We were studying foreign policies in social studies today. Mr. Wiest had us split into groups, and asked us, "What would you do if you wanted everyone to leave this room?" One kid shouted out, "What if we screamed fire? Or pulled the fire alarm?" Another kid suggested we run around the room with a bat like a madman. Just then, two students walked in carrying a bible and a pair of metal baseball bats. Mr. Wiest thanked the kids, and as a prank, asked these two girls to ask whoever had provided them with the objects to ask for two elephants, four midgets, and a blowtorch. They eventually returned with a print out of pictures of the aforementioned things. While they left, he pulled out two twenty dollar bills, and placed either a bat, a bible, or money on each cluster of desks. One of the kids who received the money was like, "Sweet!" and grabbed it. Mr. Wiest glared at him, and told him that he expected that he got it back. He then told us that we were to come up with a plan as to how to get everyone to leave the room using the item we received. My group got a bat. We figured that we should threaten people with it, and resort to violence if they refused to leave. The two money groups both came up with bribing people with the money. The bible group suggested that they should tell everyone that outside of the room Jesus and Justin Bieber were signing autographs. And the other bat group said that they would use the bat as a microphone and start singing, and then everyone would leave. Mr. Wiest then went on to explain how the bible, the bat, and the money related to Moral Diplomacy, the Big Stick Policy, and Dollar Diplomacy. He then discussed that the bribe of money would probably be the most successful in getting people to leave the room, and that Dollar Diplomacy was the most successful of the foreign policies. He picked up one of the bats and went up to several people, and pretended to swing at them. He noted on how they either cringed or backed away, aside from a few people. He said that the Big Stick Policy didn't always work, since some countries weren't afraid of the threat of violence. And for Moral Diplomacy... he opened up Youtube, and put on a video of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. I've never seen that show before honestly, though I have heard of it... and quite frankly, it's pathetic albeit slightly creepy. After the themesong, Mister Rogers went on to explain about how people are still the same people, even if they dress different... He put on a pair of sunglasses, and said that he was still Mister Rogers. Mr. Wiest paused the video and exclaimed, "No, you're just some creeper in sunglasses!" He then told us that that's pretty much why Moral Diplomacy failed; some countries thought of it as pathetic, and that they didn't care about whether they were 'doing the right thing' or not.
Needless to say, it was an interesting social studies class, much like most social studies classes this year.