Lesson 2
The teacher will explain to the class that they are to pretend that they are the “Federal Education Agency”. It is important to make clear to students that they, as an agency, get their power to make rules from the Congress. Remind students that Congress has passed a law ordering all students to do homework. It is their job to make the homework rules. How many minutes a night? Can a teacher give homework on the weekends? On vacations? Can a parent help a student with homework? What should be done if a student does not do homework? If a student copies? These questions are only several suggestions for the teacher to guide the discussion along.
Activity 2
The students will elect a class secretary to write down the homework rules that are suggested. These rules can then be copied on the board and discussion in favor or against the various rules should take place. The students will vote on the homework policy rules and agree on one rule that will serve as a part of the class’s homework policy.
Follow-up activities would include asking the students to develop a plan how they would enforce the rule they made. What would they do if the rule were not adhered to? The teacher could then review the concepts involved by asking these review questions?
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1. Where did the class get the power to make these rules?
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-The class is an “agency” of Congress. Congress gave the power to make rules to this agency.
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2. Where does Congress get the power to make laws?
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-The Constitution empowers Congress to make laws to help create literate citizens.
With this material as background the teacher will then explain to the students that the United States Congress has indeed passed an act to ensure equal educational opportunity. The Congress at the same time has empowered the office of HEW to make rules and regulations consistent with the statute.
The statute to be discussed below in lesson three is the Bilingual Education Act. It will be explained to the students that the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution requires equal protection of the laws. Students will learn that the courts have interpreted this to mean that if school instruction is in a language that the students cannot understand, students are not receiving adequate education, and are being denied equal protection of the laws. The job of Congress is make laws to enforce the principles of the Constitution.