Perspective Scenario Cards

Welcome, Critical Thinkers!

Today, you'll step into different shoes to understand how people from the past and present see things. You'll get a card with a character and a general topic to discuss.

Why Are We Doing This?

Understanding different viewpoints is super important for making sense of history and today's world. By pretending to be someone else, you'll learn how their life experiences shape what they believe and do. This helps you become a more understanding and informed person.

How It Works:

Each card below gives you a Role (a type of historical person or someone important today) and a General Issue (a big historical event or a current problem). Your job is to act like this person and talk about the issue from their point of view.

Scenario Categories:

Teacher: You can cut these into individual cards or simply assign them to groups. Encourage students to think broadly about the types of specific events or issues that would fit each category.

Card 1: The Factory Owner

• Role: A rich factory owner during the Industrial Revolution (1800s).
• General Issue: Historical Connection: How new machines and factories changed society very quickly. This included making many products faster and changing how people worked. AND Civic Relevance: Today's discussions about how new technology (like AI or robots) affects jobs, what big companies should be responsible for, and how to balance new ideas with protecting workers.
• Perspective Focus: Believes strongly in progress, that making money through new ideas is good, and that the government should not interfere much. Values efficiency, personal drive, and how free markets help everyone. Often sees rules as getting in the way of economic growth and freedom.

Card 2: The Union Leader

• Role: A leader of a workers' union in the early 1900s.
• General Issue: Historical Connection: The hard lives and big social changes caused by factories, especially for workers who often had dangerous jobs, long hours, and low pay. This includes early efforts to organize workers and demand better conditions. AND Civic Relevance: Current fights for fair pay, safe workplaces, the power of groups of workers (unions), and talks about minimum wage, joining unions, and safety at work today.
• Perspective Focus: Fights strongly for fair pay, safe and humane working conditions, the power of workers bargaining together, and strong government rules to protect people from being taken advantage of. Believes in social fairness, community well-being, the value of hard work, and that workers need to stick together to reach their goals.

Card 3: The Environmental Advocate

• Role: A modern-day community organizer working on climate change and local pollution.
• General Issue: Historical Connection: How we've used natural resources in the past and present, how factories have impacted nature, and how science increasingly shows that people are causing harm to the environment. This includes things like pollution from factories in the past or early efforts to protect nature. AND Civic Relevance: Today's political talks about taking urgent action on climate change, making and enforcing environmental rules, finding a balance between growing the economy and protecting nature, and making sure everyone, especially poor communities, has a healthy environment.
• Perspective Focus: Cares deeply about protecting the environment, public health, and the planet's future for generations to come. Supports strong policies for clean energy, strict environmental rules, holding companies responsible for their impact on nature, and encouraging more sustainable ways of living and doing business.

Card 4: The Local Shop Owner

• Role: A small business owner in a town that's thinking about new environmental rules (today).
• General Issue: Historical Connection: How local economies have grown in the past, how communities have used their resources, and how bigger government rules have affected local businesses. AND Civic Relevance: Current discussions about how to grow local businesses, create jobs in communities, and the real-world problems and costs that new environmental rules might put on small businesses, making it harder for them to compete.
• Perspective Focus: Mostly worries about their business staying open, keeping local jobs, and the everyday challenges of following local rules. They support good practices and the community's health, but often fear that too many or too expensive rules could stop their business from growing, lead to job losses, or unfairly hurt small, independent companies.

Card 5: The Native American Elder

• Role: An Elder from an Indigenous community in North America during the 1800s, with a strong connection to their ancestral lands.
• General Issue: Historical Connection: How Native lands were taken by European settlers, how treaties were broken, and how natural resources (like wood or minerals) were used without permission. This also includes how traditional ways of life and culture were affected. AND Civic Relevance: Modern discussions about Native land rights, keeping cultures alive, the push for self-rule and independence, environmental fairness in Native communities, and ongoing efforts to fix past wrongs and honor treaty promises.
• Perspective Focus: Has a deep spiritual and family connection to the land, seeing it as sacred, alive, and the heart of their culture, not just something to be bought, sold, or used up. Values the well-being of the whole community, keeping traditions and knowledge alive, and fights for the basic rights of Indigenous peoples, including full recognition of treaties, self-governance, and protecting sacred places and natural resources.

