Being We, the People in Your Classroom

Plans are underway to create a curriculum that would better enable your students to replicate the remarkable work achieved by students at Constitution High School in Philadelphia and at Marefat High School in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The Center is working closely with educators from both schools, as well as professional curriculum developers to allow your students to add their experience to the diverse narrative of what it means to be a citizen of the world. Through a variety of activities and writing prompts, students will be encouraged to think about their own experience in regard to the six themes addressed in the project; myself, religion, work, participation, expression and commerce. After considering the themes, students will be sent out into their communities to document their experience through photography. Ultimately, students will then consider the ways their experience compares and contrasts to students from around the country and world.

This is sure to be an excellent service-learning project for students interested in compartive democratization and documenting their experience as part of "We, the People."

Until the curriculum is finished, be sure to keep up with the project on http://www.beingwethepeople.shutterfly.com/ and the Center's website, www.constitutioncenter.org/international

This Week in Being We, the People

For this week's photography class, we tried a different approach. Instead of picking a core project theme like "expression" or "religion" as we’ve done every week before, the American students looked at some of the photographs the students in Afghanistan posted, and discussed how we could capture similar images, of similar subjects, and expressing similar themes, in their communities.

A photograph of adobe-style mud brick houses on a hill in Afghanistan with an industrial development inspired discussion of "old meets new" and some of the students decided that to capture the same theme here in Philadelphia, they would go to housing projects, where new construction often stands in stark contrast to the older buildings next door. A panoramic view of the City of Kabul drew a suggested photo with a similar view of Philadelphia. (Insert comparison photos if possible)

When reviewing Afghan student photos and suggesting a title, American students were asked how they’d take a picture to fit the same title. And every time a student suggested how she might take a picture to express the same theme, she was asked to articulate that theme; to suggest a title. In this way, the students have begun thinking critically about not just the composition but the context of the photographs, and as importantly the similarities and differences that exist between their peers in Afghanistan.

For the next week they will shoot only subjects that could fit an existing title, but within that interpretive space, gave them the freedom to do so however they choose. We’ll see the immediate results next week in the photographs they return with and their explanations of which shot from Afghanistan inspired them. But the ultimate result of conveying the differences between two societies while searching for the similarities is a skill that can be cultivated and serve a critical thinker well for the rest of their life both academically and socially.

Race to the Finish in Afghan Elections

Afghanistan is moving forward in its electoral process, holding a run off election between incumbent Hamid Karzai and challenger Abdullah Abdulla. President Hamid Karzai failed to receive the required majority of votes when the U.N. declared one third of votes invalid. The August 20 election was the second election held in Afghanistan under the Constitution of Afghanistan. There had been talk of a power sharing deal between the two competitors, and the creation of a coalition government. However, that has been overturned in favor of the run-off election.

This is a great time to discuss comparisons and contrasts between Afghanistan and the United States, and provide your students with a deeper understanding of the world at large.

One way to accomplish this is through the Photo narrative of Being We the People, a photography exhibit by students from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Kabul, Afghanistan. The images can be found at beingwethepeople.shutterfly.comAsk your students to draw comparisons between the photos, as well as the countries at large.

You can then discuss with students the current events surrounding the elections in Afghanistan, and different methods of determining a winner when a tie occurs.

You can then ask your students “What happens in the United States when there is a tie for the presidency?” Many may not know. Your students can read Article II, section one of the Constitution, for the answer. This scenario played out in the election of 1800, between Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Aaron Burr. After this election, the Twelfth amendment was passed, changing the way Presidents we elected. However, the role of the House of Representatives selecting the President, with one vote per state, remains the same. A tie for the presidency occurred only one other time, under the twelfth amendment, in the election of 1825, between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Ask your students to express their feelings on this issue – do they agree? How would they determine a winner in the event of a tie?

This Week in Being We, the People

This week saw more interesting parallels, as students eight and a half time zones away from each other continue to capture the same themes in their respective communities. As an example, in order to show 'expression," a Constitution High School Student went to a tattoo parlor and photographed a customer. When Marefat students uploaded their most recent photographs, several depicted a young woman painting a traditional henna tattoo onto her hand, in preparation for celebrating Eid, a Muslim holiday.

It may seem at first that tattoos in the two cultures are used for completely different reasons-here to establish individuality, and in Afghanistan, to conform to a religious tradition. The images themselves confound this notion, though, as the young Afghan women in the photographs do not appear somber or pious as they apply and display the decorations on their hands, but rather genial and expressive. And of course, when one considers how many in the West use tattoos to demonstrate their faith, the photographs seem to be depicting a similarity rather than a difference.

The most informative point of comparison, however, may in fact be between the Eid photographs and the earlier photographs taken by the Afghan students themselves. The red celebratory ink on the young women's hands in the photographs from Eid contrast sharply, not only in color but in purpose, with the dark purple ink voters have on their fingers in the photographs the students took of Afghanistan's elections.

This Week in Being We, the People

Early in the project, a Constitution High School student photographing a rally for healthcare reform took a photograph of a young man holding a sign that said: “Radical Fact: 0% of Europeans want American-style healthcare.”

Last week, one of the Afghan students submitted a comment on the shutterfly page that asked “do you have any proof for this sign?” In class we debated how to respond. The sign was clearly intended to be rhetorical, and the sign holder was not purporting to make a literal, statistically verifiable statement. The Afghan student, however, had interpreted the image as a demonstration of the photographer’s own opinion, and as such, requiring some corroboration. The American students began discussing the difference between reportorial photography and documentary photography, and about the ethical obligations associated with each. Harvey Finkle pointed out that this was an example of how much power the photographer has to inform, or, on the other hand, to mislead. Even though “every picture tells a thousand stories,” stories aren’t always true.

After class, the American students went on Shutterfly to explain their approach to the Afghan student. One student wrote:The photograph shows that here in America u have a right to protest and exchange your ideas and opinions with others. lol so to answer your question, he doesn`t really need proof because he`s kind of joking to prove a point.

Another added:This picture is not to prove that the information on the sign is correct. It is to show peoples freedom of expression and how people have the freedom to give their opinions

Regardless of whether the American students are able to successfully convey the context of the photograph in question, the exchange has been illustrative of the power images have to represent, protect, and sometimes to distort the democratic process.