Essay Prompts: Civics and History | 50 Essay Topics for EmSAT Achieve PDF Download

Guns & the Justice System

Essay 86: What Are Some Answers to America’s Gun Violence?

The country is horrified by each mass school shooting — Umquaa Community College, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook Elementary, Columbine. These tragic events grab national headlines and stir political debates about the role of guns in our society. But the vast majority of the more than 30,000 gun deaths each year in the United States are not from mass shootings. In fact, most gun deaths aren’t even homicides or accidental shootings. Instead, they are suicides. And more than 60 percent of people in this country who die from guns die by suicide.

With such a complex problem, what’s the answer to so many gun deaths in the United States?

After the recent shooting in Roseburg, Ore., that killed nine people, many in the local community said they thought that more guns might help keep them safer.

A week has passed since J. J. Vicari huddled underneath a desk while gunshots exploded in the classroom next door. Now he is thinking about guns. Not about tightening gun laws, as President Obama urged after nine people were killed at the community college here. But about buying one for himself.

“It’s opened my eyes,” said Mr. Vicari, 19. “I want to have a gun in the house to protect myself, to protect the people I’m with. I’m sure I’ll have a normal life and never have to go through anything like this, but I want to be sure.”

That sentiment is in line with a common refrain promoted by the National Rifle Association that “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

On the other hand, many see the best answer to gun violence as changing the way we see guns. Whether they are intended for hunting, sport or self-defense, guns are a type of potentially dangerous equipment that kills many people, just as cars kill people. In fact, about as many people die each year by firearms as die in motor vehicle traffic deaths.

The Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes:

Cars exemplify the public health approach we need to apply to guns. We don’t ban cars, but we do require driver’s licenses, seatbelts, airbags, padded dashboards, safety glass and collapsible steering columns. And we’ve reduced the auto fatality rate by 95 percent.

And as for gun deaths by suicide, Margot Sanger-Katz writes:

Not all of those suicides are by gun, but a majority are. And while some people feeling suicidal impulses will choose another method if a gun is not at hand, public health researchers cite two reasons guns are particularly dangerous:

1. Guns are more lethal than most other methods people try, so someone who attempts suicide another way is more likely to survive;
2. Studies suggest that suicide attempts often occur shortly after people decide to kill themselves, so people with deadly means at hand when the impulse strikes are more likely to use them than those who have to wait or plan.

Students: Tell us …

• What’s the answer to so many gun deaths in the United States?

• Do you think it’s possible for the government to find a healthy balance between protecting people’s right to own a gun and public safety? Do you believe the government is currently striking the right balance? Why?

• Would you rather the government err on the side of protecting an individual’s right to own a gun or the public’s health and safety? Or do you feel this is a false choice? Why?

• After mass shootings or renewed fears that the government will ban gun ownership, many people instinctively go out to buy guns — perhaps to feel safer in times of insecurity. Americans own an estimated 300 million guns or more. Do you think people buying more guns will prevent gun deaths?

• Do you find Mr. Kristof’s argument convincing, that guns should be treated as dangerous equipment, like cars, and should therefore have public health research help guide safety regulations, such as car airbags or smart-gun technology, to try to save lives? Or do you see gun safety regulations as just an excuse for taking away people’s right to own a gun?

Essay 87: What Should Lawmakers Do About Guns and Gun Violence?

The Second Amendment to the Constitution reads:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The Library of Congress writes, “The meaning of this sentence is not self-evident, and has given rise to much commentary but relatively few Supreme Court decisions.”

What do you think the words of the Second Amendment mean? What relevance should they have for the national debate about gun laws?

Then read these four excerpts from Opinion pieces published this month in The Times — or follow the links to read the complete Op-Ed — and decide: What do you think lawmakers should do about guns and gun violence?

Excerpt 1: John Paul Stevens: Repeal the Second Amendment

John Paul Stevens, a retired associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, writes:

Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement schoolchildren and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday. These demonstrations demand our respect. They reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society.

That support is a clear sign to lawmakers to enact legislation prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establishing more comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms. But the demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform. They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment.

