Job Discussion Forums

[7969]

trying to initiate debate on death penalty here. one side of the class against, one side for. after one class it seemed to work ok, but needs refining. i give each group a handout stating their position. then they have to defend it. is there any way i can improve on this or make it a bit more stimulating. senior 1 middle school students.

as an aside, one of my better students pointed out that "china has too many people, so the death penalty is necessary." i was nearly on the florr rolling around in laughter on hearing that......

[journeyeast]

Yeah - have them role play.. Half the class is the relative of the crimnal who killed by some reasonable justification of passion the victim, and the other half of the clas is the reletive of the victim..

Possible scenarios - Brother or sister just got their license, and was first time driving the car on highway, hits a woman who is mother who has daughter close to the age of the girl who hit her and killed her..

The young person driving the car was intoxicated, depressed from having lost his/ her father in a car accident under similar circumstances..

Law calls for the death penalty if found guilty.. Polarize the class, and let them at each other..

Or if you want to make it tangental to the situation in USA, bring up the issue of race and the inequal ways that the death penalty is applied.. See if its okay if Chinese person is put to death in america using some reason like cause theres too many Chinese in USa.. See if they still think its fair.. and neccessary..

Good luck

keith

[Roger]

I would never do this topic as I have too personal an opinion that I don't wish to see rubbished by such young and immature charges. However, another aspect that you could consider: do your students know what the 68 capital offences officially on the book are? Murder and rape are just two of those; stealing in some of its various forms also carries the death penalty!

[Old Dog]

And a few years ago, at least, being a serial thief of water buffaloes was a capital offence. One fellow who stole three, one at a time over a period of time, is no more. Another fellow met his doom at the same time and place as the water buffalo thief on account of "being a hoodlum" (i.e. fighting often in public places and, finally, "touching women in public places"). But this was darkest Hubei in the mid-90s where I saw amazing things (personally, that is, as opposed to seeing them virtually as some tend to do.)

[Madmaxola]

[ChinaMovieMagic]

Yes...Role Play!
If DVD available, show some sequence(s) from relevant movie(s)

For many debate topic, I recommend the book "For & Against" by Alexander. Published in China. It has background readings, key points, Chinese translations. Topics include:
*death penalty
*censorship
*women's rights
*career promotions according to ability or age

Consider trying simultaneous discussions/debates/role plays, that is:
*folks are in lines sitting facing each other
*they do their thing for a few minutes, then ROTATE...either clock-wise or counter-clockwise (carefully monitor/demonstrate the process initially)
*the environment ends up resembling a Chinese restaurant, so keep the doors closed
*initially folks may be reluctant to speak, so allow them to use the Key Points page...initially...
*as the exchanges progress, confidence develops...as well as that "interconnectedness" which Dr. Rupert Sheldrake calls the Morphic Field effect
www.sheldrake.org

[brsmith15]

Great ideas! Stimulating as well as accurate and timely.

You may want to ask whether the insanity defense is valid as it seems so many muderers in the US get off whe their slick lawyer hires a bunch of shrinks and pays them to testify/

[Roger]