Scopes Trial Simulation

The Scopes Trial occurred in 1925 in Tennessee.  The defendant, John Thomas Scopes, was charged with violating Tennessee's Butler act, which made it illegal to teach evolution in any state funded school.  The trial helped bring a lot of publicity to the issue of evolution in schools.  In our simulation we are doing something similar to this, except two legal teams are arguing whether state funded science classes should be allowed to teach intelligent design or not.  In this simulation, we have the legal teams, who are the lawyers, the witnesses, and the jurors.  There are two legal teams, for and against intelligent design, who question the witnesses.  The witnesses have to learn their part and prepare for being questioned.  And the jurors deliberate at the end and decide whose side they agree with.

Wilson's 14 points notes

After the First World War, Wilson has planned and drafted his own 14 points that he believes will be the world one step closer to world peace. However, it wasn't going to become a reality in anyway. From his trip to Europe, Wilson viewed many different interests from the European countries and knew his points were not going to be supported except the last point. In his 14 points, he established steps countries must take to in order to prevent a second world war and restore the countries losses. In his First point, he talks about open open diplomacy or his way of saying "peace without victory". It is obvious this wasn't going to be agreed among Europeans countries because they lost so many people and they want to gain something in return for winning, mostly from Great Britain and France. Wilson's second point was free navigation to the seas. This mostly likely wouldn't be supported by the British because they like to guard their surrounding seas. Third was to have economic balance between all countries. This would be a fail because then that meant Germany, the country that was powerful, will have equal economic balance with the countries they went to war with. Fourth was lowering the rearmaments of countries and not a lot liked this because they probably would worry about Germany breaking the point and rising to power again. Wilson had a fifth point where he just wanted to adjust the colonial claims off of countries, but it this probably seem to much power is being taken from Wilson or the U.S.. His sixth point is because the Russians abandoned some of their land, they used the land for making new countries. the other ones (points) only are about recovery, but the League of Nations if the last one, which in later years didn't turn out to become the formation Wilson's wished for.

Scopes Trial Simulation

The trial we began yesterday focuses on a recreation of the Scopes Trial. The Scopes Trial took place in 1925 and occurred because a man wanted to teach evolution in the classroom, but it was not allowed in the state. This trial went to the Supreme Court and brought into question the place of religion in education. As a juror in this trial, it will be my job to vote on the outcome of the trial based on the evidence and information provided.

Scopes Stimulation

In class today we were introduced to the Scopes Stimulation. The class in this stimulation is broken into three groups jury members, legal teams, and witnesses. The jury is required to taking notes, keep score and turn in a paragraph after the simulation on why they voted the way they voted citing at least three specific arguments the legal teams made. The legal teams job is to convince the jury that your position is correct.  They prepare witnesses, make arguments, avoid running foul of the judge. They will be evaluated for a grade on how well they perform against the other team. The witnesses prepare themselves as the legal teams direct you. They will be evaluated on how well they know your specific roles. The argument is whether or not intelligent design, a form of creationism, should be taught in schools. Patrick, Zack, Jack, and Luca are arguing against including intelligent design while Sana, Chiara, CJ, Leila, and Tara are arguing for including it in curriculum. Both groups, the witnesses, and jurors have until Monday to prepare for the simulation.

Cooper Cornell The Scopes Trial Simulation

Today we did a simulation of the Scopes Trial. This Trial dealt with religions role in education dealing with science. This case was between John Scopes a substitute teacher and the State of Tennessee. The school that Scopes was subbing at was a state funded school and he was accused of teaching evolution in class, which violates a state law. The trial went all the way to the supreme court Scopes was found guilty but the trial was overturned over a technicality. In the end the trial is seen as a theological battle over religions role in education.

Thoughts on Wilson

My thoughts on Wilson
I think Wilson was, for the most part, a progressive and very influential president. From all the documentaries that we have watched I've come to the conclusion that Wilson was, above everything else, a progressive. He pushed for a lot of very progressive ideas, probably due to the fact he was an idealist. The 14 points was a great example of him pushing for progressive and idealist ideas, but at the same time I personally see Wilson as kinda "Annoying." It's very petty, but I just dislike the fact that he talks his 14 points so much, yet still approves segregation and does not support women's rights necessarily. Also he seemed to be extremely stubborn on his 14 points, and never even wanted to change it slightly to get more support from the senate. In my opinion, he seemed to just want to have everything his way, and I don't really agree with his way of everything, which is why ultimately I do see him as progressive, but I don't really see him as an amazing person.

The Doughboys

Some young men signed up to fight in the first World War because of family military traditions and community expectations. Others were bored and saw no prospects around them at the moment. These men were asked to join a crusade and “make the world safe for democracy.” These new soldiers underwent lots of training to prepare them for this war. They learned to march, build trenches,  and fight other soldiers. The belief that their country came before self-protection was deeply ingrained through this training as well. Overall, the training provided them with the basics of “modern soldiering.”

The European allies wanted to take the US soldiers and break them up within the European armies. They wanted American soldiers to fight as part of their own armies. General Pershing opposed this, and wanted his men to fight as their own entity. If his men couldn’t stop the German assault, the war would end badly.

World War I veterans say that they didn’t know if they were going to be alive or dead the next day, so they adopted a “fatalistic attitude.” Of killing other men, one veteran said that you didn’t think about whether he was someone’s father or son; this was your job and it was what you were trained to do. Towards the end of the war, soldiers became conservative in their actions. If the war was going to end soon, why go “over the top” into No Man’s Land and risk being killed? No one wanted to be the soldier who was killed right before the war ended.

After the war ended, there was a sense of disillusionment among the soldiers. They questioned what their and their peers’ sacrifices had been for. One veteran just blatantly said that war is stupid. He felt that people should discuss problems reasonably, “give and take a little”, and come to an agreement.