One activity that particularly inspired me, which I recall from eighth grade, is one were, just having studied the Ancient Greek city state system, we were asked to create a city state of our own.
We were asked to consider: a. what issues would citizens vote on themselves; b. what issues would representatives vote on; c. what decisions would be left to a chief executive--if any; d. what rules, if any, would govern economic transitions; e. what types of courts would be established, or would there be other protocols to manager disputes of citizens; and f. what other rules might govern daily lives of citizens or non-citizens residents and/or short visitors.
In retrospect, I wish we were instructed to take a couple days to write this out in a descriptive manner before discussing this in a group setting. Then, we did this solely as a group verbally, so I have no documentation, or even recollection, as to what we accomplished, if anything.
Although there is tremendous logic to being given the opportunity to consider the points of view of others, specifically to experience the debate between those more trusting of government structure versus those more trusting of individual liberty (and in fact it might be said that there is no way to fully consider these issues until one is confronted with those of competing perspectives and presumptions), there is also crucial value to asking each student to articulate the logic between his or her own position.
If you have taken this on as a project, consider how similar or different your creation is from the United States Constitution, and then consider why. How does your understanding of human nature, natural rights, and democracy resemble or differ from those of the founders, and do those similarities or differences account for the simmilarities and differences between your constitution and the one the United States government adopted?
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