Excerpt 2: After the March, Follow This Gun Reform Battle Plan

Steve Israel, a Democratic representative from Long Island from 2001 to 2017, writes:

It has been 38 days since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.; 174 days since the shooting at a concert in Las Vegas; 1,011 days since the killings at a church in Charleston, S.C.; and 1,926 since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Ten days ago, students organized a nationwide school walkout to demonstrate their outrage about these and other shootings.

On Saturday they plan to amass in Washington to pressure a Congress that has done nothing meaningful to protect American children in classrooms, movie theaters, churches, malls — because, thanks to the National Rifle Association, many of their elected representatives are too busy protecting their re-election.

My advice to the students? When you finish marching on the mall, march into the specific congressional districts where you can actually make a difference.

He continues:

You can stage marches and school walkouts, but then walk into the swing congressional districts that matter. In the end it’s not about standing up to be heard. It’s about changing who sits in Congress.

Excerpt 3: Stop Shielding Gun Makers

Brad S. Karp, the chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and H. Christopher Boehning, a partner there, write:

Senator Charles Schumer has proposed three measures to reduce gun violence: expanded background checks, protective orders to disarm individuals at risk of violence or self-harm, and an assault weapons ban. These proposals are critically important. But there is another effective response that has been largely ignored: repeal of a law that prevents suits against the gun industry.

A bedrock principle of the American legal system is accountability for wrongdoing. Businesses that cause harm may be held legally responsible in a court of law. Through the imposition of financial liability, our legal system encourages businesses to reduce harm to consumers by making their products safer and disclosing the risks associated with their use.

Thanks in part to the accountability imposed by lawsuits, society knows more about the dangers of smoking, and tobacco companies market their products more responsibly. Automakers continually develop and install new safety features, and these innovations deliver results: From 1975 to 2016, the rate of motor vehicle deaths decreased by nearly half. While motor vehicle deaths have declined over the last two decades, firearm deaths have not: According to the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more people now die from firearms than motor vehicle accidents.

Excerpt 4: Why Gun Culture Is So Strong in Rural America

Robert Leonard, the news director for the radio stations KNIA and KRLS, writes:

It’s been many years since I hunted squirrels and rabbits with my Grandpa Leonard. I grew up around guns and remember the pride I had when I completed my N.R.A.-sponsored gun safety training in Boy Scouts, back when the N.R.A. was a group primarily known for teaching gun appreciation and safety rather than lobbying.

I have come to understand and appreciate arguments for more gun control. But guns are important to the culture in my conservative community in Iowa, and people around here reject most gun control legislation. So I do my best to understand where they are coming from.

One morning after the mass shootings in Parkland, Fla., I spoke about them with a police-officer friend. He has led active-shooter trainings in our schools. He believes that better background checks might help prevent some gun violence, and that people need to do a better job securing their firearms (especially from suicidal teenagers).

But he doesn’t believe that significant gun control measures will ever meet approval in rural America, including a ban on AR-15-style semiautomatic rifles. He confided that many conservative police officers do not want more gun control and that other officers have told him that should they ever have to start taking guns away from people, they will quit their jobs. Like most rural conservatives, he truly believes that taking guns away from law-abiding citizens will never solve America’s gun problems, including mass shootings. He says gun control has never stopped criminals from getting guns, and never will.

Students: After reading the four excerpts above, tell us:

• Why does this topic interest you? How have your own experiences shaped your opinions? What questions or concerns does this topic raise for you?

• Do you believe the government is currently striking the right balance between public safety and protecting people’s individual rights? Why or why not?

• Would you rather the government err on the side of protecting an individual’s right to own a gun, or on the public’s health and safety? Or do you feel this is a false choice? Why?

• After mass shootings or renewed fears that the government will ban gun ownership, many people go out to buy guns — perhaps to feel safer in times of insecurity. Americans now own more than 300 million guns. Do you think people buying more guns will prevent gun deaths?

• How should we try to reduce the number of gun deaths and injuries in the United States? Do you think lawmakers should pursue any of the options discussed in the Opinion pieces above? If so, which ones, and why?

• What other options or possible solutions exist, in your view, and why?

Essay 88: Can High School Students Make a Real Impact on the Problem of Gun Violence in the United States?

