Lesson 1: What is a government?
Key Ideas
- Government is a person or organization that rules over a group of people.
- Government can have many forms.
Recommended Background Reading for Educator:
- Scholar Essay: Introduction to The Academy for American Democracy
- Student Resource: Monarchy
- Student Resource: Oligarchy
Materials for Lesson:
- Lesson 1 Slides
- Post-it notes (or similar)
- Loose-leaf paper
- Markers
- Copies of the following resources for each student (if you do not have the option of displaying the PPT)
- Student Resource: Monarchy
- Student Resource: Oligarchy
Part 1: Welcome! (10 min)
SLIDE 1 Today we are starting something really special: The Academy for American Democracy.
- Does anyone have a guess about what exactly this might entail?
- What is an academy?
- What does American mean?
- What is democracy? If you don’t know the answer to this last one, great news: you are about to find out!
SLIDE 2 There are four essential questions we’ll be exploring throughout the academy, which will take place over four units:
- What is a democracy?
- How does a democracy work?
- How do you make change in a democracy?
- What does democracy need?
In order to answer these huge questions, we are going to engage in a rigorous study of two very different times in human history: ancient Athens and the early United States. Ancient Athens was the first recorded government to experiment with democracy. Thousands of years later, the people who crafted the government of the United States took some of the ideas of ancient Athens and adjusted them to fit their world. Through The Academy, we are going to compare and contrast these two governments and apply what we learn about both to the world we live in today.
SLIDE 3 That is a quick summary of the information we are going to cover, but what will this experience ask of you? Over the course of The Academy you will:
- practice thinking like a historian by analyzing artifacts, works of art, and documents and drawing your own conclusions
- take part in interactive games and role play to experience for yourself what it is like to participate in a democracy
- create something that captures your key takeaways from this experience and helps our larger school community benefit from your learning
It is a lot, and it is going to be awesome, but I’m going to need your enthusiastic consent to make it all work. Are you with me? Awesome!
Optional Call and Response
For the duration of the institute, we recommend using this popular protest chant whenever you need to get the students’ attention. This is in keeping with the spirit of The Academy and reinforces both the playful and civic elements of the program.
- TEACHER: Show me what democracy looks like!
- STUDENTS: This is what democracy looks like!
Slide 4 Optional Activity:
To help set the tone that this is going to be more like a history lab or camp than a typical classroom lesson, we recommend starting each day or lesson with a fun warm-up activity to get students fired up. Below are instructions for introducing The New York Historical’s preferred warm up game – Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament – but you can choose whatever game or activity you think will work best with your students.
- In this game of rock paper scissors we are all in a tournament striving to be the victor. When I say go, you will turn to the person next to you and play ONE ROUND of rock paper scissors. The winner of this round goes on to find another opponent. The loser becomes the winner’s cheering section, and follows them to their next match, hyping them up and making sure everyone knows they are the best. Games will continue all over the room, and every time someone wins their entourage will grow larger and rowdier, until finally only two contestants, with the entire class cheering them on, will play one last round to determine the ultimate rock paper scissors champion.
- Does everyone understand? Then have at it!!
- When the game is over, congratulate the winner, and have everyone return to their seats.
Part 2: Defining government (15 min)
SLIDE 5 Throughout The Academy, we are going to be learning about a kind of government called democracy, but before we can answer the first unit’s main question (what is democracy?), we first need to make sure we understand what a government is. You have probably heard the word government used almost every day, but have you stopped to think through what it actually means?
- Pull up SLIDE 6 or write the word ‘government’ on the board and give the students a few minutes to turn and talk at their tables to come up with their definition of ‘government.’ Make sure they know this isn’t easy.
- When time is up, have each table share their definition, and write it out on the board. Once you have all the student definitions on the board, display SLIDE 7 with the Academy’s official definition.
Take a quiet minute to look at all the definitions together. What do they have in common
- Underline words or phrases the students point out, and then work together to come up with a common definition of the word that you add to their vocabulary board. You should land on something that is in the spirit of the official definition provided (a person or organization that has authority over a group of people[1]), but it’s important to use the students’ words to the extent possible because it is a very complicated concept.
