Tom McGuire
Does Diversity Strengthen or Weaken a Society*?
“India has not ever been an
easy country to understand,” commented Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in
the 1970’s. “Perhaps it is too deep,
contradictory, and diverse.”
1. The Introduction: 
In your opinion,
should a nation encourage diversity? Or,
do you believe a lack of unity can weaken the fabric of a society?
Keep these
questions in mind as you examine the following viewpoints.
Akbar the Great spoke eloquently about
the diversity he found in his land:
“O God, in every
temple I see people that seek You. In every language I hear spoken, people
praise You. If
it be a mosque, people murmur the holy prayer.
If it be a Christian church, they ring the bell for love of You. . . . It is You whom I seek from temple to temple.”
Giuseppe Mazzini, who led a movement to
unite Italy into a single state, defined the ties that bind a nation:
“A nation is an
association of those who are brought together by language, by given
geographical locations, or by the role assigned them by history, who
acknowledge the same principles and who march together to the conquest of a
single definite goal under the rule of a common body of law. . . . It is necessary that [a nation’s] ideas be
shown to other lands in their beauty and purity, free from any alien mixture.”
Lucas Alaman, a conservative leader,
believed that religious unity was vital to his recently independent nation:
“First and foremost
is the need to preserve the Catholic religion, because we believe in it and
because. . . . we consider it to be the only common
bond that links all Mexicans when all the others have been broken.”
Taha Husayn, a respected scholar, pointed
out that his nation’s culture was a blend of three distinct traditions. The first came from ancient
“As for the
third element, it is the foreign element which has always influenced Egyptian
life, and will always do so. It is what
has come to
Anthropologist Margaret Mead based her
views on observations of both American and Pacific island societies:
“If we are to
achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the
whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social
fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.”
*World
History, Connections to Today, p.270
2. The Task:
Write and produce a dramatic (scene) presentation of approximately 5
minutes that depicts a moment of conflict in the development or evolution of a
culture which:
1.
Welcomes diversity
--
2.
Attempts
to isolate itself from diversity
3. The Process:
Students should use worksheets to assist in the completion of the
task(s) that have been stated in section two.
Complete the following Student Worksheets:
(You will use the information gathered on these worksheets
to complete your task)
Worksheet1: Defining the social
problem
Worksheet2: Gathering evidence of
the social problem
Worksheet3: Determining the causes
of the problem (may use both mythical and scientific evidence)
Worksheet4: Evaluating existing
public policies that impact diversity in modern American culture
Worksheet 5: Compare other
countries and cultures that we have studied.
The class will be divided into five groups with these particular
roles in each group:
A.
The actors/characters in the scene. Two or three
students.
B.
The scenic/set design (Time & Place). One or
two students.
C.
The costume/wardrobe design (Dress/Fashion of
the Day). One or two students.
4. Resources:
SEARCH
ENGINES (TO FIND WEBSITES ON YOUR OWN)
|
All the Web http://www.alltheweb.com AltaVista http://www.altavista.com Awesome Library http://www.awesomelibrary.org/ Dogpile http://www.dogpile.com Lycos http://www.lycos.com AskJeeves http://www.askjeeves.com SearchEdu http://searchedu.com/ |
Google https://www.google.com Guidebeam.com http://guidebeam.com/ HotBot http://www.hotbot.com Ixquick http://ixquick.com/ Librarians' Index to the Internet http://lii.org/ Teoma http://www.teoma.com Kartoo http://www.kartoo.com Infomine http://infomine.ucr.edu/ |
Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com About.com http://www.about.com Vivisimo http://vivisimo.com WiseNut http://wisenut.com Scirus http://scirus.com OAIster http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/o/oaister/ Surfwas http://surfwax.com |
If you need help the vocabulary of Web searching, please consult our glossary
5.The Evaluation:
STANDARDS
This Webquest
responds to the following curriculum standards:
Social Studies: Standard 2
·
The student will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate
their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments and turning
points in world history, and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety
of perspectives.
Social Studies: Standard 3
·
The student will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate
their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we
live- local, national, and global- including the distribution of people,
places, and environments over the Earth’s surface.
English Language
Arts: Standard 1
·
Students will read, write, listen, and speak
for information and understanding.
English Language
Arts: Standard 4
·
Students will read, write, listen, and speak
for social interaction.
To get receive a grade of A:
The performance (of the conflict and
resolution) must have:
character:
well-defined characters (actors must stay in the roles they are representing)
setting:
clearly identified place (geographical, topographical) and time
plot:
a chronological series of events, with a beginning, a middle, and a
problem-solving end
costume
plot: a description of the wardrobe
of the characters the actors are portraying and explication.
The review of each group’s performance
must have:
a
short paragraph fulfilling the requirements of characterization, setting, plot
development, and theme or moral
The
2-3-page research report must:
have
a clearly written thesis statement and conclusion
address
each step of the five-step Public Policy Analyst
Grades of B, C, D, or F will be given
depending upon how many of the above requirements are omitted or
unsatisfactory. Rewrites must be
submitted in a timely fashion
You will be evaluated
based on the following rubric for your written Report or Presentation:
|
CRITERIA |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
|
Development
& Organization |
|
|
|
|
|
Research |
|
|
|
|
You will be evaluated based on
the following rubric for your Presentation:
|
CRITERIA |
3 |
2 |
1 |
|
Content |
|
|
|
|
Text/Graphics Layout |
|
|
|
GRADING:
A= 10-12 POINTS B=7-9
POINTS C=4-6 POINTS F=BELOW 5 POINTS
6. The Conclusion:
You have now begun
to see common threads and themes of in every culture and civilization from
ancient through modern times. We express
our humanity, our hopes and fears--and needs--in similar storytelling and
explanations of the unfamiliar or the unknown.
A future generation will examine stories we tell about each other
today. Which of today’s stories are our
myths?