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Civics - Art of Civil Disobedience Monday 4th Period

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

Jack bobbed her head. She had the slides printed out in a packet for the kids to take with them and review later. At some point she'd need to give a test and not even Jack knew what would be on it.

She brought Vette one right now. She recognized the name. The squirrels had really wanted to be right up in her business and Jack thought that had been a little mean. When she was close enough that it probably wouldn't be overheard, she asked, "Which part tripped you up? It's no worries. You're not from Earth, I don't expect you to know this sh..stuff."

Vette's hand didn't so much as stutter as she reached for the packet. She just held her breath for a couple of seconds before replying, about as quetly.

"Still can't sight-read this language," she murmured. "There's a name I don't get and I think a couple of... animals?" An antelope was an animal, right? "But mostly this alphabet is just," she managed to not say 'dumb,' "new."

Well, they had it in her Galaxy. She just hadn't learned it.

"What language do you need it in?" Jack asked just as quietly, "I can see if there's a language key available." Nodded at the papers. "Show me what tripped you. The names."

"Aurebesh," Vette murmured. "... But really, both. Never going to learn, otherwise."

And it was hard to find the patience to sit down and work with this stuff every day, when most of her classes really hadn't required reading comprehension yet anyhow.

She looked down at the paper in front of her, and then pointed out a few words, one after the other. Aristotle. Antelope. She paused for a moment, and then backtracked a little to 'lion,' to be sure. There was a star system called that back home, but that was unhelpful. She blew out the breath and muttered, "The rest are just long, I think."

Jack snorted a little 'huh' noise. "That's one I have. Kaidan stored a key for it on our network. I'll get you a copy in Aurebesh before class ends, yeah?" She nodded at the other copy. "You have the English right there."

Her eyes followed Vette's finger while she tracked the words. "Aristotle was an Earth philosopher a few thousand years back. He's considered one of the great minds of the ages and he was also fond of his own voice and words. There's a lot of his writings still around. He was a progressive for his time. Hell, for any time, really. The other two are Earth animals. An antelope is a large herbivore, like a deer. Prey animal. Lion's a gigantic predatory cat. Carnivore. Nature channels like to make squishy people cry by showing documentaries about lions. Always comes with a scene of the lion family hunting and taking down something or other. Usually antelope."

Vette made a soft amused sound at that, but there was an air of gratefulness behind it all the same.

"I think I saw a holovid about lyleks like that, once," she noted. "... It's really hard to make anybody want to cry over a lylek."

Just trust her on this.

A little more qietly, she added, "Hey, thanks."

"Yeah? Think you can dig up a picture of a lylek for me? Never heard of 'em," Jack asked, "Don't think we have 'em back where I'm from."

Still not real comfortable with people thanking her for things, she squirmed a little under her jacket and tried to make it look like a shrug. "No problem. Might've been if I'd had to go hopping through a portal to find a dictionary but this one I already got. My idiot brother's learning that language for his best friend who I know for a fact reads English perfectly fine but who really knows with those two. Maybe they want to pass secret notes or something."

Probably not. The thought still amused her

"Anyway. S'why I have the font."

"Hey, sometimes you just have to pass secret notes." Vette shrugged. She'd take that explanation as easy as any other. "And I don't really have much from home," she admitted. "A picture of a lylek is definitely not one of those things. Think... a thorn bush crossed with a spider, and then give it tentacles, make it big enough to eat a person whole, and have it travel in packs. Then give them a carapace that makes them able to resist blaster bolts. Or... you know... regular firestorms."

Not a fan of lyleks, that Vette.

"They're not cuddly."

She could tell from the tone that Vette wasn't a fan but so help her, now Jack wanted a pack of them for pets.

"Huh. Interesting evolution of that predator for sure. Lions are adorable as babies and even as adults kind of make you want to snuggle up to them." Maybe that was just her. "They look like Earth cats writ large and fuzzy."

If anyone could survive having a pack of pet lyleks, it was definitely Jack.

Vette's attention, meanwhile, was on the lions.

"I want one."

Said immediately and without hesitation. Because kitties.

Jack grinned a little. She not only knew the feeling, she'd heard almost exactly those words in that tone from a friend of hers.

...What a strange damn thing to think, that she had friends.

"You don't," Jack informed her, "They'd eat you. They don't make good pets. If you want to see some, the zoo down in Baltimore has some."

"Yaaay, Baltimore," Vette replied.

She was going to not sigh. Maybe she'd trot out that stupid 'costume society' t-shirt again or something for the occasion.

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Thank you, Vette. Because there was no way at all that Jack was going to remember all this. Or be able to take notes quickly enough to make sense out of all of.

At the end of the class, he hesitantly asked, "Vette? Could I copy those notes you'll be getting?"

Vette considered that request for a moment, tilted her head, and then shrugged, pulled out her phone, and snapped a photo of the English notes sheet before handing it to him.

"There, no need to copy, now we each have one."

She just needed the notes in Aurebesh, anyway.

"What--?" Jack leaned forward to look at the little square in her hand, completely distracted even as he clutched the notes. "That's, I've heard of cameras, but I thought they were much bigger!"

"Bigger?" Vette looked at her phone, and then up at Jack, blinking. "Oh, no way. They're super tiny. And this one doubles as a communication device. Do you not have a phone?"

She could get you a phone, Jack.

... Heck, she could make one for you, if she was bored enough.

"A what?" Jack blinked at her again. "How can it communicate?" Some portions of Oz's technology were far behind others. Flying drones which took films, yes; telephones, no.

Vette blinked. And then broke into a little grin. She got to teach her little sibling about comms? This was going to be fun.

"You can use this," she waved her phone around, "to contact anybody else who has one. I'll tell you what... pick a day, and I'll take you to get one, and I'll show you all the stuff it can do. It's a pretty useful little thing."

"I can just-- get one?" What about the money? And wouldn't someone have to be informed that he had one? "I-- I suppose tomorrow would work. But I haven't any money, you know."

At this rate, he was going to have to get a job. Even with free food and shelter, and minimal need for clothing.

"They're easy to just get," Vette confirmed. "And don't worry about the money thing. I've got this one, you can... I don't know. Buy me lunch sometime to make up for it. You'll want one of these around here for sure, even if it's just for the reference material."

She was gonna teach him how to Google so fast.

"Oh. Thank you! All right, then." If they were comparatively cheap, that wouldn't be so bad, to pay back his Big Sib later. "Wait, what has that to do with reference material?"

Confusion: Population, Jack.

"Oh, you're going to love this part," Vette enthused. "Pick a topic, any topic."

Prepare to have your mind blown, Jack.

Or not, depending on your topic.

"Um, I, ah." Jack's mind went blank for a moment, then he picked something he knew well. "Axes. Or forestry. Either of those." He paused, watching curiously to see what she would do now.

"Axe is A-X...?" Vette paused for a moment, frowning a bit, and then hesitantly added, "E?"

Stupid silent letters were the worst and they should feel bad about their life choices. Especially since both options were right, depending on where you were at the time, and regional spellings were also jerks that really should re-evaluate what they were doing with themselves.

Either way, she was tapping those things into her Google search bar, and then making a big show of hitting the wikipedia link at the top of the page.

She held the phone up for Jack to inspect.