GRADE LEVEL: 11TH-12TH
SUBJECT AREA: American History and American Government
TIME REQUIRED: 50-100 minutes
AUTHORS NAME: Erik Iverson, Churchill and America Institute, Summer 2006
I.
INTRODUCTION:
The purpose of this lesson is for students to begin to discover the meaning of the word
“democracy” by using compilations of writings and quotations for Sir Winston Churchill.
Students will engage in a Socratic Seminar; a structured, student-centered discussion
format. The protocol maximizes student participation, requires students to read, think
and listen critically, and facilitates the clear and convincing development and articulation
of ideas. The Seminar places the burdens, responsibilities, and rewards of intellectual
inquiry squarely on the shoulders of the students.
II.
GUIDING QUESTIONS:
Why do Governments exist? What does it mean to be a democracy?
III.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES;
By the end of the lesson the students will be able to:
-describe the various government forms of constitutional democracy, dictatorship,
and monarchy.
-analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the different forms of government.
IV.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR THE TEACHER:
The following lesson is designed as an opening activity for students in an alternative high
school setting with no more than sixteen students in a class. The classroom is a selfpaced environment with curriculum normally designed with ample time for one on one
teaching between student and teacher. All students in class are working on either
American History or American Government. The theme of democracy is significant to
both subjects.
V.
SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES/PROCEDURE:
SET-UP:
Align student desks in either a square or a circle, whichever lends itself best to the
situation. If more than sixteen students are in class create an inner/outer circle/square. If
more than sixteen students take two days to do this activity, with the first day having one
group in the inner/outer circle and the next day switch.
HANDOUT AND REVIEW THE RULES FOR DIALOGUE AND DEBATE:1
HANDOUT AND ALLOW TIME FOR STUDENTS TO READ THE COMPILATION OF
WRITINGS AND QUOTATIONS: 2
Ten minutes.
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2
See attached page entitled Dialogue and Debate
See attached page entitled Winston and Government
PRE-PLANNING TO BE DONE BEFORE SEMINAR BEGINS:
Prepare at least 10-15 open-ended questions in advance to guide student discussion.
Examples for this lesson could include;
-I’m curious, what does Churchill mean when he says “the more things change the more
they stay the same”?
-Why does Churchill say “it has been said that democracy is the worst form of
Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”? Note
that Churchill does not claim to be saying this himself.
-I’m confused as to why Churchill would say that the best argument against democracy is
a five minute conversation with the average voter?
START DISCUSSION:
Students at first may be apprehensive, but once the first student responds usually the
teacher just needs to keep the conversation relevant to the topic.
ADVICE ON RUNNING A SOCRATIC SEMINAR:
Do not be in a hurry to ask a follow-up question. Wait at least 10 seconds before trying
to ask another question.
Do NOT force anyone to answer questions or call on a student who appears to be not
paying attention. Often time’s quiet students produce the best writings on the
assessment. The more Socratic Seminars a teacher does, the more the quiet students will
feel comfortable and will eventually participate in the discussions.
VI.
ASSESSMENT:
Written response to the following directions:
Based on Churchill’s writings, quotes and what was discussed in the Socratic Seminar
answer the following questions in essay form:
Why do governments exist?
What are the types of governments that have been tried throughout history? What are
their strength’s and weaknesses? Which government would you like the best to live
under? Which government would you like the least to live under?
NOTE: After students have arrived at their definition of democracy, they might compare
it with “Encouragement for the Italians,” part of a message issued by Churchill at the
end of his visit to Italy, August 1944.
Dialogue and Debate-- What is the Difference?
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Dialogue is collaborative: multiple sides work toward shared understanding.
Debate is oppositional: two opposing sides try to prove each other wrong.
In dialogue, one listens to understand, to make meaning, and to find common ground.
In debate, one listens to find flaws, to spot differences, and to counter arguments.
Dialogue enlarges and possibly changes a participant's point of view.
Debate defends assumptions as truth.
Dialogue creates an open-minded attitude: an openness to being wrong and an openness to change.
Debate creates a close-minded attitude, a determination to be right.
In dialogue, one submits one's best thinking, expecting that other people's reflections will help
improve it rather than threaten it.
In debate, one submits one's best thinking and defends it against challenge to show that it is right.
Dialogue calls for temporarily suspending one's beliefs.
Debate calls for investing wholeheartedly in one's beliefs.
In dialogue, one searches for strengths in all positions.
In debate, one searches for weaknesses in the other position.
Dialogue respects all the other participants and seeks not to alienate or offend.
Debate rebuts contrary positions and may belittle or deprecate other participants.
Dialogue assumes that many people have pieces of answers and that cooperation can lead to a
greater understanding.
Debate assumes a single right answer that somebody already has.
Dialogue remains open-ended.
Debate demands a conclusion.
Dialogue is characterized by:
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suspending judgment
examining our own work without defensiveness
exposing our reasoning and looking for limits to it
communicating our underlying assumptions
exploring viewpoints more broadly and deeply
being open to disconfirming data
approaching someone who sees a problem differently not as an adversary, but as a colleague in
common pursuit of better solution.
http://www.studyguide.org/socratic_seminar.htm#Guidelines
WINSTON CHURCHILL AND GOVERNMENT
"The more things change, the more they are the same," say the
French. Certainly, the efforts at human government attempted by the
various nations of the world very largely confirm this profound and
challenging paradox. Out of anarchy, indefinite, intolerable and
threatening to become interminable, sprang kings, given all power and
almost God-like status.
