Civics - Art of Civil Disobedience Monday 4th Period

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack sat on the corner of her desk. Her feet didn’t touch the ground and one swung idly back and forth. She was waiting for the students to arrive. A new fresh batch of Gifted kids unlike any she’d worked with before.

This whole ‘nexus of realities’ island was a trip. Sometimes it was even a good trip, like now when she got to watch a new class file in and do the ‘seat where I can see everything but not in direct line of teacher fire’ choice. Her lips curved in a bit of a smirk.

Once the kids were seated she looked around the room and met their eyes in turn. Taking their measure.

"Listen up," she began, "My name is Jack. Not ‘Ms. Nought’, not ‘M’am’, not ‘Miss’. It’s not an attempt to be buddy-buddy or treat you like equals. We’re not equals. I’m the teacher, you’re the students. I don’t hold with any bull...crap; Jack is my name, that’s what you’ll use." Jack watched the students to see how they were taking that.

"How many of you know how to break the law?" she asked, "How many of you know when and why to break the law?" She didn't wait for an answer. She wanted them to think about it, not make them admit it in front of the class. Jack stood from the desk and moved to turn on a projector. "In this class, you’re going to learn the laws and you're going to learn when to break them and you’re going to learn why you might need to."

She met their eyes in turn again.

"And then? I’m going to show you how. Let's talk about the difference between laws and social justice to give you an overview."


The first slide read: What is Justice?
Justice, in a tradition going back to Aristotle, means treating individuals in accordance with their deserts. Justice has to do with the treatment of persons by other persons. The lion is not being unjust to the antelope in killing it. The lion is not a moral agent, and no right or wrong, no justice or injustice, is involved. Justice depends on desert, and desert is a matter of past performance, not of future possibilities. The grade a student deserves in a course depends upon his past record of achievement in the course. If a man deserves a punishment for a crime, it is because that person committed a crime in the past, not because (for example) it would be useful to punish him as a scapegoat; punishing the innocent is always unjust. Nor is it just to punish him because he might commit a crime in the future.

The second slide read: What are Laws?
The system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and which it may enforce by the imposition of penalties. It has been defined both as "the Science of Justice" and "the Art of Justice". Law is a system that regulates and ensures that individuals or a community adhere to the will of the state. The adjudication of the law is generally divided into two main areas. Criminal law deals with conduct that is considered harmful to social order and in which the guilty party may be imprisoned or fined. Civil law deals with the resolution of lawsuits (disputes) between individuals or organizations and may also result in imprisonment or fines.

LAWS ARE NOT ALWAYS JUST.

The third slide read: What is Social Justice?
Social justice is justice that follows the principle that all individuals and groups are entitle to fair and impartial treatment. Social justice attempts to prevent person's rights abuses. Social justice is based on notions of equality and equal opportunity in society. It focuses on the full and equal participation of all citizens in economic, social and political aspects of the nation. Social justice derives its authority from the codes of morality in each culture and differs from culture to culture.

The fourth slide read: Problems occur when..
=> When laws are unjust.
=> When individuals and groups are not considered entitled to fair and impartial treatment.
=> When the governing code of conduct for a society outpaces outdated or antiquated laws.
=> When the system for changing a law is written in a manner that makes the changing of the law difficult or impossible.
=> When laws are written specifically to infringe on the rights of an individual or group.

Jack looked around the room again. "Let's discuss. I doubt any of you are from a world that has no laws, because any group big enough to become a society will end up making some. Give an example - one - of a law that doesn't meet the definition of social justice. If you come from somewhere all the laws are just, give an example of one and tell me why it meets the definition."

[Syllabus is here.]

Comments

Sign in!

[biotic_psychotic]

Sign in sheet on the desk.

Re: Sign in!

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette

Introductions.

[biotic_psychotic]

"Yeah, yeah, I know how much this sucks," Jack informed them, "and that you'll do it thirty times in the next week. I want to be able to put faces to names so tell me who you are, what you want to be called, and what your preferred pronouns are. I'm Jack, I'm your teacher for this class, and my preferred pronouns are she/her."

Re: Introductions.

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette tilted her head a little, one lek slipping over her shoulder, wrapping around her front to rest over the other one. More a fashion move than some kind of nerves showing, if anyone asked.

It helped that not many people in the room were likely to know the subtleties in Twi'lek body language enough to know the difference.

"I'm Vette," she said, because the room at large wasn't going to get Ce'na out of her ever, no. "Just call me Vette. She and her over here, if you please."

Re: Introductions.

[white_oleander]

"I'm Astrid," she shrugged a little, wasn't the type to keep much eye contact when she said these sorts of things. "Just Astrid, I guess, and my preferred pronouns," well, that was kind of a new one for her, really, "are she/her."

Re: Introductions.

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae hadn't had anyone ask her about pronouns before. She'd read about people doing it online, but it'd never been brought up in person. She was pretty tempted to ask for something weird, just because the opportunity was there.

"Mae Borowski," she said. "Mae's fine. And --" she chickened out. "-- I use she/her pronouns."

Re: Introductions.

[onefootoutthedoor]

"Peebee," she said, looking fiendishly entertained already, "which is short for Peanut Butter, in case you were wondering."

She wasn't even trying to make that sound convincing. It was meant to be obvious bullshit.

"Oh, and she/her is fine." Not that gender was especially relevant for asari, but.

Re: Introductions.

[mountaingorilla]

"My name is Kagura. That's my full name, so I don't know what else you could call me, but probably don't unless you want to get on my bad side. I'm a girl so those pronouns," she said, in no small part sounding like the whole concept was a little lost on her.

Re: Introductions.

