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The Pack contains associated resources for the learning experience, typically in the form of articles and videos. There is a teacher Pack (with only teacher information) and a student Pack (which contains only student information). As a teacher, you can toggle between both to see everything.
Here are the teacher pack items for Great Depression Politics:
Overview In this experience, students learn about President Roosevelt’s disability and reflect on the importance of seeing diverse role models. Then they compare two accounts of President Hoover’s actions during the Great Depression and explain the bias in one of the accounts. Next they learn about the New Deal and analyze a cartoon about it. Finally they learn about some of the economic reforms that resulted from the New Deal, and they review historical arguments for and against social security benefits before expressing a personal opinion about the value of entitlement programs. Students will collaborate in small groups for scene 2 and scene 3. Objectives
You have learned about the many hardships facing Americans during the Great Depression. What was the government doing to address the problems and end the crisis? In this experience you will learn about the response of two presidents who served during the Great Depression.
Objectives
President Franklin D. Roosevelt on a family porch in 1941
In this experience you will meet President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In 1921, at the age of 39 years old, Roosevelt suffered from a paralytic illness, possibly polio. He became paralyzed from the waist down and was confined to a wheelchair. Roosevelt was rarely photographed in his wheelchair because he did not want to appear weak. If social media had been available during Roosevelt’s presidency, he would not have been able to hide his disability from the public eye.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (center) during World War II,
alongside Joseph Stalin of the U.S.S.R. (left) and
Winston Churchill of England (right)
Today, politicians with disabilities are often seen as role models for others. For example, Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois served in Iraq with the Army National Guard. The helicopter that she was co-piloting was hit by a missile, and she lost both her legs.
Senator Tammy Duckworth (Democrat from Illinois)
Read the following quote.
“I think [girls are] not seeing role models — they’re seeing boys who are astronauts, boys who are engineers, they’re seeing boys who start Facebook or Google, they’re not seeing girls, its really hard to imagine yourself as something that you don’t see, particularly when you’re a kid.” —Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill and Hilary Clinton
Why do you think it is important for people—minorities, disabled, females— to see role models who “look like them” in positions in government, business leadership, law enforcement, the arts, and academics?
