Communism in the High School Curriculum

[Anonymous]

This is a question that i encounter many times when I teach Animal Farm to my 10th graders. In order to counter any bias, before reading the text we explore the various economic systems, government systems and etc. in an Ideal Society project. The students objectively read about each type of system and create their own country. Many students end up discussing the board similarities and differences that of each economy. We often discuss Socialism and Communism. After pointing out the positives and negatives, we read Animal Farm and critique the fall of Communism. By having them create their own society prior to Animal Farm, it lends itself to a more critical discussion on the error in humans rather than the evil stigma of Communism.

[Anonymous]

This is a great idea. As a follow up lesson I wonder if you could create an assignment where you wrote a short story about the fall of a Democracy. It would be great if you could do this while reading "Civil Disobedience" where Thoreau discusses what will be the cause of the downfall.

[Anonymous]

This is Nicholas S. D'Amico I have made extensive use of Ted Koppel's People's Republic of Communism a four-part dvd documentary series which is a great comprehensive look at the PRC as it has been transformed by the Free Trade Agreement signed by Bill Clinton. It also goes back a bit to discuss the opening to China during the Nixon years. The series connects economic transformations in the US such as the importing of cheap labor from Mexico and how that has allowed the US to increasingly ship raw and semi-industrialized goods to the PRC while the US imports more finished goods and low priced electro-domestic goods from China. I highly recommend it to anyone teaching World History, US History, Economics, and US Government.

[Anonymous]

This is a question that i encounter many times when I teach Animal Farm to my 10th graders. In order to counter any bias, before reading the text we explore the various economic systems, government systems and etc. in an Ideal Society project. The students objectively read about each type of system and create their own country. Many students end up discussing the board similarities and differences that of each economy. We often discuss Socialism and Communism. After pointing out the positives and negatives, we read Animal Farm and critique the fall of Communism. By having them create their own society prior to Animal Farm, it lends itself to a more critical discussion on the error in humans rather than the evil stigma of Communism.

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

I have been finding more and more how important it is for us to be really critical of how we teach the different systems of government in our high school classes. When we were covering The Crucible in my English class we discussed much about Communism, but one of Miller's big points is that communism isn't inherently evil. This can be important before discussing China. The tenth grade curriculum I feel tends to lend itself to teaching the students "communism is bad" (even with some very great teachers the students tend to hear how awful communism is.) How do you go about making sure that students can think critically about all systems?

[Anonymous]

Unless we really explain the differences between capitalism, socialism, communism...etc, speaking about these topics to students in units regarding the Cold War, Mccarthyism, the Black Panthers...etc. will really be abstract to our students. I always make sure to give a clear breakdown of the economic systems and then the students can make a much more informed decision as to which system they are for or against. In some classes we have even had debates where the kids have to come up with arguments as to why they would support each side...etc. The kids always get into those types of activities.

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