Before Viewing American Presidents
Instruct students to visit C-SPAN's
American Presidents
web site to learn about John Adams and his presidency.
As a class, discuss the following: What is a moralist? List professions in which morals are
a requirement.
Why are morals important to these professions? What would happen if people in these professions lacked
morals? Should leaders have morals? Why? As a class, identify
situations when lack of moral leadership was detrimental to a
country, business, people or religious order. What were the effects?
How was the leader treated?
Inform students that they are going to view a talk by college professor
C. Bradley Thompson on John Adams and his study of political thought.
Mr. Thompson asserts that John Adams was a moralist and therefore
a great statesman - which he considers to be a rarity in
presidential leadership today.
While Viewing American Presidents
Directions:
During the talk, take notes on how John Adams' principles
and leadership intersected with the following concepts of political
philosophy:
1. Architect of American Democracy
2. Atlas of Independence
3. American Enlightenment and the Independence Movement
4. Rewards of Self-rule
5. Principles of Liberty and Principles of Government
6. Sensations of Freedom
7. Danger of Equality
8. Unchecked Democratization
9. Conventional vs Natural inequality
After Viewing American Presidents
Divide students into groups of three and assign each group
one of the terms discussed above. The student groups should
define the term and summarize its meaning in the following time periods:
Colonial, Revolutionary and Modern.
Students should then discuss how
the term was used to explain the political ideals of John Adams
and how these ideals hold to today's standards and political climate.
Each group will share their work with the class. Students can
present their findings as Professor Thompson did during the
program as a lecture. If computers are available, the class can create their own
John Adams web site using the contributions from each group for the site content.
