Amanda Macaro

The battle for suffrage was finally over. After a 72-year struggle, women had won the precious right to vote. The generations of suffragists that had fought for so long proudly entered the political world. Carrie Chapman Catt carried the struggle into voting awareness with the founding of the League of Women Voters. Alice Paul vowed to fight until an EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT was added to the Constitution. MARGARET SANGER declared that female independence could be accomplished only with proper BIRTH CONTROL methods. To their dismay, the daughters of this generation seemed uninterested in these grand causes. As the 1920s roared along, many young women of the age wanted to have fun.

By night, flappers engaged in the active city nightlife. They frequented jazz clubs and vaudeville shows. Speakeasies were a common destination, as the new woman of the twenties adopted the same carefree attitude toward prohibition as her male counterpart. Ironically, more young women consumed alcohol in the decade it was illegal than ever before. Smoking, another activity previously reserved for men, became popular among flappers. With the political field leveled by the Nineteenth Amendment, women sought to eliminate social double standards. Consequently, the flapper was less hesitant to experiment sexually than previous generations. SIGMUND FREUD's declaration that the libido was one of the most natural of human needs seemed to give the green light to explore.

The Flapper Look

Many women celebrated the age of the flapper as a female declaration of independence. Experimentation with new looks, jobs, and lifestyles seemed liberating compared with the socially silenced woman in the Victorian Age. The flappers chose activities to please themselves, not a father or husband. But critics were quick to elucidate the shortcomings of flapperism. The political agenda embraced by the previous generation was largely ignored until the feminist revival of the 1960s. Many wondered if flappers were expressing themselves or acting like men. Smoking, drinking, and sexual experimentation were characteristic of the modern young woman. Short hair and bound chests added to the effect. One thing was certain: Despite the potential political and social gains or losses, the flappers of the 1920s sure managed to have a good time.

Title of lesson: Prohibition

Type of lesson: Structured Discussion

Your Name: Amanda Macaro

Length of lesson: 50 minutes
Overview: The students will hold a student centered discussion based on the reading of the primary sources about Prohibition. The students should already be prepared with knowledge regarding prohibition from last night’s homework and yesterdays in class assignment. Discussion questions are included in the procedures section of this lesson plan.
Objectives:
Students will be able to:

• 
  Assess the political and social consequences of Prohibition.
  
• 
  Identify the connection between prohibition and the rise of gangsters.
  

• 
  Pen and Paper
  
• 
  Primary Sources (Handouts)
  
• 
  Any research the students brought in on their own
  
• 
  Prohibition video
  

Procedure to Teach the Lesson:

Beginning

1. 
   Teacher will ask students to analyze the propaganda against Prohibition that is on the overhead, students will do this by writing down their thoughts and answering the following questions: 1. What is the purpose of this propaganda? 2. What is the context? What is happening around this time? 3. Who is the target audience? (5 minutes)
   
2. 
   The teacher will then ask the students to think pair share. (2 minutes)
   

• 
  Middle
  

1. 
   Teacher will ask students to take out the documents they were supposed to read as homework. (1 minute)
   
2. 
   Teacher will show the video on prohibition (5 minutes)
   
3. 
   Students will then move into a fishbowl structured discussion (1 min)
   
4. 
   The students outside the fishbowl (the students have done this discussion before. One person cannot speak again until 3 people have spoken.) will watch the discussion and take notes, there will be one chair that is interchangeable at any time should any student from the outside wish to sit and add to the discussion.
   
5. 
   The students on the inside will be asked the following 2 questions: 1. Why was prohibition enacted? Did it stop the sale or consumption of alcohol? 2. What political stances were at play during this time? (15 minutes)
   
6. 
   The students will switch places and the new group will answer the following questions: 1. How did prohibition lead to a rise in crime? 2. How did the rise in crime effect political, social, and economic standings in the United States? (15 minutes)
   

• 
  End (closure)
  

1. 
   The teacher will have the students clean up the classroom. (2 minutes)
   
2. 
   Students will write down if they think prohibition was a good or bad thing and will use supporting details. (4 minutes)
   

Assessment:

Taken from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CE4u6jI_rc

Alcohol poisons and kills; Abstinence and Prohibition save lives and safeguard health….

….
“Alcohol impairs the tone of the muscles and lessens the product of laborers; it deprecates the skill and endurance of artisans; it impairs memory, multiplies industrial accidents, causes chronic diseases of the heart, liver, stomach and kidney, increases the death rate from pneumonia and lessens natural immunity to infectious diseases.”