I'm just a kid, how am I supposed to have ESP?

To do well in Global II a student needs to understand the differences between the terms "economic", "social" and "political".  Every nation we examine in the 10th grade has its own unique economic, social and political systems.  Once a student understands the differences between "E", "S" & "P" they can gain a sense of ESP (extra sensory perception) and an ability to predict the future (or maybe more accurately predict the past) in class.  In other words, with a little bit of ESP students will see the problems (or the strengths) of the states we are discussing.

This class starts off pretty straight forward.  I give out a handout on the meaning of "E", "S" and "P" and we'll go over the definitions.  This might seem a bit harder than it looks.  Number one, EVERYONE uses the wrong definition for economy, number two historically speaking there is more to social than people expect and number three, while political is pretty easy to figure out, there is a vocabulary lesson that goes along with it, so there is more here than just filling in "economic", "social" and "political".

We'll start with "economic".  you hear the word "economic" and your mind immediately goes to the one word answer "money".  Everyone does it.  The media and our political leaders don't help when they constantly talk about improving the economy based on building employment, reducing debt and growing the stock market.  The truth about "economy" is that you can have an economy with out money.  In a Global History sense we are more interested in the individual systems that societies create, so for us "economy" is the "choices a society makes about the production and distribution of goods and resources."  The students need to be able to recognize the system a a society employs and its specific features before they can judge its efficacy.

We next discuss the "S".  On the worksheet the students are given prompts such as "Catholicism, Confucianism and Caste System".  We settle on "S" meaning "social" and I define it for them as "something that binds the people of a state together".  I give examples of nations where the society is bound together by a common religion like in the Middle East or Latin America.  Then I'll ask the students what is it that binds Americans together?  What is our social pillar?  The kids may offer a few suggestions, then I'll change the question a bit.  I'll ask them why it is on day 3 that they like my class better than most of their others?  I'll remind them that it is day 3 and so chances are no one has them doing very much work in class, there probably hasn't been much in the way of HW yet, so what is it?  What is different about my class compared to others that may make it a bit more enjoyable to come to.  It does not take students long to hit on the fact that I let them choose their own seats.  It may seem minor, but it is an illustrative experiential example to show them that Americans prize freedom above all else.  It is this love of freedom that binds American society (no matter ones religions, ethnicicty, nation of origin, handedness, etc.) together.

At this point the "P" is easy.  It can be answered in one word, "Politcal" or "power" or in a question; "who has the power in a society"?  When defining political systems I like to teach the kids a bit of Greek to help them seperate political systems from economic systems and social systems.  I'll tell them that the Greek word for power is "Kratos".  We see kratos in the English suffixes of "cracy" and "archy" (in words like demoCRACY and mon(o)ARCHY).  I take this little detour into ancient Greek to help the kids identify political systems by their names and to begin to show the students how helpful it will be to break down a handful of complex Greek and Latin words.

Once we've defined "E", "S" and "P" the kids read through a list of scenarios and try to categorize them as referring to economics, politics or society.  Once that is done the real fun begins....

On the side of my classroom I have a book shelf where 6 "class pets" reside.  Each of the pets lives in a house built with legos that rests on three pillars (an economic pillar, a political pillar and a social pillar).  The
pets come to the class from around the world (6 of the nations that we will focus on in Global II - Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Japan and China - yes it is a bit Eurocentric, but give me time there is a method to my madness.)  Throughout the year students will be able to use their ESP by paying careful attention to the class pets.  For example as we near the French Revolution students with a keen sense of ESP will notice the legs of "Pierre's" cage are getting weak and unstable.  I might ask them to project what is going to happen in France if the pillars of its society are showing signs of cracking? (for those who can't wait a month for the answer, I'll tell you.... revolution).  In the picture of the pets you may notice, poor "Otto" does not have a house, when we get to the nationalism, I may ask the students to use their ESP to hypothesize about Otto's feelings, not having a house of his own.  Then once our German unification lesson is done, guess what....Otto will have a house.

Otto's house will go through more changes after our Treaty of Versailles lesson in January.  Because of the crippling sanctions imposed on Germany after WWI, Otto's economic and political pillars will be cracked and wobbly while his social pillar (discipline and order) will be strong and extended.  We will talk about this change in relation to the appeal of Hitler.  Through our "class pets" the students will get to put their newfound ESP to work throughout the school year.

As an added bonus, once we get to the 1950's and de-colonization the students will have a project (using legos)  where they attempt to build the perfect houses for the newly independent nations states of Africa based upon the realities of African economics, politics and society in the 1950's, so as you can see there is a lot more to E, S and P that just a couple of quick definitions.  Knowing these definitions is just a starting point for a much deeper understanding of history.

As always for other teachers feel free to take my ideas, use them adapt them for you own use, whatever you please.  If you do, please leave me a comment to tell me what you do with them and how they work out for you.