Essential Question
- 1. "Why make more laws? They'll just go around them anyway." It's true that people go around laws all the time (have any of your students driven faster than the posted speed limit?). Since this is true, does it make sense to argue that making more laws around guns is a waste of time?
- 2. Women's March - why not a Men's March? So there will be a school walkout organized by the Women's March. But let's ask our students: why isn't there a Men's March? What is it about how we expect men to feel and act that makes them less likely to organize marches against gun laws?
- 3. "The shooter is "mentally ill" so there's nothing we can do". What's the problem with this argument? One perspective: "mentally ill" or "mentally healthy" are not either/or states. We're all on a continuum, and we don't yet have the ability to positively identify someone who is of sufficient "illness" to drive them to kill many people.
- 4. Shooters are always boys: why is this? Is it nature or nurture? If it's nature, then is there anything at all that can be done? If it's nurture, then what do we need to do differently when raising boys?
- 5. How to keep the momentum alive: just like with the #metoo movement, what do your students suggest will keep our concern about children's safety upper most in our minds? What do we have to do to keep it from fading away - again?
- 6. How is empathy a seed of social action?
- 7. What is solidarity and why is it important to social movements?
