Purpose: By the end of this lesson, I want my students to feel a deeper appreciation for their country and the freedoms they enjoy, know the responsibilities they have as citizens to maintain this freedom, and do something to promote the spirit of citizenship on campus.

Materials Needed: Two pencils or chopsticks per student, one paperclip per student, one paper cup per student, cut out stars, prizes for winning team, large picture of flag raising on Iwo Jima so that you can refer to it (options: get one off the internet to put on computers or put on PowerPoint or copy the picture onto an overhead transparency and project it.) Movie for clip: "XXX" (it uses the "s___ word twice"), starring Vin Diesel, rated PG-13. Optional: Map of far East, including Iwo Jima.

How many of you saw the movie "XXX" with Vin Diesel? When he was first given the rough first draft of the script, he wasn't impressed. Do you know what convinced him to get on board with the movie? The director met with him personally and cast a vision for what the movie was all about.

He said, ''Xander Cage is a nihilist. Xander Cage is the least likely to save the world. Xander Cage doesn't care about the world. Xander Cage is recruited by the CIA to save the world, and in the process he learns patriotism and the value of life.''

Coming not long after the 9/11 terrorist attack, you can imagine the impact of this theme. Vin Diesel caught the vision, signed on for the project and dedicated himself to it 100%, preparing himself with an ''extreme-sports version of weightlifting for three months,'' including moto-cross, snowboarding, speed climbing and some Navy Seals training in San Diego. (From Legacy Educational Resources, Copyright August, 2003, www.character-education.info . )

Today we're talking about Citizenship.

Now, let's think about the movie itself. At the first of the movie, we find Xander Cage representing a lot of Americans. We think it's fun to get away with breaking the laws. We joke about our leaders, complain about the way things are run, and seem to have no appreciation for the freedoms we enjoy.

Do any of you remember what convinced Xander Cage to take on the mission and risk his life for his country? (Play the clip [or just explain it if you don't have the movie] where his "recruiter" representing the CIA tells him that if he doesn't go on the mission, Xander will be convicted of his crimes and sentenced to prison. He asks Xander if he's ever seen lions in a zoo that were captured from the wild. At first they remember running free and walk around looking tough and rebellious. But over time it's like they lose all hope and their eyes glaze over as they accept their enslaved existence. That's the same way it will be for Xander - no more snow-boarding or adrenaline-pumping extreme sports. No more freedom.) For the first time, Xander realizes just how much he values his personal freedom and how desperately he doesn't want to lose it. He's now willing to risk his life to keep his freedom.

Discussion: What can Xander Cage teach us about how to appreciate our freedom? (If we can imagine life with our freedoms taken away, we can better appreciate the freedom we have.)

Activity: Let's all close our eyes. Imagine with me that you're imprisoned in a eight foot by six foot cell. It's 9:30 AM and you're doing the same thing you do every morning, pacing four steps to the bars on one side and four steps to the bars on the other side. You're dreaming of the things you'd like to do - walk up a mountain or even walk down a street. You used to speak of school as a prison, but as you pace you realize that you'd give anything to be able to just walk down a crowded hall of students between classes.

Debriefing: Now open your eyes. Isn't it great to be free? But in countries all around the world, people are jailed, not for stealing or murdering, but for disagreeing with their government or voting the wrong way in an election.

[Hint for Presenters: At this point I told the students about moving to Slovakia and how I didn't really appreciate my country until I was about to leave it. My family attended a patriotic Fourth of July service. I knew that it might be my last if I spent a large portion of my life in Slovakia. Some of the attendees were probably not singing at all. After all, it was pretty traditional. Many probably had their minds elsewhere, thinking, "Yea, Yea, whatever. Let's get home and eat lunch. When singing "From the Mountains to the Prairies, to the oceans white with foam..." I started weeping. Why? Sadly, we don't appreciate things till we think we might lose them. 

I also told about stories I heard from people in Slovakia about their lack of freedom under Communism - students who couldn't get into college because of their religious beliefs, people who were imprisoned because they smuggled in literature that disagreed with the government.

After I finished teaching, the teacher told me that she thought the students were most impressed with my personal experience. So think about your own life. Was there an experience (a movie, conversation, a brush with the law, a relative that fought in a war, etc.) that made you grateful for your freedom and your country. If so, share it. The students like to know your heart.]