In “A ‘Mass Shooting Generation’ Cries Out for Change,” Audra D. S. Burch, Patricia Mazzei, and Jack Healy write:

This is life for the children of the mass shooting generation. They were born into a world reshaped by the 1999 attack at Columbine High School in Colorado, and grew up practicing active shooter drills and huddling through lockdowns. They talked about threats and safety steps with their parents and teachers. With friends, they wondered darkly whether it could happen at their own school, and who might do it.

Now, this generation is almost grown up. And when a gunman killed 17 people this week at Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Fla., the first response of many of their classmates was not to grieve in silence, but to speak out. Their urgent voices — in television interviews, on social media, even from inside a locked school office as they hid from the gunman — are now rising in the national debate over gun violence in the aftermath of yet another school shooting.

… At other high schools across the country, students rallied in solidarity with Stoneman Douglas High and staged walkouts to protest what they called Washington’s inaction in protecting students and teachers. A gun control advocacy group, Moms Demand Action, said it had been so overwhelmed with requests from students that it was setting up a parallel, student-focused advocacy group.

“People say it’s too early to talk about it,” Mr. Kasky said. “If you ask me, it’s way too late.”

His argument reflects the words of other students who want action: The issue is not an abstraction to them. These are their murdered friends, their bloodstained schools, their upended lives.

Students said they did not want to cede the discussion over their lives to politicians and adult activists.

“We need to take it into our hands,” Mr. Kasky said.

Students: Read the entire article, then watch the speech from the Stoneman Douglas High School senior Emma González at the Not One More rally for gun legislation held at the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Saturday:

Florida student to NRA and Trump: 'We call BS'
Credit...Video by CNN

Questions:

1. What role do you think the students of Stoneman Douglas High School and other schools may play in ending gun violence in schools? Why do you think they are having such an impact? Do you think they can do more than adults can right now? Why or why not?

2. What do you think about Cameron Kasky’s statement that students need to take the discussion “into their own hands”?

3. As “children of the mass shooting generation,” how might young people’s perspectives be different from older people’s?

4. What do you think about the feelings and opinions that Ms. González expresses? What words from her speech do you find especially notable for any reason?

5. To what degree do you find her arguments persuasive? Explain.

6. How would you respond if you were asked by political leaders and other adults what should be done to end gun violence?

7. How do you think people of different generations can learn from each other when it comes to issues like safety in schools?

8. What other issues do you feel young people and those in older generations may have different perspectives on? Why?

9. Do you think your generation has the power to shape our world here and now? Explain.

Teachers: We also have a related lesson plan that features more on the voices of students: Resources for Talking and Teaching About the School Shooting in Florida.

Essay 89: What Do You Think of the #WalkUpNotOut Movement?

Have you heard about the #WalkUpNotOut movement?

A father of a Parkland, Fla., shooting victim proposed the demonstration in the tweet below:

What message do you think this campaign is trying to send? What is your initial opinion of it?

In “I Tried to Befriend Nikolas Cruz. He Still Killed My Friends.” Isabelle Robinson writes:

My first interaction with Nikolas Cruz happened when I was in seventh grade. I was eating lunch with my friends, most likely discussing One Direction or Ed Sheeran, when I felt a sudden pain in my lower back. The force of the blow knocked the wind out of my 90-pound body; tears stung my eyes. I turned around and saw him, smirking. I had never seen this boy before, but I would never forget his face. His eyes were lit up with a sick, twisted joy as he watched me cry.

The apple that he had thrown at my back rolled slowly along the tiled floor. A cafeteria aide rushed over to ask me if I was O.K. I don’t remember if Mr. Cruz was confronted over his actions, but in my 12-year-old naïveté, I trusted that the adults around me would take care of the situation.

Five years later, hiding in a dark closet inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I would discover just how wrong I was.

I am not writing this piece to malign Nikolas Cruz any more than he already has been. I have faith that history will condemn him for his crimes. I am writing this because of the disturbing number of comments I’ve read that go something like this: Maybe if Mr. Cruz’s classmates and peers had been a little nicer to him, the shooting at Stoneman Douglas would never have occurred.

This deeply dangerous sentiment, expressed under the #WalkUpNotOut hashtag, implies that acts of school violence can be prevented if students befriend disturbed and potentially dangerous classmates. The idea that we are to blame, even implicitly, for the murders of our friends and teachers is a slap in the face to all Stoneman Douglas victims and survivors.

