Can you have your liberty cake and eat it too? or The Yin and Yang of Freedom and Security.

An Integrated, Interdisciplinary, Thematic Unit on Freedom and Security. Throughout history we have struggled with the social contract of freedom versus control on both a global and a personal level. Our founding fathers envisioned our country as a place in which "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" were self-evident and God-given rights. In fact, liberty or freedom has become a central tenet of our national identity, and is the basic right most cherished by our adolescents. Yet, on both a national and personal level, freedom without limits results in social anarchy. Our government is based on a system of checks and balances in which we must play an integral part for our voices to be heard. Ben Franklin warned that those who were willing to give up freedom for security deserved to have neither. Yet in post 9/11 United States, Americans have been willing to give up elements of freedom for security out of fears of further terrorist attacks. Students must understand the history of the attainment of their civil rights, must know what their rights are, must understand that historically not all groups have enjoyed the same rights and freedoms, must evaluate the price of security in terms of loss of freedom, and must understand the processes in place to allow their voices to be heard and to redress any violation of their rights.