Note: These are the directions my students will be using in order to complete portions of their Utopian Society Project.
Some questions to discuss as a group
- What are the core values that the class agrees on and wants to live by? For example, do you think everyone should be treated exactly the same? Should everyone have a say in how the government is run? Should there be a government? Is hard work and individual effort to be rewarded? Is education, an opportunity, a right, an expectation, or a threat? Is there a greater concern in the society, such as “the environment before the people”?
- Will there be a government? What kind? Will there be a single leader or multiple leaders?
- Will there be laws? Who decides them? Who maintains them?
- What kind of community is going to exist? Will it be filled with technology like today, an industrial community, farming community, trade community, or something like Plato’s philosopher’s society?
- Is there ownership of property? Is there money?
- Is there a physical infrastructure to the society? For example, nearly every town in America has a post office, a police department, a fire department, a library, waste and city management, churches and schools. If there are such things, how do they maintain operation?
- How does language play a role in your society? Is there a national language? Forbidden words? Censorship?
Creation:
- Develop a virtual world that highlights some of the most important places, buildings, etc. in your world.
- Explain on paper the answers to the questions above.
Mr. Pippenger 