general program is longer than what you have time for, but I would bet that some of their materials would list good books, etc.
Great curriculum and excellent people for asking questions of. They know their stuff.
I really wanted to do this with my second-graders (using our reward system of marbles), but never got around to it.
Another idea is a game I play with my kids every year, based on The Prisoner’s Dilemma. Here’s an old thread on the topic. It works really well at getting kids to see that conflict sometimes pays off, but sometimes cooperation pays off as well. As interesting as the discussions can be with 7-year-olds, I bet they’d be a lot better with 8th-graders.
There’s a game I read about awhile ago in a book on labor organizing. Tell students that anyone who brings a blue chip and a pink chip (or whatever) to you gets a bag of M&Ms. Each student will get one chip, either blue or pink, and they’ll need to work with one another to make a deal how to split the M&Ms. The only rules are that any agreement made on paper must be stuck to. The goal, of course, is to get the most M&Ms possible.
Then pass out the chips: 5 pink, the rest blue.
The pink represent capital (labor organizing, remember), while the blue represents labor. If players with pink play their cards right, they’ll end up with most of the M&Ms. Unless, that is, blue decides to unionize, and figures out a way to prevent scabs.
Again, this is a game I’ve always wanted to do, just to see how things turned out. It’s a pretty interesting model of conflict between people with a scarce resource and people with a plentiful resource.
Thank you for all the suggestions! I will be looking into all of them, as I cannot respond to everyone right at the moment… but to clarify, this was a class I was given, not one of my own creation. Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone has ever taught this class, so I was simply given the write-up about it from the brochure, and told this is what you are teaching… so I am just trying to go with what I interpret the write-up as… A bit later, I will c&p the write up for additional information, but it looks like some great ideas for me to look into. Thank you very much!!
