Is
Marriage a Civil Right?
By
Karen Klebbe
AHTC
2010 Summer Institute
Click
here to download this lesson in PDF format.
Abstract:
Students
will begin by examining the historical purpose of marriage and how it has
changed through time and across cultures.
Students will then formulate the purpose of marriage today. Students will analyze court decisions
regarding the legal restriction of marriage in order to determine if marriage
is a civil right.
Essential Questions:
·
What is marriage?
·
What is a civil right?
·
What is the historical purpose of marriage?
·
How has marriage between two consenting individuals been
restricted historically?
·
In what ways is marriage restricted now?
·
Is marriage a civil right?
Assessment:
Option A:
Conduct a class
debate to determine if marriage is a civil right.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson304b.shtml
Option B:
Using
evidence from the lesson, students will write a well-constructed, well-reasoned
essay on whether marriage is a civil right.
Depending on the desired length, this assessment can be done outside of
class or in a timed setting in class.
Activities:
1) Setting the purpose: What is a Civil Right? What is Marriage?
Part I
a. Hand out Civil Right Concept Map to class,
allowing ten minutes or so of quiet work time for students to complete
individually.
b. Once
students have completed their concept maps, the teacher should take voluntary
answers to What is a civil right? A formal definition of civil right is helpful
for comparison:
Merriam-Webster: the
nonpolitical rights of a citizen; especially: the rights of personal liberty guaranteed to United States
citizens by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution and by acts of
Congress
c.
The teacher should then take student examples of a civil right to
be written on the board or a transparency/word document projected through an
LCD projector.
Part II
d. Post this
question (or something similar) on the board for students to answer on a piece
of paper: Why would you get married?
Give students no more than three minutes to write out their answers.
e. Hand out Marriage Concept Map to class, allowing
perhaps ten minutes of quiet work time for students to complete individually.
f.
Once students have completed their concept maps, the teacher
should take voluntary answers to the concept map questions. The teacher could either write these answers
on the board or on an overhead transparency for all the class to see.
g. On the What is marriage? question,
it may be helpful to have a few dictionary definitions on hand for
clarification and discussion. It may be
interesting to try to define marriage as a class.
h. It will be
useful to discuss at length why people choose to make their union legal. Due to students’ relatively young age, they
may be unaware of the legal ramifications of marriage. For a list of the many legal benefits of
marriage, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_and_responsibilities_of_marriages_in_the_United_States. Students should be made aware of the many
legal benefits and responsibilities of marriage in order to fully answer the assessment
question.
2) History of Marriage Jigsaw: In order to determine if marriage is a
civil right, it is helpful to look at marriage historically and across
cultures.
a. Divide class
into “home” teams of four students per group.
b. Each team
member chooses/is assigned one of the following readings: Forms and Meanings of Marriage, History of Marriage in Western
Civilization, Marriage in Non-Western Societies or The Future of Marriage.
c. Student then
break out into their “expert” groups (those from other home teams with the same
reading). Since the readings tend to be
around five full pages of text, it would be reasonable to divide the article
between members of the expert group, particularly if time pressed.
d. Each expert
group will create a presentation including the pertinent facts for each of
their “home” teams. Suggestions are
PowerPoint, poster, song lyrics, outline to name just a few.
e. If pressed
for time, each of the expert groups could present to the class as a whole.
Ties to National Primary Source:
3) Loving v. Virginia (1967): Prior to analyzing the U. S. Supreme Court’s
opinion for Loving v. Virginia (1967), students should be familiar with the
facts of the case. Have students read The Loving Story Handout.
a. It may also
be helpful for students to hear a short history of the Loving decision as
featured on All Things Considered: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10889047
b. Students
will then use the NARA Written
Document Analysis Worksheet to analyze the Loving v. Virginia U.S. Supreme Court
Opinion.
c. Familiarity
with the 14th Amendment may be helpful: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment14/
d. As the
Supreme Court Opinion can be a challenging read, it is recommended have the
students analyze the whole document in groups (2-4 students) or break the
document into chunks and jigsaw it with student groups.
4) Supplemental
National Primary Source: Perry v.
Schwarzenegger. Students may find it
interesting to analyze the opinion of Judge Vaughn Walker in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case of
California (pdf pages 135-138): http://www.scribd.com/doc/35374462/California-Prop-8-Ruling-August-2010
using the NARA Written Document Analysis Worksheet. The teacher can use the same groupings as
listed above with Loving v. Virginia.
a. A brief
history of California’s Proposition 8 ballot initiative is available here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8_%282008%29
Analysis of Local Primary Source:
5) The Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act: Have
students read the Illinois Government News Network press release on Governor
Quinn’s signing of SB1716 into law:
http://www.illinois.gov/pressreleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=3&RecNum=9194 It is important to
remember civil unions are only recognized by some individual states while the
federal Defense of Marriage Act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_Marriage_Act) is still
in effect.
a. Students
will analyze the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act in a
group (2-4 students) or break the document into chunks and jigsaw it in student
groups http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?name=096-1513 using the NARA Written Document Analysis Worksheet.
b. Using the Comparison/Summary Chart, students
will compare and contrast the requirements for obtaining a marriage and civil
union license available from the Champaign County Clerk’s website:
http://www.champaigncountyclerk.com/vitals/marriage.html
http://champaigncountyclerk.com/vitals/civil_union.php
c. Using the Venn Diagram Graphic Organizer,
students will then compare and contrast the marriage and civil union
requirements and applications available from the Champaign County Clerk’s
website:
http://www.champaigncountyclerk.com/vitals/docs/civil_union_application.pdf
http://www.champaigncountyclerk.com/vitals/docs/marriage_application.pdf
i.
The Venn Diagram can be done
interactively online at http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/venn/ and then
printed out to be discussed in class or turned in for credit.
ii.
Both applications could also be viewed online should computer lab
time be available. This would eliminate
the need for paper copies for this exercise.
Annotated List of Materials & Resources:
o
Forms and Meanings of
Marriage reading
o
History of Marriage in
Western Civilization reading
o
Marriage in Non-Western Societies
reading
o
The Future of Marriage reading
o
NARA Written Document
Analysis Worksheet
o
Loving v. Virginia U.S.
Supreme Court Opinion
o
Venn Diagram Graphic
Organizer