Millennial Lesson Plan (21st Century- an American Century?)

Listening to Arizona's Republican Presidential Primary Debate (12/6/99) rekindled my teacher instincts and led to the creation of this uniquely structured feature. Actually, it was the closing statement of Senator John McCain that led to my lesson plan approach. Projecting the image of a leader with future vision, the Senator asserted that the 20th century was indeed the American Century and that he was prepared to provide the leadership to make the 21st Century a continuation of America's world leadership. [GoVote.com- http://www.govote.com/election2000/presi... ] Lesson Plan

Goals:

1.To determine what attributes contribute to a nation's greatness.

2. The word "honor" was employed by almost all of the candidates regarding the style of leadership they would provide. To describe how a President conducts his office with honor?

3. Gary Bauer stressed the need for consistency between our strongly held national values and our behavior in the international arena. To assess the importance of this plea for ideological and behavioral consistency.

Methods:

To lead open-ended discussion of these crucial questions. To provide some format, I will devise multiple choice discussion questions. Participants will be asked to select a choice and defend their answers. If you would like to participate in this discussion simply post your responses in the discussion section of the page. Respondents are not limited to the listed choices, but please defend any choice that you enter.

National Greatness

A. Which of the following accomplishments would ensure that the 21st century would continue as an "American Century?"

1. The elimination of poverty in the United States and in as much of the developing world as possible. 2. The strengthening of our military, enabling the United States to project influence around the globe. 3. The completion of an effective anti-ballistic missile defense system to combat the threat presented by "rogue nations ." (North Korea, Iran, Iraq, etc.)[ North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Program http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/crs/91-1... ] 4. The continued growth of our economy.

B. As the world's lone super power, the United States has an obligation to:

1. intervene in regional conflicts that threaten world peace. 2. put its military power as the disposal of international organizations such as the UN and NATO. 3. commit our troops to battle only if America's self-interests are at stake. 4. use military force to prevent human rights violations.

Presidential Dignity & Honor

[Keyes 2000- http://www.keyes2000.org/transcripts/990... ] [Honor the Presidency of the U.S.-- http://www.alcocom.com/HONOR-THE-PRESIDE... ]

C. I would prefer the election of a President who:

1. placed honor and personal moral standards above all other concerns. 2. was pragmatic enough to realize that "the end justifies the means."

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