DAVID CUTLER · Spring 2023 ARCHIVE
Public reading edition · October 10, 2026. Read the daily classwork and homework here; no school login is required. These dates and directions belong to the archived course. Available daily plans from January through April 2023.
Please share links to these courses and resources. You may download, copy, share, and adapt the teaching materials I created and own for your teaching. Sharing a link to someone else’s work is different from copying or reposting the content itself; check the original source’s reuse terms for those uses. PDF handouts are available where listed. I do not share PowerPoint files because I may not have permission to distribute them.
Use your browser’s Print command to print or save a PDF.
January 19, 2023
Course introduction: What makes a government just?
Complete the chapter, “Doing the Right Thing,” from Michael J. Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? for Tuesday. Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the following prompt: What wounds deserve the Purple Heart?
January 20, 2023
Reading and preparation day.
No additional homework.
January 23, 2023
Is America’s government “the best”? Clip: The Newsroom. Discuss. Break out into groups to discuss “what would your government look like? What laws would there be? Why?”
Complete the chapter, “The Greatest Happiness Principle/Utilitarianism,” from Michael J. Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? for Friday. Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the following prompt: Can the utility principle support the idea that certain individual rights should be upheld even if doing so makes the majority very unhappy? If not, which should give way—respect for individual rights, or the utility principle itself?
January 24, 2023
Discuss Sandel reading. Share responses.
No additional homework.
January 26, 2023
Introduce "We the People" and register for online resources.
No additional homework.
January 27, 2023
Discuss Sandel reading. Share responses.
Complete the chapter, “Do We Own Ourselves: Libertarianism,” from Michael J. Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? for Monday Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the following prompt: If you accept the idea that we own ourselves, must you also accept the conclusion that all paternalist and redistributive laws are unjust? If, on the other hand, you believe that government should tax the rich to help the poor, how do you answer the libertarian argument that such laws are a form of coerced charity that makes every person the property (perhaps even the slave) of the majority?
January 30, 2023
Discuss Sandel reading. Share responses.
Complete the chapter, “Markets and Morals," from Michael J. Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? for Thursday. Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the following prompt: What do you think about the morality of prostitution? Is it morally wrong to sell (or rent) the use of one’s sexual organs? Is it morally wrong to buy sex? Should it be legal to buy or sell sex?
January 31, 2023
Breaking down this week in politics and the news.
No additional homework specified.
February 2, 2023
Discuss Sandel reading. Share responses.
No additional homework.
February 3, 2023
Breaking down Thomas Hobbes: The Leviathan (1651).
Complete the chapter, “The Case for Equality/John Rawls,” from Michael J. Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? for Monday. Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the following prompt: One way to think about justice is to imagine a social contract in which people come together to choose the basic principles that will govern their society. Would the principles chosen in this way be fair? What does Rawls think? Do you agree? Why?
February 6, 2023
Discuss Sandel reading. Share responses.
For Thursday, please read Chapter 2 in We the People, "The Founding and the Constitution."
February 6, 2023
Discuss Sandel reading. Share responses.
For Thursday, please read Chapter 2 in We the People, "The Founding and the Constitution."
February 7, 2023
Discussing compromise, strengths, weaknesses, and promises of the Constitution (1 of 2).
No additional homework.
February 9, 2023
Discussing compromise, strengths, weaknesses, and promises of the Constitution (2 of 2).
No additional homework.
February 10, 2023
Analyze representation under the Great Compromise and the expansion of voting rights.
Please complete the Inquizitive, Module 2.10, for Monday.
February 13, 2023
Discussing strengths and weaknesses of Federalism, focusing on Hurricane Katrina. What does the federal government owe the states? What do the states owe the government? What do states owe other states? (1 of 2).
For Thursday, please read Chapter 3 in We the People, "Federalism."
February 13, 2023
Discussing strengths and weaknesses of Federalism, focusing on Hurricane Katrina. What does the federal government owe the states? What do the states owe the government? What do states owe other states? Watch "When The Levees Broke" Part 2. Discuss.
