Alysha was a little subdued as she waited for the students to come in. She'd rearranged her lesson plans a bit in response to the news on the radio from the previous week, and instead of brains, they were doing their 'midterm' a week early.
"Morning, everyone," she said as the bell rang to start class. She so had her coffee today. It was too early, dammit. "The week after next is Spring Break as you guys are probably already counting down til. And that means we're almost halfway through the class." She grinned. "Don't everyone be all sad at once."
"So today, we're going to play with an exercise based off this country's Bill of Rights." She passed out sheets of paper with the Bill of Rights attached. "I know, not everyone's American, but that's why you all get a copy. Don't memorise it or anything silly like that."
( The Handout. Cut for your Viewing Pleasure. )"Okay, I'm not a lawyer or even from the States, so don't get all caught up in the little debates over why the commas or prepositions are where they are," Alysha said once everyone had a copy. "I can't begin to help you. What I want you to do is check out what 'essential freedoms' are guaranteed by this Bill of Rights. What did the writers think were the most important to a 'free society?'" Yes, the quotation marks were in Alysha's voice too. She was totally Canadian.
"After that, what I'd like you all to do is think about what you'd put in a 'Bill of Rights' for people with powers. Should there be protections for non-powered people in there? Up to you, but I want to know what you think should be the essential 'freedoms and liberties'for people with magic. Keep in mind that when this was written, some of these amendments were things that the writers believed had been curtailed in their lifetimes and so were extra concerned about. You don't have to focus just on the huge issues but the little ones too."
She looked around the room. "Any questions? Go on and discuss it all then, and we'll see what everyone comes up with."