Rethinking the appropriate balance of that similar-yet-different tension over at the Teaching United States History blog.
Some students argued that Lease’s speech was more of a “rant,” and wondered whether it was the most effective approach. I asked them what ways they had of influencing the government, of changing things they didn’t like. The first suggestion was “have a revolution?” When prompted for some less violent approaches, they offered “protest” and “speak out” and “talk to your senator!” When I asked them how they got their senator, someone finally said “voting?” I asked them to look at the identity categories again, and think about which of them might help us understand why Lease might try to influence the federal government in this less-direct way. When prompted, they knew she couldn’t vote, but none of them had really thought about it before that moment.
Leave a Reply