Moral Courage

Irene Morgan

• She did not want to move to the back of the greyhound bus for a white person, so she fought to stay.
• This happened in July of 1944. She said that she did not want to pick a fight, but because she paid for her seat and was not feeling well, she refused. She was also in the area of colored people.
• She was jailed for resisting and violating Virginia's segregation law.
• She went to Supreme Court in 1946.
• Her case was argued by Thurgood Marshall, the chief council of the NAACP and later an Associate Supreme Court Justice.
• The action resulted in a landmark ruling in 1946, which stuck down state laws requiring segregation in situations involved interstate transportation.
• She helped build the B-26 Marauders.
• She died August 10th, 2007. The cause was complications of Alzheimer's disease.
  

Think-Tac-Toe...Characters

Robert Billings

Personality: Robert is a little spacey, and tends to drift off in class and not pay attention. Has a lot of pressure when trying to do quality work, because he is trying to not get lost in the dust of his older brother. He tries to fit in, but he has been off in the clouds for so long no one is sure what to think of him.

Mode Of Operating: He works well in a controlled environment, with rules to keep him on task. Robert focuses better with structured discipline, and not having to make too many decisions.

How The Wave Was Good For Him: It was a positive outcome for him working with discipline. He benefited from being treated equally by his peers and became quite confident.

How The Wave Was Bad For Him: The Wave ended abruptly, and left him once again in the dust. Robert needs to find something that gives him a routine. He worries if his peers will still accept him.

Think-Tac-Toe...Setting

Palo Alto:

• Population: 58,598
  
• Local University: Stanford
• State: California
• Median Household Income: $90,377
• Median Age: 40.2
• Race-Percent White: 75.8%

La Jolla

• Population: 42,808
• Local University: UCSD
• State: California
  
• Median Household Income: $74,700
• Median Age: 38.9
• Race- Percent White: 71.4%

This show that La Jolla and Palo Alto are very alike. They both have universities close by, they both have a good income (based on size, they are about the same), they both have 70-75% white people living there, and the median ages are very close. They also both are by the Pacific Ocean, and in dry climates.

Think-Tac-Toe...Theme

This is the music I chose to represent the theme from the story, the Wave.


The Pretender
By Foo Fighters
This song represents the Wave’s theme by illustrating an non-wave member’s point of view, like Laurie, because in its lyrics it says ‘What if I say I'm not like the others? What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays? You're the pretender What if I say I will never surrender?’ I think that definitely represents someone’s point of view that does not want to join the Wave, wants to be an individual, and someone who wants to have freedom to have their own mind.

Got To Be
By Des’ree
To me, this song seems like it is telling someone to be an individual, and be their selves. It is a message to people in the Wave, telling them to be whoever they want to be. It says, ‘You gotta be bad, you gotta be bold, you gotta be wiser, you gotta be hard, you gotta be tough, you gotta be stronger, you gotta be cool, you gotta be calm, you gotta stay together.’ I think that is meant to show someone all the different things they can be.

Beautiful
By Christina Aguilera
This song seems like it is telling someone, such as a Wave member, to not be judged by their peers, because it doesn’t matter about what someone else thinks, because it matters what they think. The song says, ‘you are beautiful no matter what they say, words can't bring you down, you are beautiful in every single way, yes, words can't bring you down’. It is telling someone not to care what other people say.

Waiting On The World To Change
By John Mayer
This song represents someone who is a non-Wave member and who thinks that the Wave is turning into something more than just an experiment, and who hopes that it will go away eventually. They do not think that anything they would do would make a difference, so they just wait. ‘Now we see everything that's going wrong, with the world and those who lead it, we just feel like we don't have the means, to rise above and beat it. So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change, we keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change.’

Essential Question

Question: How does the need to belong and be accepted by others cloud our judgment and keep people from making good choices?

Statement: The need to belong and excepted clouds our judgment and keeps us from making good choices.

Answer: People want to be accepted by others and belong to a group, because they don't want to be alone during events that they need friends and people to back them up, or comfort them. I think the reason the need to be accepted clouds our judgment is because we get caught up and overwhelmed, always thinking about what to do and what not to do. And if we do have time to think things through, it may not always be the right decision, because part of our decisions are ruled by our peers, and what everyone else would think. One example of the need to belong and excepted clouding our judgment and keeping us from making good choices from the Wave, is when the anonymous writer said that their friends were unsure of joining the Wave, and when the senior said that everyone was doing it, their friends changed their minds and joined the Wave, I thought that that was a strait-out example. The friends of the anonymous writer were pressures into joining the Wave, because they wanted to belong and fit in, so that might have blocked their judgment. Also, the students wanted to be like the seniors, who were superior, so that might have been a reason why they joined. So in all, I agree with the statement that the need to belong and excepted clouds our judgment and keeps us from making good choices.