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:

1. What issues does Ms. Robinson have with the idea that being nicer to your peers can prevent school violence? Do you agree or disagree with any of these? Do you see any other problems with this sentiment?

2. Has your opinion about #WalkUpNotOut changed after reading this Op-Ed essay? Why or why not?

3. To what extent do you think anti-bullying campaigns can prevent school violence and why? What, if any, other measures should be taken to make schools safer? Who should be responsible for them — students, teachers, administrators, parents, lawmakers or someone else?

4. Do you have any personal anecdotes like Ms. Robinson’s in which your kindness toward a classmate did or did not make a difference? If so, what was the experience like? How does it influence your opinion on this topic?

Essay 90: How Should We Prevent Future Mass Shootings?

What kind of meaningful action do you think the United States should take to prevent future mass shootings?

The Op-Ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof raises many questions in his piece “Do We Have the Courage to Stop This?” Mr. Kristof writes:

In the harrowing aftermath of the school shooting in Connecticut, one thought wells in my mind: Why can’t we regulate guns as seriously as we do cars?

The fundamental reason kids are dying in massacres like this one is not that we have lunatics or criminals — all countries have them — but that we suffer from a political failure to regulate guns.

Children ages 5 to 14 in America are 13 times as likely to be murdered with guns as children in other industrialized countries, according to David Hemenway, a public health specialist at Harvard who has written an excellent book on gun violence.

So let’s treat firearms rationally as the center of a public health crisis that claims one life every 20 minutes. The United States realistically isn’t going to ban guns, but we can take steps to reduce the carnage.

Students: Tell us …

1. What kind of “meaningful action” do you think the United States should take to prevent future mass shootings?

2. Do you think we should tighten gun control laws, by requiring background checks for all gun purchases, or by banning high-capacity magazines that allow shooters to keep shooting without stopping to reload?

3. Or, as some argue, do you think the problem does not lie with guns, but instead is about providing proper treatment for all those people with serious mental health problems?

4. Do you agree with Mr. Kristof that gun violence is a “public health crisis”?

5. Do you want the government to treat the issue of gun violence in a similar way to how it has treated automobile fatalities, by systematically introducing new regulations and technology, like seat belts and crash safety standards? Or do you think guns are protected by the Second Amendment, whereas cars are not?

6. How have there been “rapidly shifting attitudes toward gun control” in Washington since the Newtown tragedy? What do you hope political leaders will do as a result?

NOTE: We ask that adults respect the intent of the Student Opinion question and refrain from posting here. There are many other places on NYTimes.com for adults to post, while this is the only place that explicitly invites the voices of young people. Please note our commenting guidelines.

Teachers: For ideas about how to address the news in the classroom or at home, see our Resources: Talking and Teaching About the Shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Government Policy

Essay 91: How Strong Is Your Faith in American Democracy?

For the second time in less than two decades, the United States elected a president who won the most electors to the Electoral College but lost the popular vote. Yet, Americans’ allegiance to the Constitution is so strong that in both cases, the winner of the popular vote conceded quickly and publicly so that the country could move forward with the peaceful transfer of power.

Does this give you faith in the strength of American democracy? Are you confident that the United States’s constitutional democracy is strong enough to weather whatever challenges may come its way?

In “‘American Democracy Is Bigger Than Any One Person,’ Obama Says,” Gardiner Harris reports on President Obama’s recent comments about our democracy:

Mr. Obama took advantage of his trip to Greece to make his first visit to the Acropolis. The ruins were a reminder that great powers, even democratic ones with remarkable cultures, can fall.

Mr. Obama has largely spoken positively about the coming presidency of Donald J. Trump, saying in a Monday news conference that the president-elect had reassured him that he would remain committed to NATO and that he would keep portions of Mr. Obama’s health care law.

On Tuesday, Mr. Obama seemed to change tack, warning against what he said were dangerous divisions of race, religion and ethnicity.

“We are going to have to guard against a rise in a crude sort of nationalism or ethnic identity or tribalism that is built around an ‘us’ and a ‘them,’” he said.

