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'We are the 99%':
Occupy
Wall Street Protest
By
Jinnie Spiegler
Objectives
- Students
will learn the meaning of 99% and do math problems calculating
99%
- Students
will learn about the Occupy Wall Street Protest
- Students
will learn about wealth and wealth disparity
- Students
will learn what some of the protesters want and need and why
they are angry
- Students
will learn how to make an infographic
Materials
-
100 pieces of some object
-
"I am the 99 percent" photo/statement handouts (attached)
- Examples
of infographics printed out (you will need color printer) or
available online if interactive
- Construction
paper, markers, crayons
Gathering
Many elementary schools celebrate the 100th Day of School by asking
the students to bring in 100 of something (e.g. paper clips, pieces
of pasta, dried beans, toothpicks, crayons) to illustrate what
100 looks and feels like. Prior to the lesson, ask students to
bring in 100 of something. Or, you can bring in 100 of
something. Lay it on the table and ask a student to come up and
count it out loud. Then ask another student to come up and put
99% of it on one side of the table and 1% of it on the other side.
This means 99 pieces will be on one side and 1 piece on the other.
Web:
What is 99%?
Write 99% in big letters on board and ask: What is 99%? Draw a
circle around the "99%" and create a semantic web asking:
What words describe 99%? What does it mean? How much is it? How
does it feel?
Students
may come up with words such as: majority, almost all, most, many,
huge amount, nearly everything, etc. Then ask: What are some examples
of something you would like 99% of? Can you think of examples
of attributes that 99% of people (i.e. the majority) have? It
may be difficult or impossible for them to think of examples.
Then ask if there's anything they think 99% of people should have,
feel, or need?
To
give students a feel for what 99% of a group of people represents,
have them compute 99% of the population of your school (e.g. if
your school has 2000 students, 99% of the school population is
1980). If they are not yet able to multiply large numbers, you
can do it on the board and show them the answer. Show them how
much 99% (1980) is and how much the other 1% is (20). Then take
the population of your city/town, or of the United States (311,000,000)
and have them compute 99% of that (answer is 307,890,000).
Then
ask: How about 1%? Make a similar semantic web (next to the 99%
web) of 1%, recording the students' responses to words describing
it such as: very few, not very much, minority, small amount, etc.
Class
discussion:
Occupy Wall Street Protest
Ask: Has anyone ever been to, participated in, or heard about
a protest or demonstration? Define protest as "an expression
or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent, often in
opposition to something a person is powerless to prevent or avoid:
a protest against increased taxation.. Give some examples from
our history that the students may know about (Montgomery Bus Boycott,
March on Washington, Women's Suffrage Movement etc.). Ask: What
was the protest about? What were the protesters trying to accomplish?
Then
ask: Does anyone know about a protest that is going on right now?
Have you heard of the "Occupy Wall Street"? (Or other
"occupation" protests going on around the country?)
Have students share what they know. Fill in the blanks with the
background information below.
Background:
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy
Wall Street is a group of activists who want to change the way
money, wealth, and income are distributed in the U.S. They want
to change the fact that there is a very big difference between
how much money and wealth rich and poor people have. A group of
them came together in New York City on September 17, 2011, and
began gathering in Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan near Wall
Street. Several hundred stay overnight and sleep in sleeping bags.
The original idea for the protest was for them to stay there and
camp out for weeks or even months.
Most
of the demonstrators are in their teens or 20s, but there are
many who are older. Many are students. Many don't have jobs. Others
have jobs but have put their normal lives on hold to be part of
the protest. At Zuccotti Park, there are information stations,
a recycling center, a medical station, a media center where a
gasoline generator powers computers. At the east end sits the
library, labeled cardboard boxes brimming with donated books:
nonfiction, fiction, poetry, legal. There is a lost and found.
The
protesters are concerned about many issues, and have varied points
of view. But the main focus of the protest is about inequality
in our country. The protesters say: "The one thing we all
have in common is that we are the 99%, and that will no longer
tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%." The 1% refers
to the "haves": people who run banks and insurance companies
and those who are very rich and often pay less taxes than other
people. The 99% refers to the "have-nots": everyone
else.
At
this point, you may need to define the following words. First,
elicit the meaning from them and then give them definition if
necessary.
Activist:
advocating or opposing a cause or issue vigorously, especially
a political cause
Greed: excessive desire, especially for wealth or possessions
Wealth: a great quantity or store of money, valuable possessions,
property, or other riches
Income: monetary payment received for goods or services
Corruption:
dishonest practices such as bribery; lacking integrity
Since
the occupation began, protesters have marched to police headquarters
because they didn't like the way the police were treating them.
