Multiple Perspectives

Status:

Kurt R. Schroeder                                          Multiple Perspectives

Smoking Ban – Neighbors   

NCSS Standard:                                 Power, Authority & Governance

Performance Expectation:

            d: compare and analyze the ways *nations and organizations respond to conflicts between forces of unity and forces of diversity.

Results/Expected Learning Outcome:

a.       The students will be able to articulate multiple perspectives (multiple viewpoints) on a common issue.

b.      The students will be able to achieve a higher level of empathy for diverse groups interested in influencing the outcome of lawmakers’ decisions to common problems.

c.       The students will be able to describe methods used by various interest groups to achieve a desired outcome.

d.      The students will be able to gain a clearer understanding of how individuals and groups within a community participate and influence the decision process of local government.

Evaluation:

            The students will be able to outline the structure of local government through presentations to the class. Each student, participating in small groups, will be able to demonstrate how a city council meeting presentation is used as a tool to influence city government responsible for making decisions directly impacting the group (community). The students will experience what it might be like to participate in the decision process that local government affords all its citizens and experience how various groups view a common issue of interest.

Curriculum:

            This lesson, as part of a series on local, state and national government, is designed for a high school political science or sociology class. The lesson will provide the students with a basic understanding of how local governments and grass root organizations interact with each other when confronted with a highly volatile subject matter. In this case how two neighboring cities, Mankato and North Mankato, handle the subject of whether or not to implement a smoking ban and what issues might arise if one city does implement a ban and the other does not.

 Instruction:

1. Introduce the students with a 30-minute lecture on local government including the current Mankato and North Mankato government structures.
2. Present the current status of both cities’ councils’ handling of the proposed smoking ban.
3. Divide the students into the following groups: employees, owners, council members, patrons & special interest groups including medical and tobacco companies. Assign each group with the responsibility to argue either for or against a smoking ban in the community.
4. Each group shall have one week to interview individuals representing their respective position and write a position paper addressing the ban.
5. The paper must include the following:
   1. Position on the ban
   2. Social, political and economic impact of the ban on the community
   3. Three reasons why their position is correct for the city council to vote on.
6. Each group will be asked to present their position paper to a mock city council meeting in which the council shall vote at the end of the presentations.

Discussion Questions:

1. How might the various groups (employees, owners, council members, patrons & special interest-medical, tobacco) view a smoking ban?
2. How might both city councils handle the ban?
3. Describe how each group, seeking a vote for or against the ban, might interact with the councils of each city and each other.
4. Describe how each group would argue their position.
5. How might the councils solve the problem: deciding either on the side of voting for the common good or as a right of personal choice?
6. What arguments might the council members of each city be used to back up their vote?
7. Illustrate what a council session of each city might look like when citizen groups representing both sides of the question address the council at a public meeting.
8. How might you, the individual citizen, attempt to convince the council that your position is the best choice?
9. Predict how a bar owner in Mankato might argue the impact of a smoking ban on his/her livelihood.
10. What economic pressures might impact the decision of the councils of each city.
11. How would you vote, as a member of the council of each city, and why?
12. Predict the impact and reaction of a smoking ban on businesses and public opinion six months after a ban has been implemented.

*NOTE: in this lesson plan, we are specifically addressing city government as a means of comparison with both state and federal government organization and various levels of personal involvement.