On Wednesday, he said that “even if progress follows a winding path — sometimes forward, sometimes back — democracy is still the most effective form of government ever devised by man.”

Mr. Obama did acknowledge that democracy could be challenging.

“And in multiethnic, multiracial, multicultural societies, like the United States, it can be especially complicated,” he said. “Believe me, I know.”

But he said that globalization and automation, which have created the most prosperous and advanced society in history, were also creating extraordinary anxiety.

“Technology and automation mean that goods can be produced with fewer workers,” the president said. “It means jobs and manufacturing can move across borders where wages are lower and rights are less protected.”

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:

1. Do you have faith in American democracy? Do you believe that our system of representative government works as it should?

2. Do you agree with President Obama that “democracy is still the most effective form of government ever devised by man?”

3. Are there any challenges to America’s constitutional democracy that concern you? Do you think American democracy is strong enough to withstand any of those challenges?

4. Do you agree with President Obama that “American democracy is bigger than any one person?” Do you believe the Constitution’s system of checks and balances protects American democracy from abuse by any of its leaders?

5. Why is the tradition of a peaceful transfer of power from one president to another so important in American democracy?

Essay 92: Is America Headed in the Right Direction?

The Times asked adult readers this same question this week and, now that President Obama has given his final State of the Union address, we pose it to you.

Do you think America is on the wrong track? Or, do you see it as the most powerful nation on earth and on the rise again? Why?

What are our biggest problems? What are the most hopeful things about America in 2016?

In “Is America Headed in the Right Direction? Readers Respond,” The Times wrote:

President Obama will speak to the nation in his final State of the Union address with an “upbeat, optimistic” message about the state of America rather than a long list of proposals, Peter Baker reports.

Last year was dominated by news of high-profile shootings, public confrontations over race, questions over police tactics, and renewed fears of domestic terrorism. And, as Mr. Baker reported, in a survey conducted by The New York Times and CBS News in December, 68 percent of Americans said the country was on the wrong track, the highest such figure in more than two years.

On Monday, we asked readers if they’re optimistic about the future and if they think the United States is headed in the right direction. Below are a selection of their responses. They have been slightly edited for length.

Moving Away From Democracy
Christine McMorrow, Waltham, Mass.
The president may put on an upbeat air in tonight’s address, but I hope he tempers it with realism. Given the mood of the electorate, he is going to need a very convincing case.

While I personally feel he has done the best he could — and there are genuine achievements — I am still saddened by all that could have been done if not for the most highly obstructive Congress in the past 50 years.

Thus my thoughts on what constitutes our largest challenges? They have to include the influence of money in politics, political polarization, the death of compromise and the 24/7 news cycle that has turned American affairs into one big TV reality show.

I genuinely feel that this nation is moving away from its democratic ideals and the vision the founders had for this nation. The more wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of a few who can purchase the support of political leaders in Washington and mold the laws to suit their personal financial interests, the more we lose as a society.

A Weak Recovery, No Wage Growth
A commenter who used the name Luxembourg from upstate New York
How can one not think that the country is headed the wrong direction under Obama? We have had one of the weakest recoveries in postwar history, just over 2 percent per year, and the beneficiaries are a small sliver of society. Real median income in 2014 was 4 percent below the level of 10 years ago, and a reasonable level of unemployment has depended on loads of people dropping out of the job market.

Worries About Oligarchy and Inequality
Gwenn Hibbs of Bethesda, Md.
I am very pessimistic, especially on behalf of the generation now coming out of college. We have democracy without accountability, legislative paralysis and health insurance that works only for the profiteers who treat consumers as profit centers. As a country, we seem to be heavily tilted toward ultra conservative oligarchy and ever greater inequality. The richest among us aggregate more and more political power, and care less and less for the common good. No matter whom I vote for, I believe politicians are answerable only to the handful of wealthy families and corporate interests that control the dark money that now determines elections.

Video
Analysis: Obama’s Final State of the Union
Jonathan Weisman of The Times analyzes key moments from the president’s last annual address to Congress. By JONATHAN WEISMAN, QUYNHANH DO, A.J. CHAVAR and PAUL VOLPE on Publish Date January 13, 2016. Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times.

