"Writing
has an almost magical power: Words on paper, created by ordinary citizens, have
overthrown governments and changed the course of history."~
Joel L. Swerdlow
In
times of pain, discouragement and passion, nothing communicates as effectively
as the written word. For "The Power of Words" assignment students will
explore how language can express messages that seem almost too strong for the
average person to communicate.
For
this activity, write one of the justice/forgiveness quotes below
on a large sheet of chart paper. the quote should be displayed boldly in the
center of the poster, leaving a large space around the quote for student
responses. Hang each chart in a different corner of the room prior to
students arriving in class. Divide students into groups of three, hand each
student a marker and assign each group to one of the the quotation charts.
Open
the activity by discussing how words can help express strong emotions and ideas.
Explain that this is a
silent activity, where students should read the quote and without any
discussion, respond to it on the poster using a marker. Everyone in the group
should responded at least once and then students will continue to write
responses and reactions to the conversations developing on the quotation chart.
They may express questions, observations and ideas, but only in writing. Ask
students to write as legibly as possible so that the comments can be read later
by other people.
After
10-15 minutes, each group will share their quote and the "silent conversations"
that took place on their poster. After each group has shared their posters,
discuss as a class:
- why the written word
is so powerful
- the
pluses and minuses of communicating in this silent manner
- what
feelings were difficult to communicate with words and why
-
other communication tools that would help communicate the strong ideas and
feelings of these quotes.
Display
the posters in a prominent place in the room along with the title:
"The
Power of Words"
ACTIVITY
EVALUATION
______
Student participated thoughtfully in the "silent conversation"
activity
______
Student asked questions (silently) for clarification of ideas during
silent
discussion
______
Student responded thoughtfully and appropriately to group members
comments
______
Student stayed on task throughout activity and presentation
______
Student used descriptive, meaningful language that clarified and
enhanced ideas
______
Student adjusted wording so as to communicate more effectively
______
Student demonstrated competence in speaking and listening as a tool for
learning
______
Student demonstrated higher level thinking skills in their
comments
(analysis,
synthesis, evaluation)
______
Student presented their quotation chart effectively to the class
"One
man's word is no man's word; we should quietly hear both sides."
-- Goethe
"Sir,
I say that justice is truth in action."
~
Benjamin Disraeli
"An
eye for an eye, and the whole world would be blind."
~ Kahil Gibran
"Justice
shines by its own light." ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
"Justice is
always violent to the party offending, for every man is innocent in his
own eyes."
~ Daniel
Defoe,
"Justice
cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both."
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
"Through
violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth. Through
violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate. Darkness
cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that. Difficult and painful as
it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the
future. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair,
and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us
remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull
down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way
out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us
realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward
justice."
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Faster
than a speeding bullet! ... Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a
plane! It's Superman! Yes, it's Superman! Strange visitor from another
planet ... Who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel with his
bare hands, and who - disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for
a great metropolitan newspaper - fights a never ending battle for truth,
justice and the American way! ''
-
Anonymous: Superman (US radio show, 1940 onwards)
"Forgiveness
is taking seriously the awfulness of what has happened when you are
treated unfairly. It is opening the door for the other person to have a
chance to begin again. Without forgiveness, resentment builds in us, a
resentment which turns into hostility and anger. Hatred eats away at our
well-being. In Africa, we have a word, Ubuntu, which is difficult to
render in Western languages. It speaks about the essence of being human:
that my humanity is caught up in your humanity because we say a person is
a person through other persons. In our African understanding, we set great
store by communal peace and harmony. Anything that subverts this harmony
is injurious, not just to the community, but to all of us, and therefore
forgiveness is an absolute necessity for continued human existence."
~ Desmond Tutu
Forgiveness
is an embrace, across all barriers, against all odds, in defiance of all
that is mean and petty and vindictive and cruel in this life.
"When
I see the Ten Most Wanted Lists... I always have this thought: If
we'd made them feel wanted earlier, they wouldn't be wanted now."
~Edie Cantor
"There
is always time to make right what is wrong.
-- Susan Griffin
Forgiveness
and reconciliation are not cheap, they are costly. Forgiveness is not to
condone or minimize the awfulness of an atrocity or wrong. It is to
recognize its ghastliness but to choose to acknowledge the essential
humanity of the perpetrator and to give that perpetrator the possibility
of making a new beginning. Forgiveness is an act of much hope and not
despair. It is to hope in the essential goodness of people and to have
faith in their potential to change. It is to bet on that possibility.
Forgiveness, is not opposed to justice, especially if it is not punitive
justice, but restorative justice, justice that does not seek primarily to
punish the perpetrator, to hit out, but looks to heal a breach, to restore
a social equilibrium that the atrocity or misdeed has disturbed.
Ultimately there is no future without forgiveness.'
THE
POWER OF WORDS