Education

Curriculum Guide Contends Immigration Laws are Unfair

By Mary Ann Zehr — March 27, 2008 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Breakthrough, an international human rights organization, put out a curriculum guide this week to correspond with its free video game: “ICED: I Can End Deportation.” In the game, players take on the role of one of five immigrant teens—and see what they encounter in day-to-day life.

The 115-page curriculum guide, which Breakthrough says it has aligned with New York State and New York City social studies and English-language-arts standards, takes the position that current U.S. immigration laws deny due process for immigrants. The guide suggests that teachers can use the game and curriculum to teach a 10-day unit on “Fair Immigration Laws and Human Rights.”

If I were a teacher, I wouldn’t use the “I Can End Deportation” game and curriculum as the only sources for a unit on immigration because of their strong point of view that immigration laws are unfair (I’d also make students aware of organizations that back current immigration laws). But I would draw from the curriculum for some questions and themes that might engage high school students. (The guide can be downloaded free here.)

Here’s one question for students to ponder: “How are immigrants vulnerable to human rights violations?”

See my earlier post about the game.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Learning the Language blog.