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:

1. Which of the statements do you most agree with? Why?
2. What are America’s biggest problems in 2016? What are the most hopeful things about where we are as a nation today?
3. Did you watch the State of the Union address? What did you think? What lines or ideas in the speech especially resonated with you?
4. Do you think the president was right when he said that “the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better”? Do you think that can change with the next president?
5. Overall, do you think America is in a better place after seven years of Mr. Obama’s leadership, or not? Why? In general, do you think America right now is better characterized as a “once-great power that has lost ground in a dangerous world” or as “the most powerful nation on earth and on the rise again, with more jobs, better health care and stunning innovation”? Why?

Essay 93: What Do American Values Mean to You?

Essay 94: Do You Think It Is Important for Teenagers to Participate in Political Activism?

Did you take part in the national school walkouts to protest gun violence on March 14?

If so, why did you decide to join, and what was the experience like? If not, why did you decide to opt out?

Have you ever taken part in any other kind of political activism? Do you think that in general it is good for teenagers to participate this way? Why or why not?

In “National School Walkout: Thousands Protest Against Gun Violence Across the U.S.,” Alan Blinder and Julie Turkewitz write:

Thousands of students, emboldened by a growing protest movement over gun violence, stood up in their classrooms on Wednesday and walked out of their schools in a nationwide demonstration, one month after a gunman killed 17 people at a high school in Florida.

The 17-minute protests unfolding at hundreds of schools are intended to pressure Congress to approve gun control legislation after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and come 10 days before major protests in Washington and elsewhere.

… The demonstrations unfolded in different ways from city to city and school to school. In some places, demonstrators chanted and held signs. At other schools, students stood in silence. In Atlanta, some students took a knee.

Thousands of students around New York, many backed by permission slips from their parents, walked out of their schools and converged on central locations — Columbus Circle, Battery Park, Brooklyn Borough Hall, Lincoln Center.

… In Washington, thousands left their classrooms in the city and its suburbs and marched to the Capitol steps, their high-pitched voices battling against the stiff wind: “Hey-hey, ho-ho, the N.R.A. has got to go!” One sign said: “Fix This, Before I Text My Mom from Under A Desk.”

Another article published on the same day, this one from the Well section, explains “Why Demonstrating Is Good for Kids.” In it, Lisa Damour writes:

Participating in political activism may be good for our teenagers, according to a new research report.

The study, published in January in the journal Child Development, found that late adolescents and young adults who voted, volunteered or engaged in activism ultimately went further in school and had higher incomes than those who did not mobilize for political or social change.

By tracking nearly 10,000 young people from a wide variety of ethnic, racial and economic backgrounds, researchers from Wake Forest School of Medicine, Fordham University and the University of Massachusetts measured the long-term implications of youth political and social engagement. Remarkably, they found that civic activity linked to better academic and financial outcomes regardless of early school performance and parental education levels, two factors that usually drive later success.

Of course, correlation does not prove causation, but the study makes a case for the benefits of civic engagement.

In light of the findings, Parissa Ballard, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor in the department of family and community medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine, said that “having meaningful opportunities to volunteer or be involved in activism may change how young people think about themselves or their possibilities for the future.”

Students: Read both articles, then tell us …

1. What is your reaction to the national school walkouts to protest gun violence? What comes to mind as you read about and see photos and videos from students protesting around the country?

2. What is your opinion of the message that students were trying to send with these walkouts? Do you think this protest will be effective in addressing the issue of gun violence in the United States?

3. How do you think teachers and administrators should respond to student protests, whether over this issue or any other? Do you think times like this, when large numbers of young people are reacting to an issue in the news, should be treated in school as “teachable moments”? If so, how?

4. In general, how do you feel about teenagers participating in political activism? Do you agree with the article above that says it may be good for you? Why or why not?

5. What have your own experiences with political activism, however you define it, been like? If you are not politically active, how do you feel about articles like these that exhort you to vote, volunteer or take other kinds of actions? Why?

Related: Our lesson plan, The Power to Change the World: A Teaching Unit on Student Activism in History and Today.

Essay 95: How Would You Like to Help Our World?

Essay 96: What Event in the Past Do You Wish You Could Have Witnessed?

History in the making–that’s what we call rare events like the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of World War II or Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.

