Dec. 6 session w/Dr. Dube

A few curriculum ideas came to mind as I was sitting in class last Tuesday. A double-bouble map or maybe a Venn Diagram in which you compare and contrast Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong. I would then have my students write an essay on this topic and as part of the prompt I would include the term totalitarianism and ask whether or not both regimes would fall under that definition. An even better idea is I would give a post-it to a pair of students with an action or characteristic of either Chiang Kai-shek or Mao Zedong an have them figure out whether it is Mao or Chiang. Once they figured whether the action or characteristic applies to either Chiang or Mao, they must then figure out whether it fits the definition of Totalitarianism. A final idea will be is to have my students do one minute debates on several topics related to Mao and Chiang. After covering both regimes I would divide the class into the Mao group and the Chiang group. Then they would discuss the following topics in their groups and what they think their leader would think about: Housing/Property Distribution, Employment, Religion, Production of Goods and Services, Political Rights, Elections, Healthcare, Education, Government Intervention in the Economy, Allocation of Goods and Services. Then I would pick students randomly to debate each topic. Each student will get a minute to state his case, but there will be no rebuttals or counter-arguments. The winner will be the one that makes the best argument.

The topics we discussed on the 6th fell outside of the time range of my official curriculum, but they may apply to our study of current events and can definitely be mentioned as a side note for the official material. It was interesting to learn of the parallels between Mao and Chiang Kai-Shek; I had no idea that there were so many factors in common. When I was in Beijing, I wanted to visit Mao's mausoleum but wasn't able to do so. I'm intrigued by the decision to display and maintain the bodies of Mao, Ho Chi Minh, and Lenin, so I will make an effort to visit Mao if I am able to travel to Beijing again.

bdeleon: I've heard that, too. Supposedly, you need to arrive before dawn since the line grows quickly and the site is open mostly in the morning. I had intended to go on my prior trip but got sick and couldn't get up early enough for it to be a realistic outing. If we both go to China this summer, are you in for an early-morning tomb visit?

Qhuang: Oh wow, that is awesome! I had no idea that Time archived the covers that far back. I was also unaware of just how easy it is to access these resources. Thanks a million!

Alevel: One word: totally!

One of the social thinkers we discuss in my class at the end of my Industrial Revolution unit is Thomas Malthus. As reminder, he is the philosopher who believed that population growth would outpace food supply, which in turn would cause starvation and social upheaval. He believed that war, disease and famine are positive things that help control population growth. He was in favor of the poor having less children and he would most likely be in favor of China’s one child policy. I think that next time we cover Malthus, I will introduce the kids to China’s one child policy and have them write about the topic. The writing assignment question will be as follows: Should the Chinese government limit a family to one child? Would Malthus be in favor of China's one child policy?

Thank you for this link to Time magazine -- I tried several subjects including the Korean war and found several good articles. We are trying to tie students and primary sources as well as using the web so this will be a very useful website.

Looking over the class notes, I did not realize that Mao's leadership was ever challenged....sounds like much political intrique behind the scenes.

Pat Lamkie