Discussion: What freedoms do we enjoy as Americans that we might not have in certain other countries? Get specific. (Write on the board. The one with the most gets a prize.) (Ideas to add if they don't get them: 1 - All can get an education, free through high school. 2 - We can speak out against policies and candidates we don't agree with. 3 - We have freedom to worship where we please. 4 - We can study any subject imaginable, any side of the subject. 5 - We can vote for our officials.)

Summary and Transition: So, we can appreciate our country and our freedoms more by realizing what it would be like to not have these freedoms. Another way to appreciate our freedoms is to realize the cost of our freedom.

How much have we personally had to pay for our freedom? Most of us have paid nothing for it. We inherited it by being born here. Problem is, we don't tend to appreciate what we don't pay for.

Readings by Students: Freedom isn't free. Many people have paid a great price for the freedoms we enjoy. I need six volunteers to read about some young men who were about your age and the price they paid to protect our country from invaders. (Ask for the volunteers.)

[Hint for Presenters: If you have any Japanese students in your class, this illustration may put them in an awkward position, or even provoke prejudice against them. Solution #1 - Don't continually mention "the Japanese," but call them "enemy forces," or whatever. Solution #2 - Forgo this illustration altogether and instead use the one on the fate of the signers of the Declaration of Independence under the trait Patriotism.]

(As you come to appropriate points, keep referring to your map and the picture of raising the flag.)

How many of you have seen this photo? It's a picture of six Marines raising the American flag on the island of Iwo Jima, considered the best picture of World War II. The photographer won a Pulitzer Prize for it. The United States Marine Corp War Memorial, across the Potomac River from Washington D.C., is based on the picture.

Iwo Jima is pretty small. It's just an eight square mile volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean. Going 60 miles per hour in a boat, you'd pass it in about the minutes. So why did we send 110,000 Marines to Iwo Jima, knowing that we'd face heavy casualties? Does anyone remember from a history class? Neither did I, so I looked it up.

(Show this on a map.) The Japanese had aggressively attacked China and would soon overtake Burma, Malaya, the Netherlands East Indies, the Philippines and Thailand. We were not at war with Japan, so we never saw it coming when they launched a surprised attack on our troops on our own soil at Pearl Harbor, sinking 18 of our ships and destroying 170 of our planes. Two thousand, four hundred Americans died that day. Japan quickly declared war on the USA and we declared war on them. They could attack again at any moment. Our freedom was at jeopardy. Something had to be done.

So why attack them at Iwo Jima? It was strategic because the Japanese had airstrips there, from which they were attacking U.S. Bombers. If we could take the island, we not only protect ourselves but could use it as a base from which to attack Japan.

On the surface, it looks like your textbook case of military strategy for dummies - bomb them senseless from above, followed by shipping in the Marines to overwhelm whoever's still alive.

Problem was, the brilliant Japanese military commander had his 21,000 troops dig 1500 rooms deeply under the volcanic rock, connected by 16 miles of tunnels. As a result, all the bombing raids produced lots of sound and smoke, but did virtually no damage to the soldiers. It was up to the Marines to land on the shore and attack this well-fortified island. There were only two beachheads to land on. Our soldiers would be above the ground, clearly visible to the Japanese. Our soldiers would seldom see the Japanese soldiers, who were fighting from underground.

We knew that the casualties would be great. With that background, you see the significance of this battle and the raising of the American flag. But understanding the big picture is so impersonal. We still don't understand what these Marines did to protect our freedoms. Let's get to know each of those Marines who raised the flag. 

James Bradley, author of the book "Flags of Our Fathers," was in Washington, D.C. to speak at the Iwo Jima memorial the following day. A group of middle school students were visiting Washington, D.C. and stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. He spoke these words to that group of teachers and students.

"My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin. My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called "Flags of Our Fathers" which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me. Six boys raised the flag."

Students start reading below. Cut out portion for each student. If time is short, you might direct the students to read only the highlighted portions.)

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(Student #1) "The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game. A game called World War II. But it didn't turn out to be a game. Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are generals who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old."

(Student #2) (He pointed to the statue) "You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph…a photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection because he was scared. He was 18 years old. Boys won the battle of lwo Jima. Boys, not old men."

(Student #3) "The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the "old man" because he was so old. He was already 24. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers."'

(Student #4) "The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona. Ira Hayes walked off lwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero.' He told reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?' So you take your class at school, 250 of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32 ...ten years after this picture was taken."