Of course, the kings governed well, or misgoverned, according to their
circumstances and their characters. At any rate, they seemed far
better than the hitherto unending anarchy and terror which had
preceded them. But the risk of entrusting the entire fortunes, not
merely of a group of tribes but of the great nations which developed
under the kings, to the accident of an individual birth, weighed heavily
upon the spirit of mankind. At one period Pericles or Augustus, at
another Draco or Caligula!
After the old primeval anarchy had been suppressed society set itself
to try to restrain their kings. They invented constitutions of many
different types, designed to average the risks. Here they might
hamper a great lawgiver, a prophet, a true leader of the race; there,
on the other hand, they fitted a strait-waistcoat on a monster, a crackpot, an idiot, or perhaps only a worm. …
The forms [of government] were often varied, but the idea was the
same. Sometimes, as in the United States, through historical
incidents, an elected functionary replaced the hereditary king, but the
idea of the separation of powers between the executive, the
assemblies and the courts of law spread widely throughout the world
in what we must regard as the great days of the nineteenth century.
…
Let us have a look at these figures who now wield ten times the power
of the old kings, with none of their restraints of constitution, tradition,
or dynastic outlook. …
It is not possible to form a just judgment of a public figure who has
attained the enormous dimensions of Adolph Hitler until his life work
as a whole is before us. Although no subsequent political action can
condone wrong deeds of men who have risen to power by employing
stern, grim, wicked, and even frightful methods, but who,
nevertheless, when their life is revealed as a whole, have been
regarded as great figures whose lives have enriched the story of
mankind. …
We cannot tell whether Hitler will be the man who will once again let
loose upon the world another war in which modern civilization will
irretrievably succumb, or whether he will go down in history as the
man who restored honour and peace of mind to the great Germanic
nation, and brought them back serene, helpful and strong, to the
European family circle. …
He has succeeded in restoring Germany to the most powerful position
in Europe, and not only has he restored the position of his country, but
he has even, to a very large extent, reversed the results of the Great
War. When Hitler began, Germany lay prostrate at the feet of the
Allies. He may yet see the day when what is left of Europe will be
prostrate at the feet of Germany.3
Excerpts from “THIS AGE OF GOVERNMENT BY GREAT DICTATORS” by
Winston Churchill, News of the World, 10 October 1937 (Collected Essays IV, p. 393)
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“You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the
bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. Yet in
their hearts there is unspoken-unspeakable!-FEAR. They are afraid
of words and thoughts! Words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at
home, all the more powerful because they are forbidden. These terrify
them. A little mouse, a tiny mouse, of thought appears in the room,
and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”
Winston Churchill, Blood, Sweat and Tears
“Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount.
And the tigers are getting hungry”. Winston Churchill, Step by Step
“No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has
been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all
those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”4
Winston Churchill, Europe Unite
All text above can be found on the handout “This Age of Government By Great Dictators”, News of the
World, 10 October 1937.
4
All quotations can be found on the following website:
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Sir_Winston_Churchill/
3
At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man,
walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross
on a little bit of paper—no amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion
can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.
Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 31 October 1944
How is that word “democracy” to be interpreted? My idea of it is that
the plain, humble, common man, just the ordinary man who keeps a
wife and family, who goes off to fight for his country when it is in
trouble, goes to the poll at the appropriate time, and puts his cross on
the ballot paper showing the candidate he wishes to be elected to
Parliament—that he is the foundation of democracy. And it is also
essential to this foundation that this man or woman should do this
without fear, and without any form of intimidation or victimization. He
marks his ballot paper in strict secrecy, and then elected
representatives and together decide what government, or even in
times of stress, what form of government they wish to have in their
country. If that is democracy, I salute it. I espouse it. I would work for
it.
Winston Churchill , House of Commons, 8 December 1944
“Encouragement for the Italians”
excerpt from a message by Churchill at the end of his visit to Italy, August 1944
from The Second World War Vol. VI , Triumph and Tragedy p. 127
It has been said that the price of freedom is eternal
vigilance. The question arises, "What is freedom?"
There are one or two quite simple, practical tests by
which it can be known in the modern world in peace
conditions - namely: Is there the right to free expression of opinion and of
opposition and criticism of the Government of the day?
Have the people the right to turn out a Government of
which they disapprove, and are constitutional means
provided by which they can make their will apparent?
Are their courts of justice free from violence by the
Executive and from threats of mob violence, and free of
all association with particular political parties?
Will these courts administer open and well-established
laws which are associated in the human mind with the
broad principles of decency and justice?
Will there be fair play for poor as well as for rich,
for private persons as well as Government officials?
Will the rights of the individual, subject to his
duties to the State, be maintained and asserted and
exalted?
Is the ordinary peasant or workman who is earning a
living by daily toil and striving to bring up a family
free from the fear that some grim police organization
under the control of a single party, like the Gestapo,
started by the Nazi and Fascist parties, will tap him
on the shoulder and pack him off without fair or open
trial to bondage or ill-treatment?
These simple practical tests are some of the titledeeds on which a new Italy could be founded.