What event or events do you wish you could have been eyewitness to? Why?

In “Historic Hysterics: Witnesses to a Really Big Show,” James Barron writes about an event from the world of pop culture that many music fans hold in a similar category to those historical events, the Beatles’ first performance on the Ed Sullivan Show fifty years ago:

Debbie Gendler, a teenager from Oakland, N.J., had gone to television shows before, taking a seat in the studio audience and clapping dutifully when the “applause” light flashed. But this one was different. There were crowds outside the studio that chilly afternoon in February 1964, hysterical crowds, and a phalanx of police officers blocking the way.

… She did not realize it, but she and the rest of that audience were waiting to become witnesses to history: the Beatles’ first live appearance on American television, on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” a variety hour that ranked as one of the top 10 programs in the country for most of its long run.

She soon understood that she had been there, in person, on the night that clinched the Beatles’ place in American popular culture. It was a night she still describes as “electric,” “special” and “overwhelming.”

It has now been 50 years since the four young performers with longish hair and Liverpool accents swept through New York City on the way to a unique kind of fame that was both instant and enduring.

Students: Tell us…

• What do you think it was like to be part of the crowds that saw the Beatles in 1964?
• Do you think this experience could affect someone’s taste in and expectations of music for a long time to come? Why or why not?
• Are there other performers who have had similar effects on their audiences? If so, who?
• Have you or a family member experienced something that will be remembered for a long time to come, in terms of history, pop culture, sports or something else? If so, what?

Essay 97: What Are the Most Important Changes, in Your Life and in the World, in the Last Decade?

Essay 98: What National or International Events That You Lived Through Do You Remember Best?

When the space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986, it was among the nation’s worst space disasters ever. This particular launch had especially attracted national interest because it included a high school teacher from New Hampshire, Christa McAuliffe, who won a nationwide competition to broadcast two lessons from space to students. The Challenger disaster was one of those events that American children growing up in the ’80s tend to remember — many of them watched it happen live on TV.

What national or international events have you lived through that you remember best?

In “The Challenger Explosion, 30 Years Later,” Karen Workman writes:

On Jan. 28, 1986, at 11:39 a.m., people across the country watched in horror as the space shuttle Challenger exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, killing everyone on board. It remains one of the worst accidents of the American space program.

‘Obviously a Major Malfunction’

Hardly more than a minute after liftoff and about 10 miles above Earth, the space shuttle Challenger erupted into a ball of flame. The Times reported that the “orange fireball and billowing white trails” initially confused many onlookers, who did not realize that something had gone terribly wrong. “Obviously a major malfunction,” said Stephen A. Nesbitt of Mission Control, according to a transcript of the shuttle’s final moments. “We have no downlink.” And then, after a long pause: “We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded.”

The article continues:

McAuliffe Was to Be First Ordinary Citizen in Space

Mrs. McAuliffe, a high school teacher from Concord, N.H., won a nationwide competition to go on the Challenger mission and was going to broadcast two lessons from space to students around the country. She was married to Steven McAuliffe, and the couple had two children; the three of them, plus her parents and hundreds of students from Concord, gathered in Florida to watch the launch. Schools across the United States tuned in to a live broadcast. “The passage of 30 years since the Challenger accident is not of great personal significance to our family,” Mr. McAuliffe said in a statement to The Associated Press. “For us, Challenger will always be an event that occurred just recently. Our thoughts and memories of Christa will always be fresh and comforting.”

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us …

— What national or international events that happened in your lifetime will you remember best?
— How old were you when the event happened? How did you learn about it?
— What about the event has stuck in your mind? Why?
— Have you heard about the Challenger explosion? Did you learn anything new by reading the article? (To learn more, you can watch this Retro Report video.)

Essay 99: What Famous Figure From the Past Fascinates You Most?

Charles Manson died Monday, and The Times ran not only the video above, but also an obituary, an Arts piece about his role as a figure in pop culture, an Op-Ed essay, and an article exploring what became of the Manson family.

Were you as fascinated by Manson and his crimes as many others were? Who else in this special section of Notable Deaths in 2017 — whether Mary Tyler Moore, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lewis, David Rockefeller, Trisha Brown, Glen Campbell, Dick Gregory, Edith Windsor, Sam Shepard, Tom Petty or anyone else — seems especially interesting to you?