(Student #5) "The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky - a fun-Iovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told me, 'Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop General Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epsom salts. Those cows crapped all night. ' Yes, he was a fun-Iovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's farm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. The neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away."

(Student #6) "The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's producers, or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say, 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back.' My dad never fished or even went to Canada. Usually, he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press."

You see, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsin was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed in pain. When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. Did NOT come back.'

So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo lima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time. "

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The teachers and students alike realized this "wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a flag sticking out of the top." It is a vivid reminder that we enjoy freedom, but at a great cost and sacrifice. From the Revolutionary War to the War in Iraq, we must remember that freedom has and continues to come with a price.

1. Why do you think it's sometimes difficult for those who've never served in the armed forces to fully appreciate the freedom we have?
2. What are other reasons people fail to appreciate our freedoms?
3. Why should we speak out against the wrongs in our own country and work toward righting them?
4. How did Martin Luther King right some of our wrongs and make our country a better place to live?
5. Some people seem to see only our country's imperfections. How can we not overlook these imperfections without losing our patriotism?
6. How can we grow in our appreciation for our country?
7. Why is it important to obey our country's laws, even when we might think some of them are stupid? (We might not know the reasons behind some of the laws.)

(Story found in lesson plan from Lockheed/Martin, Marietta Diversity Counsel, for Kennesaw Mountain High School in Kennesaw, Georgia. If anyone knows the original source, please let me know.)

U.S. President John F. Kennedy once said, "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of Liberty ." (John F. Kennedy)

Transition: To sum up, we've said that in order to better appreciate our freedoms, we need to 1) realize what it would be like to lose our freedoms and 2) realize the great price that others have paid for our freedoms. Do you think that this helps? Then, let's move on to the next point: If we truly appreciate and value our freedoms, what are our responsibilities for living in a free society? (Let them share.)

Divide the class into four teams by numbering 1, 2, 3, 4 and putting all the 1's together, all the 2's, etc. . If any of you know the answer, tell your team leader to ring their bell, drop a book on a desk or will raise a hand to indicate that their team wants to guess. Say, "These are actual questions that might be asked of eligible immigrants to make sure they know enough to become U.S. citizens."

Put each team's score on the blackboard. A team scores one point for each correct answer. If a team answers incorrectly, any other team can answer. Winning team gets some candy.

Paperclip Challenge (Being civil toward those with disabilities.)

Materials Needed: paperclip for each student, two pencils or chopsticks per student, one paper cup per team.

Divide into teams of 4. Ask each team to set their cup and paperclips on a cleared desk. "The object of this game is for each member to get their paperclip into the cup using only the pencils/chopsticks." Give a prize to the winning team.

Debriefing: Tell me about your frustrations with this contest. What was difficult about it? It's difficult enough to get through a day with full use of your brain and body. But have you ever put yourself in the place of a person who doesn't have full use of their hands or legs? What about the person who sees many things backwards, has memory disabilities or mental processing issues? If we could go through a week without using our hands, or a week in a wheelchair, or a week with black glasses, how might it change our attitude toward those with disabilities? Why is it sometimes difficult to know how to strike up a conversation with a person with disabilities? (We don't want to come across like we're staring at them or are aware of their disability.) If you had a major disability, how would you want others to treat you?

Action Points

Thinking back over today's theme of citizenship, we talked of ways to appreciate our freedoms, how to get more involved in preserving our freedoms, and how we can better treat all citizens as "created equal." Write down one specific thing you'd like to do this week to express your citizenship. Here are some possibilities:

1 - Each morning on the bus, think through all the blessings I have because I live in a free country. 
2 - Sit at lunch with a disabled person and try to get to know him or her. 
3 - Start reading a newspaper or news magazine regularly or web e-zine regularly. 

Take pictures of school staff who have served in the armed forces. Arrange them on a display in a well-traveled area of the school. 

In order to honor U.S. Veterans, ask each student to think of a family member, relative or friend who has served in our armed forces. Have each of them write the name of the person on a star in honor of this person. (Example: Joe Miller, Air Force, World War II) The student may make as many stars as he or she would like. Create a "Wall of Honor" from these stars in the shape of a flag in the lunch room.  

For a newspaper report on how this worked in one school, click here.

(This lesson was developed from ideas given by Lockheed/Martin, Marietta Diversity Counsel, Billy Richardson for Kennesaw Mountain High School in Kennesaw, Georgia. Edited and expanded upon by Steve Miller.)