(NEW YORK) APR 24, 2009 – When a Chinese person asks you if you’ve had lunch yet, that’s a sign that he doesn’t have anything to say. Unless, of course, he’s your waiter.
Just got off the phone with a former Fudan University student. He’s in Hong Kong and I will see him there soon. But it’s noon here. And what do you say to your old teacher anyway? So he asked if I had eaten.
In our class lesson titled “Why Should I Care” a modern-day game show, hosted by me, the ham-teacher, his task, as a contestant, was to portray W.E.B. DuBois. Cyril (Chen Yun Kai) once told me his goal is to be the world’s best accountant. Reportedly, he’s well on his way.
“Why Should I Care” had a “mash-up” lesson plan. Around the room on stark desks were distributed hard stock Library of Congress photographs republished by Pomegranate (Box 6099, Rohnert Park, CA 94927) from two of their books “Women Who Dared, Vol. 1: A Book of Postcards” and “African Americans: A Book of Postcards” (Amazon.com $9.95).
After choosing a famous woman or African-American students noted the information on the back and returned the card. Their next task was to fill-out a worksheet copied from the book Seven Ways of Teaching by David Lazear, an extremely handy paper-back for middle-school teachers to help guide them to teach to multiple intelligences.
Their instructions, were as follows: Everyone in life faces choices and challenges. In their life, the person you portray on “Why Should I Care?” faced a choice and a challenge. YOUR JOB AS A STUDENT is: before appearing on “Why Should I Care?” fill out the 4-level Reflection Model Sheet as if you are the person you are studying. 
Make believe you are he or she when you fill it out. Chose one major lifetime choice or challenge from the history of your person. Using your resources (the libraries, e-mail with research librarians, www.google.com, www.ask.com, etc.) submit A COPY of your 4-Level Reflection Model Sheet the day you appear on the show.
As a guest on the “show” you will be in the midst of making up your mind about that choice or challenge. You must be able to communicate, present, and convey your historical person’s position and rationale. BE CONVINCING.
AFTER appearing on the brand new interview show, “Why Should I Care?” with other contestants compare and contrast all the conflicts of all the people in your group. What are your conclusions? Why? 200 words. Typed. Double spaced. Due the class after your appearance on the show.
TEACHERS, NOTE: You can make one yourself: draw a 9 1/2 inch by 6 inch box. Create a banner at the top 1/2 inch by 6 inches and then four large rectangles below 2″ x 6″. In the banner write “4-Level Reflection Model” and number the boxes below Level 1, How Am I Involved?; Level 2, What Are the Pluses, Minuses, And What Do I Find Interesting?; Level 3, What Do I think Could/Should Be Done?; and Level 4, What Can I Do Now?
In the rectangle beside Level 1 write the question “Where and how does the issue touch my life? How does it make me feel? What are my thoughts and opinions about it?”
In the rectangle next to Level 2 create three smaller boxes each with its own heading “Positive Aspects +”, “Negative Aspects -” and “Interesting |”
In the rectangle next to Level 3 write the question “If I was “in charge” what would I do? What do I think needs to happen in this situation? What action(s) should be taken?”
In the rectangle next to Level 4 write “What steps could I take now (even small ones) to bring about a resolution to this issue?’
Learning how to analyze, synthesize and objectively evaluate history is a tall order the Chinese freshman, even if they did test out as the smartest 4% in the country. That said, we did accomplish four fun-filled, fascinating and funny hour and a half sessions of African American and Women’s history.
Cyril reflected on what he had learned so I could share it with New York State Social Studies teachers when I presented a couple weeks back at the New York State Social Studies Conference.
To: Bill Marcus
From: Cyril Chen
Date: February 18, 2009
Subject: Experience Sharing on “Why Should I Care” Game
Acting as W.E.B. DuBois was a different experience of learning English to me. I changed myself from a student taking notes during classes and doing boring grammar exercises to the one who made great effort to search information, and used the information to make up a complete picture of historic figures. It is a small step in my English studying, but this small step turned out to be a turning-point in my study-style throughout my university education.
Several days were spent in collecting information about W.E.B. DuBois. It is easy to google millions of information about W.E.B. DuBois, but it is a huge challenge at that time for me to think what W.E.B. DuBois thought in his time. I was headache at first and complained in my mind: “What is Mr. Marcus doing? Why should I care the one I don’t know?” I knew nothing about Pan-Africanism, NAACP, or Negro problems at the ending of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century.
It is hard to fully understand what happened one century ago, in a different country, and it is uneasy to imagine what troubles, hurts, and encouragements Mr. DuBois encountered throughout his 95-year-old life. So I mainly focused on his student period, and his writings, trying to find out his thoughts in his youth, and to see how these ideas directed Dr. DuBois’s future career and social activities.
So on the presentation day, with a loud and brief introduction from Mr. Marcus, some other historic figures and I, W.E.B. DuBois, “travelled (sic) through time tunnel” and sit in the front of classroom. I shared “my” writings and doctorial (sic) dissertation in Harvard University with the audience, and I also briefly mentioned my contributions to NAACP.
Honestly speaking, I wasn’t satisfied with my performance that Friday morning. Some months later, I thought the reason was due to my insufficient knowledge on history and social issues of the United States, that’s why it seems to be a huge task for me to perform this role well.
I took 4-month English course taught by Mr. Marcus from the autumn of 2004, while his thoughts on learning influenced me throughout the 4-year university education I have, no matter whether in Shanghai or in Hong Kong. Maybe some of the students forgot the program called “Why Should I Care” four years ago, but I didn’t and won’t. It changed my attitude toward language studying. I gave up my boring text book, but used English as a tool to get familiar with another world, another culture, and another history different from what I am living in. I use this language proactively instead of learning some paragraphs in text book required by teachers.
Apart from English, there is a huge pool of knowledge in front me as well, history, literature, sociology, philosophy, economics, accounting, etc, most of the pool is the area I don’t know, or the area I know but not fully understand, but the hands, the eyes, and the brain were controlled by me, to learn it from different angles, to think why it happened, and to think why someone did it at the certain period.
So “Why Should I Care” helps me to find out what I don’t know, from then on, I tried to locate the knowledge pool myself, then thought of the ways to learn it — from libraries, from discussions, from travelling, or from internet, and not only sourced from text book any more.