Teaching the French Revolution

Start off your World History or European History class by getting the kids out of their seats. After they read an overview about the causes of the French Revolution, try my dramatic enactment or compose a skit of your own. As you work through the French Revolution unit, assign all the students a position (1st, 2nd, or 3rd Estate) and treat them (within reason) accordingly. For example, at first I give the nobility free cokes and chips, which normally are never allowed. I instruct the nobility to keep the goodies for themselves. When the Jacobins take over, the more educated of the third estate get the goodies, etc. If you use the skit, please give me feedback.



Mike Spinrad/San Marin High School


Name_______________________________ Date __________________


“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” Skit

Instructions: If you were picked for a role, please come up to the front of the class. If not, please listen carefully to the skit and fill in the correct names below.

Characters
Guy Flambeau: third estate, peasant of the countryside
Ricard Poisson: third estate, cloth spinner of Paris
Cardinal Rouge: First Estate, Upper Clergy
Father Sympathique: First Estate, Lower Clergy
Baron Caniche: Second Estate
King Louis XVI: King of France
Queen Marie Antoinette: Queen of France
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Scene…a salon, Paris, 1789

Guy Flambeau: The price of wheat is so high, I can’t feed my family. We pay so much money in taxes that I might have to sell everything and beg in the streets. We third estate peasants are all ready to revolt.

Ricard Poisson: I am with you my friend. I used to believe that it was G-d’s will that we should be poor, but I have been hearing about the ideas of the philosophes. We must fight for justice!

Baron Caniche: We will crush you scum if you dare to revolt. I can have you both put in the Bastille just for speaking out against the government. You third estate people do the work and pay the taxes. We nobles have fun at the king’s court.

Cardinal Rouge: We upper clergy have it even better! We pay no taxes, own ten percent of the land of France, and I rarely even attend church services. I just like hanging out in my chateau and scheming against certain nobles like your friends, Caniche.

Father Sympathique: Your behavior is scandalous, Cardinal. I spend all the day attending to the needs of the poor.

King Louis XVI: I am the king to the whole nation, rich or poor. I am of the long running Bourbon dynasty. I have a right to rule France that was given to me by G-d. The nobles refuse to pay any taxes. If I can’t get more tax money from the peasants, I just don’t know what I will do. I think I will take a break and fix some clocks in my shop next to Versailles.

Queen Marie Antoinette: Your highness, I’ve almost finished making you a nice sweater.

Which characters support the following policies?
1. Bourbon dynasty:_______________________________________
2. Divine right to rule:_____________________________
3. Privileges of the Second Estate:____________________________________
4. Desperation of the peasants:_______________________________________
5. Third estate pays the taxes and does the work:_______________________________
6. Influence of the philosophes:__________________________
7. Attends to the needs of the poor:__________________________________
8. Is attuned only to the needs of the king:________________________________
9. Is not particularly religious:__________________________

Extra Credit: What is the difference in point of view of Guy Flambeau and Ricard Poisson? Why do they look at the situation differently?
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How Students Can Remember the Transcendentalists: Use a Skit

Name_______________________________ Period __________________

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Instructions: If you were picked for a role, please come up to the front of the class. If not, please listen carefully to the skit and fill in the correct names below.

Characters
Ralph Waldo Emerson: Philosopher and writer
Josiah Holbrook: Founder of Lyceum movement
John Brown: Abolitionist militant
Henry David Thoreau: Philosopher and writer
Margaret Fuller: News reporter and intellectual
Walt Whitman: Poet
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Setting: Emerson’s home, Concord, Massachusetts, 1854

Holbrook: Americans love to learn. Look how well they attend Lyceum lectures! I noticed that in addition to Emerson, Margaret Fuller was an especially popular speaker. I’ve never seen a woman make a living as an intellectual before.
Whitman: Emerson lit an intellectual fire under all of us, and we all changed American culture in some way. It’s too bad that Margaret died so young. Look, here’s an unopened letter from her.

Fuller: “My father educated me in Greek and Latin even though I was a girl. To overcome the odds against my sex, I worked so hard in learning languages that I became ill. I am living proof that women are the intellectual equal to men.”

Emerson: I am honored that Margaret was in my intellectual circle. Our movement, transcendentalism, was built on the idea that every individual, by searching within, can encounter the truth. I am sure that Henry and Walt would agree.

Brown: There are limits to your glorification of the individual, Emerson. In times of national crisis, we need to work as one. Today, we need to destroy the evil institution of slavery. Radical measures are needed. Who is with me?

Emerson: We all are. I have modified my views on radical individualism and have become less eager for the individual to stand apart from society. We all need to cooperate in this time of national urgency.

Thoreau: I went to jail rather than support the Mexican War. I knew that a consequence of that war would be the expansion of slavery. I will break the law now to oppose the evil institution of slavery on our shores. It is time for civil disobedience!


Which character espouses the following policy or idea? Pick the one best answer.
1. Civil disobedience:____________________
2. Amazed by American lecture attendance:___________________________
3. Men and women are intellectually equal:_______________________________
4. No longer interested in radical individualism.:_____________________________
5. Grateful for Emerson’s inspiration:__________________________________
6. Radical abolitionist:_____________________
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7. What ended up happening to John Brown? What was Emerson’s reaction?
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8. What was the significance of Brook Farm?

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9. Would you have preferred to be educated in Margaret Fuller’s day or today? Why?
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10. Should the State be subservient to the wishes of the individual or should the individual be subservient to the State? Why?
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