For Thursday, please read Chapter 3 in We the People, "Federalism."
February 14, 2023
Discussing strengths and weaknesses of Federalism, focusing on Hurricane Katrina. What does the federal government owe the states? What do the states owe the government? What do states owe other states? Watch "When The Levees Broke" Part 2. Discuss.
For Thursday, please read Chapter 3 in We the People, "Federalism."
February 16, 2023
Discuss reading, part 1.
For next Friday, please read Chapter 4 in We the People, "Civil Liberties."
February 17, 2023
No class.
No additional homework specified.
February 20, 2023
No class.
No additional homework specified.
February 21, 2023
No class.
No additional homework specified.
February 22, 2023
Discuss reading, part 2.
For Monday, please read Chapter 5 in Justice, "What Matters Is the Motive: Immanuel Kant"
February 23, 2023
Reading day.
No additional homework.
February 23, 2023
Discuss reading, part 2.
For Monday, please read Chapter 5 in Justice, "What Matters Is the Motive: Immanuel Kant." Please respond to this prompt in 1-2 paragraphs: "According to Kant, morality is doing the right thing just because you know it’s the right thing. Is that true? Kant imagines a shopkeeper who does not overcharge his customers only because he fears that word of his dishonesty will spread and he’ll lose money. Kant thinks there’s nothing morally worthy about his action; his honesty is mere prudence, mere selfishness. Do you agree?"
February 24, 2023
Reading day.
No additional homework.
February 27, 2023
Discuss Chapter 5 in Justice, "What Matters Is the Motive: Immanuel Kant."
For Thursday, please read Chapter 7 in Justice, "Arguing Affirmative Action." Please respond to this prompt in 1-2 paragraphs: “Barbara Grutter, a white woman, applied to law school at the University of Michigan. She was rejected, even though her grades were higher than some of the minority candidates who were admitted. This time, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the University of Michigan had acted lawfully, because racial diversity at law school was an important goal. Do you agree? Was the decision just or unjust?”
February 28, 2023
Discuss affirmative action through a video and class conversation.
No additional homework.
March 2, 2023
Discuss Chapter 7 in Justice, "Arguing Affirmative Action."
No additional homework.
March 3, 2023
Class community outing.
No additional homework specified.
March 27, 2023
Welcome back! Watch PBS' "Parties and Interest Groups."
For Monday, please read Chapter 8 (which is our Unit 5, as we are going out of order) in We The People.
March 28, 2023
Discuss PBS' "Parties and Interest Groups." Reading period.
No additional homework.
March 30, 2023
Dissecting the Tobacco and E-Cig industry. Read and discuss "In Washington, Juul Vows to Curb Youth Vaping. Its Lobbying in States Runs Counter to That Pledge."
No additional homework.
March 31, 2023
Watch Thank You for Smoking.
Complete reading.
April 3, 2023
Finish Thank You for Smoking. Discuss.
No additional homework specified.
April 4, 2023
Discuss Chapter 8 (1 of 2).
No additional homework.
April 6, 2023
Discuss Chapter 8 (2 of 2).
No additional homework.
April 7, 2023
Introduce new unit I The Media. Watch documentary, Outfoxed
For Tuesday, please read and be prepared to discuss "The Media" in We the People.
April 10, 2023
Finish and discuss documentary, Outfoxed.
No additional homework.
April 11, 2023
Discuss "The Media" (part 1)
No additional homework.
April 13, 2023
No class.
No additional homework specified.
April 14, 2023
No class.
No additional homework specified.
April 17, 2023
No class.
No additional homework specified.
April 18, 2023
Discuss "The Media" (part 2)
For Tuesday, please read and be prepared to discuss "The Media" in We the People.
April 20, 2023
Watch "The Post" in class. Please mark down ending period before class ends.
No additional homework.
April 21, 2023
Continue watching "The Post" in class. Please mark down ending period before class ends.
No additional homework.
April 24, 2023
Finish "The Post" in class. Please mark down ending period before class ends.
No additional homework.