Card 6: The 19th-Century Government Official

• Role: A government representative in the 1800s in charge of policies for expanding the country and settling new areas.
• General Issue: Historical Connection: The time of rapid expansion across the continent, the belief that getting more resources was necessary for national growth, and how the country's identity was built through settlement and development in the 1800s. This often involved policies like the Indian Removal Act or the Homestead Act. AND Civic Relevance: Debates today about national development, how to fairly share resources, different understandings of old agreements (especially treaties with Native nations), and the ongoing talk about past injustices and Native rights in modern society.
• Perspective Focus: Guided by the main interests of the country at that time, focusing on expanding territory, economic growth (like farming and mining), and creating laws to manage new lands. Sees land mostly as a resource for the country's progress and settlement, often acting under the idea of 'Manifest Destiny' and the laws, social beliefs, and political norms of the time, which often ignored or undervalued Native claims and rights.

Think about:

• What specific historical events or modern situations would your character relate to within their general issue?
• What did/does your character believe? How did/does their background (where they lived, their job, their culture, their social/economic status, their political leanings) shape these beliefs?
• What would your character want to happen or not happen regarding these issues?
• How would your character react to others who have different opinions, especially those from different historical periods or civic roles?

Perspective-Taking Role-Play Activity

Part 1: Understanding Your Historical Figure/Modern Stakeholder

Before our dialogue begins, take some time to delve into the mind of your assigned historical figure or modern stakeholder. Use your Perspective Scenario Card and your own knowledge to answer the following questions. If you have access to additional resources, feel free to use them!

1. Who is your historical figure or modern stakeholder? (Name, key role/achievements, historical period/contemporary relevance as described on your scenario card)
   
   
   
   

2. What was/is their social, economic, and political context? (What was life like during their time, or what are the major issues affecting their group/role today?)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. How did/does the general historical issue on your scenario card impact them or their people? (Consider direct or indirect effects.)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

4. How did/does the general current civic issue on your scenario card impact them or their group? (Consider direct or indirect effects.)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

5. What is their primary viewpoint or stance on the general historical issue AND the general civic issue from your card? (What would they argue for or against in each case?)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

6. What are three key arguments or pieces of evidence your figure/stakeholder would use to support their perspective on both the historical event and the civic issue presented in their scenario?

   • Argument 1:
     
     
     
   • Argument 2:
     
     
     
   • Argument 3:
     
     
     

Part 2: The Civic & Historical Dialogue - Role-Play Guidelines

Now that you've prepared, it's time to gather for the dialogue! Remember to stay in character and represent your historical figure's or modern stakeholder's perspective on both the general past event and the general current issue from your scenario card.

• Listen Actively: Pay attention to the viewpoints of other historical figures and modern stakeholders.
• Respond in Character: How would your figure/stakeholder react to what others are saying? Would they agree, disagree, or offer a different angle, connecting their historical context to current civic relevance?
• Use Your Arguments: Refer back to the arguments you prepared in Part 1 to support your figure/stakeholder's stance.
• Seek Understanding: Even if you disagree, try to understand the why behind another figure/stakeholder's perspective, considering both their historical and civic contexts.

Part 3: Reflection (To be completed after the dialogue)

1. Which historical figure or modern stakeholder's perspective was most challenging for you to understand or represent, and why?
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. How did the different contexts (historical and civic) of the figures/stakeholders influence their views on both the general historical issue and the general civic issue from your dialogue? Give at least two examples from your dialogue.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. What is one new insight you gained about the connection between historical events and current civic issues by participating in this role-play?