Colonization Simulation Breakdown II

The students have homework over the weekend, though most of them finished it in class.  If they haven't finished their Colonization Simulation Breakdown papers, they need to.  (I'll attach a link in case anybody was absent or lost it.)

If you were in class, it should be easy, as we discussed a lot of the questions today.  Some of the questions were pretty straight-forward, such as: "What did your flag look like?"  Or, "What was your chant?"  Other questions were more difficult though, like, "What did the flag and chant represent?"  We discussed the different aspects of culture that they represented.

I think it's fairly important to stay informed, so before the 2008 elections, I read both of Barack Obama's autobiographies/memoirs as well as John McCain's book Faith of My Fathers.  In the book, McCain tells of when he was a POW in Vietnam.  He told the story of Mike Christian making a flag out of his POW uniform.  We discussed what the flag represents, and why.  We compared that to the flags students made for the activity.

I searched out the story on youtube.  It differs slightly than how I remember it from the book.  It's embedded here if you care to take 3 minutes to watch it.




We discussed whether what happened was fair or unfair, and why students felt that way.  We discussed sporting events, reffing, and how things always seem unfair if you're on the team that loses.

We discussed ethnocentrism, and whether or not the Europeans were truly ethnocentric.  I had a student one time ask me if they were really ethnocentric, since my definition was, "thinking your culture is superior to other cultures."  The student told me that means the colonizers weren't ethnocentric.  Since they defeated everybody else, they really were the better culture.  If two basketball teams played one another, we'd all agree that the winning team was the better team - especially if it was a landslide victory. ...Like I said, we had some great discussion today.

Congratulations.  It's Friday.  I am a real human being typing this.  If you want the extra credit on Monday, have the adult you discussed the blog with sign a piece of paper and write something witty on it.

Here's the link to the paper: Colonization Simulation Breakdown Paper