Now that we’ve defined the word, it’s time for a brainstorm in small groups: what does a government actually do?
Think about the world we live in today, or historical examples of governments you’ve learned about. In a moment, you will make a list of the things for which governments are responsible. Keep in mind, governments are responsible for macro and micro things in a community. For example, writing and enforcing laws is a macro responsibility of governments. But governments are also responsible for repairing potholes in the street. You will have three minutes to think of as many ideas as you can.
- Hand out Post-it notes to each table, set a timer for three minutes. Circulate while students work to encourage and offer suggestions where necessary.
[1] Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “government,” accessed January 28, 2025, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/government.
Optional Incentive
Turn this activity into a competition! See which group can think of the most responsibilities.
- When time is up, ask a representative from each group to add their Post-its to a central space in the classroom, and then read aloud some of the highlights. If you feel like the students have missed some crucial responsibilities, add your own Post-its as you review. Move on to the next part of the lesson when you feel like the students have a good sense of the scale of the work of government.
Part 3: Kinds of Government (15 min)
We now know that governments are the people or organizations that have authority over groups of people and we have a sense of all the different kinds of work governments are responsible for. Our final question of the lesson is: who exactly is in charge? The answer to this question determines the form of a government.
Democracy is the form of government we’ll be discussing throughout this academy, but it is not the only kind of government. In fact, it was invented pretty far into the course of human history! In order to understand why democracy is special, we need to understand what other forms of government already existed.
It’s time for a challenge! In a moment, I will display a word and image on the board. You will have two minutes to try to write a definition of the word based on the image. Remember, each of these word/image pairs represents a form of government.
Display SLIDE 8 or distribute the Monarchy image/word pair and set a timer for two minutes. When time is up, ask students to share their definitions and how they arrived at that definition based on the image. When you’ve arrived at a working definition, work together to make a stick figure diagram of what this government looks like (or display SLIDE 9). Finally, go back to the list of government responsibilities and ask the students to answer who would have final say over each of these issues in that form of government. Then repeat this process for the Oligarchy image/word pair using SLIDE 10/11.
- Monarchy: One person rules.[1]
Diagram: One stick figure on top, everyone else in a group below them.
Who gets final say: the king or queen
- Oligarchy: A small group rules.[2]
Diagram: three to five figures on top, everyone else below them
Who gets final say: the small group
Once you’ve reviewed both forms of government, ask the students to think: what is the difference between these two kinds of government? What is similar?
Can anyone imagine any problems with these kinds of government? What happens if people disagree with what the monarchy or oligarchy are doing? In most cases throughout history, the only way to get rid of an unpopular ruler or group of rulers was to violently overthrow them and put someone else in charge.[3]
[1]Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “monarchy,” accessed January 28, 2025, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monarchy.
[2] Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “oligarchy,” accessed January 28, 2025, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oligarchy.
[3] For example, the American Revolution to win independence from the English government was an eight-year-long war. In the early days of the French Revolution, the people marched on the royal palace and imprisoned the royal family.
Optional
Display SLIDE 12 with the image of the French Revolution of 1848 to reinforce why this is a problem.
- If a student asks how a person becomes a monarch, or part of an oligarchy, congratulate them on asking an excellent question! In both cases it would start with a single person or a group proclaiming they were in charge, and having either the money or the military power to back it up. From there, people were born into the position. The child of a king or queen or member of the ruling group would inherit their position. There was almost no chance for anyone else to get to rule outside of violence.
As we can see, monarchy and oligarchy are not perfect forms of government. In fact, both were practiced widely in the ancient world before the invention of democracy in Athens, but Athens decided it needed to try something different. Given what you’ve learned, what kind of government would you propose to fix these problems?
Part 4: Conclusion (5 min)
SLIDE 13 We have already finished our first lesson of The Academy! To review what you’ve learned so far, answer the following questions:
- What is a government?
- What kinds of government were most common before the invention of democracy?
- What is a monarchy?
- What is an oligarchy?
- What are some of the challenges with these forms of government?