Objective: Students will compare and contrast Booker's life as a slave with their lives today.

Subjects: Social Studies

Materials: Paper and pencil

Procedure:

1. Work this activity into a regular history lesson preferably one that deals with the Civil War or a preview of the history of Booker T. Washington.
2. Pick five students from your class. Know your students well. Choose those who can handle this activity. This is a sensitive area, so be very careful. If at any time during the activity a student becomes upset, stop the activity and explain what you were trying to do.
3. Place a black ribbon on these five students' shirts. Don't let them know what you are doing or why they were picked.
4. Start the lesson. After a short time ask all students with black ribbons to stand behind their desks. Give no explanation. Continue the lesson. If one of these students wants to participate, don't allow them to just ignore them.
5. Command the students to do other things as you are continuing the lesson. Example: stand on one foot, turn round and round, all stand in one corner of the classroom, or stand facing the back of the classroom. While facing the back of the classroom, ask them to read something off the board in the front of the room. Don't let them turn around. They will say that they can't read it. Tell them that is no excuse.
6. Never give them choices. Tell them what to do.
7. Do this intermittently as the lesson continues.
8. After 10 - 15 minutes, stop. Ask the students how they felt. What was going through their minds? How did they feel once their choices were taken away?
9. Have students list all of the choices that they can think of that they are allowed to make.
10. Have students list the choices that Booker was allowed to make on the Burroughs plantation. Discuss what prevented Booker from being able to make choices even as basic as going to school.