What other famous figures from the recent or long-ago past interest you? Why?

In “Charles Manson Dies at 83; Wild-Eyed Leader of a Murderous Crew,” Margalit Fox writes:

Charles Manson, one of the most notorious murderers of the 20th century, who was very likely the most culturally persistent and perhaps also the most inscrutable, died on Sunday in Kern County, Calif. He was 83 and had been behind bars for most of his life.

He died of natural causes in a hospital, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a news release.

Mr. Manson was a semiliterate habitual criminal and failed musician before he came to irrevocable attention in the late 1960s as the wild-eyed leader of the Manson family, a murderous band of young drifters in California. Convicted of nine murders in all, Mr. Manson was known in particular for the seven brutal killings collectively called the Tate-LaBianca murders, committed by his followers on two consecutive August nights in 1969.

The most famous of the victims was Sharon Tate, an actress who was married to the film director Roman Polanski. Eight and a half months pregnant, she was killed with four other people at her home in the Benedict Canyon area of Los Angeles, near Beverly Hills.

The Tate-LaBianca killings and the seven-month trial that followed were the subjects of fevered news coverage. To a frightened, mesmerized public, the murders, with their undercurrents of sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll and Satanism, seemed the depraved logical extension of the anti-establishment, do-your-own-thing ethos that helped define the ’60s.

Essay 100: What Does Dr. King’s Legacy Mean to You?

When did you first learn about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? What do you know about him and what he worked for?

In “Martin Luther King Jr.’s New York Times Obituary 50 Years Ago,” Murray Schumach wrote:

To many millions of American Negroes, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the prophet of their crusade for racial equality. He was their voice of anguish, their eloquence in humiliation, their battle cry for human dignity. He forged for them the weapons of nonviolence that withstood and blunted the ferocity of segregation.

And to many millions of American whites, he was one of a group of Negroes who preserved the bridge of communication between races when racial warfare threatened the United States in the nineteen-sixties, as Negroes sought the full emancipation pledged to them a century before by Abraham Lincoln.

To the world Dr. King had the stature that accrued to a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, a man with access to the White House and the Vatican; a veritable hero in the African states that were just emerging from colonialism.

In “‘I’m Glad That I’m Equal’: Six Students on Dr. King’s Legacy,” students from Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis reflect on how Dr. King’s work and legacy shape their lives a half-century after his assassination:

Cedricka Harris, 11:
I think about him a lot, almost every day. I’ve got white friends and black friends that I play with a lot. I think he would be amazed right now at how far we have come since 1963 to 2018. I think he would be proud. People at this school treat people the way they want to be treated.

Tommy Applewhite, 13:
There are still people fighting with each other, but there are people trying to bring them together instead of breaking them apart. If people just get along and stop the violence and stop going at each other and they just actually listen to Dr. King’s speeches, they could get along better.

Nicko Brown, 13:
When I hear his name, it’s like an inspiration to me because he is a black man. He is a black individual, and he opened doors to the point where we can get along. We don’t have to be separated from whites. We can get along with them. We can work with them. We can be in the same places.

Gabriella Valderrama, 13:
Whenever I’m afraid to do something, I think about his “I Have a Dream” speech, and I tell myself I can do it. When I tried out for cheerleading, I was scared at first. And then I thought of him — and then I finished the whole year of cheerleading.

I would tell him I accomplished my dreams, and I would tell him I’m so grateful. He was a leader. I’m a leader. I think that you’re a leader, you be yourself.

Students: Read both articles, then tell us:

— What comes to mind when you think about Dr. King? Which quotations, speeches or actions of his resonate with you most and why?

— What — if anything — did you learn from reading his original obituary that you didn’t know before? What else do you wish you knew about him?

— What does Dr. King’s legacy mean to you? How has his work influenced your life? How has it shaped the society you live in today?

— How do you think Dr. King would feel if he could see the United States now? Why?

— What do you think people can still learn from Dr. King? How can we use his teachings to help address problems our country currently faces?

Related Lesson Plan: Teaching and Learning About Martin Luther King Jr. With The New York Times