They had a march over the Brooklyn Bridge where hundreds of protesters
were arrested (and released that night). People inspired by the
protest in New York set up similar occupations in cities across
the country including Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington,
DC. Celebrities, government officials, and professors have been
stopping by to talk with the protesters and support their cause.
Part
of the Occupy Wall Street protest is a website called "We
are the 99%." On this website, people supporting the occupation
post pictures of themselves and words explaining why they support
the protest.
General
mission statement of "We
are the 99%"
(Read aloud to students)
We
are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We
are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied
quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution.
We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're
working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent
is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.
Ask:
What do you think this statement means? Who is speaking? What
are they saying? How are they feeling and how do you know? When
the protesters say "1% is getting everything," what
do they mean?
Ask:
What does "wealth" mean? Explain that wealth consists
of things that have financial value which people own or have such
as land, houses/real estate, stocks, money in the bank, businesses,
etc. Wealth is not the same as one's salary (the paycheck you
bring home) but often people who have a high income also have
a lot of wealth, and often those with low salaries have very little
wealth. In fact people with low incomes are often in debt - they
owe more than they own.
Ask:
Do you think it's true that the top 1% have 99% of the wealth?
Say: It's not true, but it is true that the 1% have a huge share
of the wealth - more than at any time in our history. Here are
some statistics. (As you are giving these numbers, draw a circle
and fill in the stats to make a pie chart to show the disparity.)
The
wealthiest 1% of the population now own over 44% of the financial
wealth.
The next 4% own 29% of the wealth.
The next 5% own 11% of the wealth.
The next 10 % own 10% of the wealth.
The
bottom 80% (i.e. most of the people) own 7% of the wealth.
Illustrate
these percentages using the beans (or whatever object you used
in the gathering).
Say:
The United States has the highest inequality of wealth in
the industrialized world and the highest inequality of wealth
in our nation's history. Ask: Why do you think this is the case?
How do you feel about it?
Small Group Activity:
Make an Infographic
To help students understand the information better, they will
work in small groups and create "infographics." Infographics
are picture representations of information or data. They tend
to be more interesting than regular number graphs and use pictures
which illustrate their point. Sometimes they are interactive.
You often see them in newspapers or online.
Ask
students if they have ever seen an infographic and have them explain.
Show them a few examples of infographics. Here are a few samples
or you could go online and find others. Ask: What is the
difference between a regular number graph and an infographic?
How
Different Groups Spend their Time
The
Cost Efficiency of Transportation
Immigrant
Explorer
Leading
Causes of Death
Divide students into small groups of 3-4. Distribute markers,
crayons, and construction paper. Have them look at the numbers
and pie chart you created to describe the wealth statistics. Have
them discuss the numbers and what they mean and then brainstorm
together ideas about how they can turn these numbers into infographics.
Have students report back to the whole group after they have completed
their infographics.
Ask
students: Did making your infographic make you see the numbers
in the chart differently? If so, how?
Small
Group Activity:
"I Am 99%" Photos and Statements
Remind students about overall statement by protesters:
We
are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We
are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied
quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution.
We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're
working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent
is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.
Say:
To learn more about how and why the protesters are upset about
wealth inequality in our country, we are going to learn about
some of the individual protesters - and people who support them.
Many protest supporters have written statements about why they
are protesting and they took photos of themselves with their statements.
Explain
that the students will be divided into groups of 3-4 and each
group will get a photo and statement of one of the protesters.
Groups will have 15 minutes to read the statement aloud and discuss
the following questions. Decide how the group will report back
to the whole class (either the whole group or one spokesperson
will report).
Questions
for Groups:
a. What's going on here?
b. What does this person need?
c. How is s/he feeling?
d. What are some solutions to address their problem/situation?
e. What would you ask her/him?
Possible Photos/Statements:
Below are 7 statements and photos from the website (as pdf). See
the website for more possibilities:
www.wearethe99percent.tumblr.com)
After
working in small groups, have each group come up to the front
of the class and present their photo and statement, and their
group's responses to the questions. Allow other students to ask
questions of each group.
Large
Group Discussion
As
a class, create a list of all the issues addressed by the individual
statements. This will likely include: healthcare, housing, jobs,
student loans, etc. Ask: what do all of these issues have in common?
Discuss:
Why do you think these people wrote these statements, photographed
themselves, and put them on a website? Is that effective? What
else could they do? How did you feel after reading all of the
statements?
Closing
Have every student think of one word or one phrase (2-4 words)
describing the protesters. Write them on the board. If possible,
make into a poem.
This
lesson was written for TeachableMoment.org by Jinnie Spiegler.
We welcome your comments. Please email them to: lmcclure@morningsidecenter.org.
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