[axe2grind]

"Um." Jack gave a little wave with his flesh hand. "I'm Jack. Too. I mean, my name is Jack, also." Oh, this was going so well already. The terrifying woman with tattoos whose meanings he couldn't even fathom would probably tell him to get a new name. "I'm a he, him. Guy. Person."

Re: Introductions.

[misshapen_spark]

"I'm Yang Xiao Long, Yang is fine, Xiao Long is for if you're pissed at me, she and her, thanks," Yang said cheerfully.

This class sounded amazing already.

Slide 1 Discussion/questions

[biotic_psychotic]

There's a pause between the slides long enough for questions or comments.

Re: Slide 1 Discussion/questions

[chirpchirpchirp]

It took Vette a moment. And then a moment more. And then, kind of hesitantly, Vette ventured, "I don't suppose we could get stuff like this as handouts to look at again later?"

At least in part because she was actually interested in this kind of thing. Mostly because she'd been learning English for all of four months now, and she was pretty sure already that she wasn't going to be able to keep up otherwise.

She'd gotten about as far as 'Aristotle,' and then she wasn't sure if she was reading a person's name, or a place name, or if she'd just managed to screw up that badly.

Re: Slide 1 Discussion/questions

[white_oleander]

It was incredibly clear to Astrid, from the name of the class alone, that her placement here had her mother's hand written all over it. It was kind of impressive, really, how she'd obviously managed to finagle her way out of the case workers to have some semblance of control over her daughter's education even from behind bars. And it wasn't difficult to hear her mother's voice in Jack's words.

Except there was one small problem with that, Ingrid, now, wasn't there? Either way, Astrid was feeling like she'd definitely be a wallflower in this class if she could get away with it, but, then again, she'd thought that about a lot of other classes she'd wound up being rather vocal in, so who even knew? With her trip back home, she definitely felt a lot of her progress had been reset, anyway, and it would all have to be built up again.

Re: Slide 1 Discussion/questions

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae's brain tried to check right out the moment the lecture started. This was the sort of thing she actually found interesting, but she was in class. There was a slideshow. The teacher was lecturing.

She opened her journal and started doodling Jack holding the scales of justice, in an attempt to stay focused.

Slide 2 Discussion/questions

[biotic_psychotic]

"We'll be getting into more specific detail about the laws of this country later. Today's just a general overview of the class. That being said does anyone have questions about this? Any budding little anarchists in the class?"

A beat.

"Put your hand down, Peebee." She wasn't actually looking at Peebee, she just figured and was amused.

Re: Slide 2 Discussion/questions

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette just kind of snorted, but didn't raise her hand to the question. Sure, she was one. Less 'budding' and more, 'had already busted out of more prisons than most kids could name off the tops of their heads.'

But those weren't really 'first day of class' confessions, so she just kept her mouth shut, looking around to see if any other students had anything good to say, here.

Re: Slide 2 Discussion/questions

[white_oleander]

Any budding little anarchist in the class. Astrid, now even more determined to be a quiet little mouse in this class, considered her own petty little rebellions and the odd feeling she had for a bigger one, which would not at all be to rise up against the system, but rather to try to use it to her advantage to be able to go back to her mother.

Which was a stupid idea, wasn't it? It didn't even make sense until she was old enough to not get sent to juvie, and the logistics of it were a nightmare. And yet, there she was, still thinking about it, and she wondered if this class was going to be helpful or a hindrance.

And which one Ingrid had expected it to be.

Re: Slide 2 Discussion/questions

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae was absolutely a budding anarchist. Kind of a lazy one so far, though.

She was also one who absolutely wouldn't volunteer anything for class, so she started a doodle of she and her classmates storming the Bastille.

Not that she knew what the Bastille looked like.

Slide 3 Discussion/questions

[biotic_psychotic]

"This is a concept that's not static. As social mores evolve to the dictates of a culture, what is considered 'equal and fair' will also change. We'll be going into more detail about this later in the semester as well. Anyone really confused about the slide?"

Re: Slide 3 Discussion/questions

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette wasn't confused at all about this one. Vette was reasonably certain, after muddling her way through the slide a couple of times, that she knew all about where people stood on this matter.

It was easy to deny people equal and fair treatment if you didn't let yourself think of them as people in the first place.

Re: Slide 3 Discussion/questions

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae surrounded the doodle of scales of justice!Jack with little Jack faces demanding "Questions!"

At least she was paying attention? Sort of?

Slide 4 Discussion/questions

[biotic_psychotic]

"After looking over the reasons listed, can you think of other areas of conflict between social justice and laws?"

Re: Slide 4 Discussion/questions

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette's hand shot up almost immediately, once she'd ticked through the list to make sure hers wasn't there.

"When laws are made with the profit of the lawmaker in mind instead of the actual needs of the people."

Hey there, Nar Shaddaa girl. The whole damn moon was owned by the Hutt Cartel, it was a little relevant.

Discussion - give your examples

[biotic_psychotic]

She's waiting for you to all give your examples of a law.

Re: Discussion - give your examples

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette snorted a little at this one. Sure, she had an example.

"On Nar Shaddaa, the only law is Hutt law," she said, squaring her chin a little. "And the Hutts don't care about anything but profit and their own comfort. The whole moon and the planet it orbits were built up on the backs of slaves and most of the economy comes from stuff that's super illegal elsewhere. Drug trade, slave trade, medical experimentation on unwilling sentient test subjects... you name it. Sure, they have security wandering the Promenade, but they're less 'police' and more 'enforcers.'"

Talk to Jack

[biotic_psychotic]

She's here and available for questions, comments, or discussion.

OOC

[biotic_psychotic]

She'd probably like to end a world or three. Not this one. Not on her first day of class.