What an eye-opening school project!!

[Dengineer]

This is great!!

Follow the rules, comrades ... or else | | HeraldTribune.com

The drill was part of a history lesson taken to an elaborate level Tuesday at Pine View, where Stephany and the rest of the 2,000 students participated in an interactive lesson commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago.

"This was a project of the history club, and their idea was that students should really have an idea of what it was like to live in a communist state," said social studies teacher Patricia Johnston, who helped organize the project and served as the lead "comrade."

Students, with the help of a local landscaping company, erected a nearly 100-foot paper replica of the Berlin wall, complete with graffiti. It stood across the middle of the campus to mimic the concrete wall that separated communist East Germany from capitalist West Germany from 1961 to the end of 1989.

[WaWaMomma]

I think this was an excellent exercise to teach kids a history lesson and one I bet they won't forget soon.

[oceanbreeze]

I wish they would have done stuff like this when i was in school. Its a good exercise, humbling even. It teaches the kids that things that happened in history were more than just words on a page, a movie, or a poster...it was real.

Bring it to life (in a reasonable fashion as done in that school) and the kids get a hands on lesson more valuable than a textbook.

[Dengineer]

Next they should do "the Che Guevara experience." Then maybe those crazy kids will stop parading around in Che shirts talking about how inspiring he was.

[lestelle]

Great lesson! Experience is the best teacher.

She looked the part, wearing a black business suit and black stockings, heels and dark eyeliner. Hundreds of other students wore military jackets -- and sometimes complete uniforms -- with red arm bands signifying their communist allegiance.
"I looked up 'communist women's fashions of the day' online," Stephany said. "The women all had pale faces and red lipstick. You had to look cold and imposing."

This section reminded of the old Wendy's Communist Fashion Show commercial Great for a laugh! Evening Wear is my favorite--Very Nice!

[tmsmalley]

They should be VERY careful doing stuff like this. Although it illustrates the point nicely, it can have serious long-term ramifications.

Here's a wikipedia article about a teacher who did something like this with older children...

The Third Wave - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And here's his write up on what happened at the time...

The Third Wave

It is very easy for things like this to get out of control.

Tess

[MaryMary]

They should be VERY careful doing stuff like this. Although it illustrates the point nicely, it can have serious long-term ramifications.

Here's a wikipedia article about a teacher who did something like this with older children...

The Third Wave - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And here's his write up on what happened at the time...

The Third Wave

It is very easy for things like this to get out of control.

Tess

I wish all kids would be explained real democracy so they can feel it.
Thank you!

[Macaela25]

The only cautionary note I have here is that people not turn this sort of thing into a farce. Communism was very real and a very frightening thing at times...my DH lived it. It can be very offensive to take something where millions upon millions suffered and died and cross the line into parody. The old SNL sketch about the then new McDonalds in Red Square giving out soap and TP in Happy Meals was utterly hysterical to me...until my DH described my FIL standing in line in the snow for hours to buy milk for my BIL as an infant. Seeing that sketch again recently on YouTube made me sick.

[~~Who,Me?~~]

Are you snowed in today or something dengineer? You certainly have been busy on here. Is this an article that came up when you googled communism, or fascism? Socialism perhaps?

[MaryMary]

The only cautionary note I have here is that people not turn this sort of thing into a farce. Communism was very real and a very frightening thing at times...my DH lived it. It can be very offensive to take something where millions upon millions suffered and died and cross the line into parody. The old SNL sketch about the then new McDonalds in Red Square giving out soap and TP in Happy Meals was utterly hysterical to me...until my DH described my FIL standing in line in the snow for hours to buy milk for my BIL as an infant. Seeing that sketch again recently on YouTube made me sick.

To me soap and TP in Happy Meals sounds utterly hypocritical and looking down on Russians.
At the time Mc'D came to Russia there was no more basics deficit, in stores you can buy anything you want, just need money. Whoever could afford Happy Meal could have any soap and TP they want. Happy meal cost approx. $5 there, full size bar of soap $0.50, 65% of people live on average $400/mo.