Empowering Global Citizens

Prior to class, the teacher sets up different stations around the room with
articles from French culture and history. These items should reflect France
as it is/was and should not simply be cliched symbols of France. The pur—
pose of this is to orient students in the French context so that their study of

France is not out of context.

Once the stations are prepared, the teacher should fill the classroom with
the smell of freshly popped popcorn. After the students arrive and while
they are getting settled, the teacher explains that they will be taking a tour
of France. She tells them each to visit all of the stations and to makes notes
about what the stations say about France. While they are doing that, the
teacher shares popcorn with around 6 percent of the class (just a few stu—
dents) without saying why or saying anything to the students who don’t get
popcorn. Students will no doubt begin to complain, and the teacher will

observe their reactions.

Once the students have finished touring “France,” the teacher initiates a
discussion with the students about injustice, how they felt about getting/ not
getting popcorn, and why they should have all gotten popcorn. The teacher
will introduce the three estates (clergy, nobility, and the rest), explaining
what percentage each group was of the total population, the percentage of
wealth that each group held, and the amount of power that each group
held in eighteenth—century French society. The teacher then explains that
this social and economic inequality was one of the primary reasons for the
unrest that led to the French Revolution. The teacher should point out the
connections between the cases that the students are making for equality
and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The teacher should also
help the students make comparisons between the context of the American
Revolution and the context of the French Revolution, and students should
note the fact that the French were revolting against their own government
rather than against a colonial government. It is important that the connec-
tions to the previous unit on the American Revolution be made clear to the
students in preparation for the rest of the unit on the French Revolution.