How Would You Get Involved? (Sept 29)

The following is a proposed scenario I gave to the Grade 6s and is completely fictitious.  Their challenge was to come up with a plan of action to stop the law from being implemented.  They have two goals in this final assignment:

1.  Be able to identify the view points/perspectives of others.
2.  Identify a plan of action.

Here was the scenario posed:

The Issue!!!

The town council  has had many complaints in the past couple of months about youth crime.  The citizens have asked the council to do something about this so they have come up with the idea of implementing a town curfew.  If the new proposed law is passed, anyone under the age of fourteen will be required to be off the streets after 8:00pm at night unless they are accompanied by an adult.

Local business are saying that graffiti is on the rise.  Vehicles are also being vandalized.  Shattered glass is found on the streets and garbage cans are constantly being kicked over.

Police officials are saying that while the witnesses reporting the crimes say that they have identified youth, they aren’t sure exactly who they are or how old they are.  A curfew for 14 year olds might not be the answer since they might not be committing the crimes!  No one is sure yet just who is responsible.

Councillors are sick of the emails and phone calls however.  Citizens of the town are demanding action and this seems like the only reasonable solution so far.  They can’t do a blanket curfew for all kids under 18.  Some of the local businesses depend on their high school workers to keep their businesses open.  School sports teams would also suffer if the curfew was for everyone under 18.  14 seemed like a reasonable age to start with.   Other communities have curfews and it seems to work well for them?

This will become a law if it is passed at the next town council meeting which is being held in two weeks!

What will you do between now and then?

The voices:

Show your understanding of perspective by writing down something you think the following people will say about the proposed new law.  What would this person say about the idea of a curfew for everyone under the age of fourteen?

Fill out the view point sheet

The plan:

Your class has decided to take action!  If you can come up with a convincing argument then you might be able to convince the council not to have a curfew!

What could be some other options to deal with the increase in youth crime?

Fill out the 7 step chart for Getting Involved