FEATURE
Saving Saswonia BY THE EAGLE REVIEW STAFF
T
he United States is a federal constitutional republic. China is a socialist republic run by the Communist Party of China. The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy. France works under a semi-presidential system. Chile is a representative democratic republic. Canada is… Are you shaking your head to clear it already? Different types of governments and how they operate can be quite confusing. As adults, we sometimes pretend we always know what these varying forms of government mean exactly and how they differ, but it can be terribly confusing. This past trimester, the grade 8 humanities classes at Shanghai American School, Pudong campus were learning first hand how these various government systems operate, what it means to be a responsible citizen, and how to advocate for good governance from the ground up. But they weren’t learning through rote memorization of facts, through never ending lectures from their teacher, or through History Channel videos. Instead, the grade 8 humanities classes learned by creating a political manifesto for the troubled land of a little country called Saswonia. Haven’t heard of Saswonia before? Did you miss that day in your geography class? Don’t worry—you have never heard of it before because Saswonia isn’t real. It only exists in the minds of
several grade 8 students, though it does have a national flag (pictured above). According to Ms. Laura Fishman, one of the grade 8 humanities teachers, Saswonia is “a nation that has great social, economic and political unrest. It is religiously diverse and much conflict has arisen because of these differences. The gap between the rich and the poor has increased dramatically due to past corrupt economic policies. Due to regional wars there has been a rise in the immigrant and refugee populations, but the country does not have the finances to deal with this influx nor with any possible political or natural disaster.” Obviously, Saswonia is in serious trouble and needs help and the grade 8 students drew on their research based ideas to solve Saswonia’s greatest issues. As a class, the students discussed their different personal ideas and examples of how other (real) countries have responded to similar problems. They debated, defended suggestions and learned how others would respond to a similar situation in a very different way. But, in the end, each student decided on their own how they were going to stabilize the desperate country of Saswonia. Ten years ago, students would have had a few limited options on how to complete this project. They may have had to write a paper defending their political and economic plan for this burdened
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