Introduction

Lesson Overview

This lesson will challenge students to consider the costs of

censorship through fictional and real-world examples. Class
discussion will help students understand the way censorship affects
them in their own lives.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1 . Initiate and participate effectively
in a range of collaborative discussions (oneon-one, in groups, and
teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 1112 topics, texts, and
issues, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly and
persuasively
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.IT.11-12.8 Delineate and evaluate the reasoning
in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional
principles and use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court
majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and
arguments in works of public advocacy (e.g., The Federalist,
presidential addresses)
-Students evaluate the costs and benefits of censorship in massmedia
-Students engage with real-world examples of censorship and
legislation about censorship
What are the costs and benefits of media censorship?

Content Standard(s)
Addressed
(Common Core)

Measureable Objective
Based on Content
Standard(s)
Essential Question
Prior Knowledge

Link to 21st Century Skills

Lived experience with mass media, basic understanding of

censorship, definition of term whistleblower, potentially an
awareness of the events surrounding Edward Snowden
-Global Awareness
-Civic Literacy

Assessment/Accommodation
Formative Assessment

Summative Assessment

-Student responses during discussion of Harrison Bergeron and

video excerpts of an interview with Edward Snowden
-Group presentations in imagining alternatives activity
-Students enter and exit journal entries
-Students HANDOUT 1 and HANDOUT 2 responses

Lesson Plan
Materials

-Transcript of Harrison Bergeron

-Internet access for YouTube video
-Projector and screen

Bell Ringer/Review
Activity
Detailed Activities and
Procedures

-Wall-mounted chalkboard/whiteboard
-Individual medium-sized whiteboards for each group
-Dry-erase markers for each group (1 marker/student)
Journal Exploration, see below
Entry Journal Exploration, 5 minutes
-Students write responses in their class journals to a question written on
one side of the chalk/white-board as they enter class:
How can lying to someone be good for them? Alternatively, how
can it hurt them?
-At end of bell-ringer, students replace journals (which are stored in the
classroom) until final reflection, so they may not alter their initial
impressions.
Fiction: Harrison Bergeron reading, 20 minutes
-Pass out transcripts and explain circular reading each student will
read either three lines of dialogue or one paragraph, depending on their
place in the rotation.
-In remaining time after reading (will vary based on students) briefly
discuss how the handicaps in Harrison Bergeron are a form of
censorship, as they hide the truth.
Individual Reflection (Handout 1), 5 minutes
-Distribute HANDOUT 1, reflection questions for Harrison Bergeron.
Explain that students have 5 minutes to respond to the questions, and
reiterate the handouts recommendation that they try to have something
for each question rather than a robust answer for only a few, as all
questions will be discussed.
Discussion, 15 minutes
-Lead class discussion regarding each question present on HANDOUT 1.
Catalogue student responses to questions 3 and 4 in center of
chalk/white-board. (10 min)
-Connect to lived experience: Ask students if any elements of this story
seem similar to real-world policies or social structures. Refer to
catalogued responses on the board, and have students identify which do
and do not manifest in the modern world. (5 min)
Group Activity: Imagining Alternatives 15 minutes
-Transitioning from discussion of real-world policies, read aloud for the
class the first amendment to the US constitution
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people

Closure

Alternate Strategies
for Re-teaching
Material
References (within

peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a

redress of grievances.
-Explain activity: Students will work in small groups to create a comic strip
(minimum 10 panels) of how the final confrontation between Diana Moon
Glampers and Harrison Bergeron would have gone if their society was
bound by the first amendment. (10 min)
-Each group presents their comic strip, pointing out what directly arises
from the inclusion of the first amendment (5 min)
-In remaining time, ask if the degree of informational suppression seen in
Harrison Bergeron is possible in a nation bound by our constitutions
first amendment.
Real-World: Edward Snowden interview, 15 minutes
-Brief intro: Explain that people are, indeed, criminalized for unveiling
government wrongdoings like Harrison Bergeron was, even with the first
amendment. Survey existing knowledge do any students know what a
whistleblower is, or the news story about Edward Snowden? If students
can, have them explain and fill in gaps when necessary, using the time to
distribute HANDOUT 2. (2 min)
-Students view video interview with Edward Snowden regarding the
consequences of his actions, and take notes on HANDOUT 2 (8 min)
[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_qdnyEqCPk ]
-Students are given time to complete their thoughts on HANDOUT 2 from
notes taken during the video (5 min)
Discussion, 10 minutes
-Lead class discussion regarding each question present on HANDOUT 2.
-Emphasis on final question: in light of this interview and Snowdens
situation, does the first amendment truly protect American citizens free
speech, and thereby mitigate a potential vector for censorship?
Exit Journal Reflection, 5 minutes
-Students retrieve their journals and write another response to the journal
question from the bell-ringer activity. Students hand open journals to
instructor at the door, displaying their complete entry as a ticket to leave
the room.
-Final Journal Reflection, see above.
-As students write their reflection/leave the room, encourage them to
maintain a critical eye when viewing media how are the elements of
censorship affecting them, for better or worse?
-Alternative fiction readings such as The Exiles by Bradbury
-Historical examples of propaganda using selective bias
-Media examples of advertising and selective bias
http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html

this lesson)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hLjuVyIIrs
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment

ATTACHED:

Transcript of Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut (two sheets if printed on both sides)
HANDOUT 1: Harrison Bergeron reflection/discussion worksheet
HANDOUT 2: Edward Snowden video Viewing Guide

HARRISON BERGERON
by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
THE YEAR WAS
2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't
only equal before God and the law. They were equal
every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody
else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else.
Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.
All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and
213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the
unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States
Handicapper General.
Some things about living still weren't quite right,
though. April for instance, still drove people crazy by
not being springtime. And it was in that clammy
month that the H-G men took George and Hazel
Bergeron's fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away.
It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't
think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly
average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think
about anything except in short bursts. And George,
while his intelligence was way above normal, had a
little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was
required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to
a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or
so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise
to keep people like George from taking unfair
advantage of their brains.
George and Hazel were watching television. There
were tears on Hazel's cheeks, but she'd forgotten for
the moment what they were about.
On the television screen were ballerinas.
A buzzer sounded in George's head. His thoughts fled
in panic, like bandits from a burglar alarm.
"That was a real pretty dance, that dance they just
did," said Hazel.
"Huh" said George.

"That dance-it was nice," said Hazel.

1"Yup," said George.
He tried to think a little about the ballerinas. They
weren't really very good-no better than anybody else
would have been, anyway. They were burdened with
sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces
were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and
graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like
something the cat drug in. George was toying with
the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn't be
handicapped. But he didn't get very far with it before
another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts.
George winced. So did two out of the eight
ballerinas.
Hazel saw him wince. Having no mental handicap
herself, she had to ask George what the latest sound
had been.
"Sounded like somebody hitting a milk bottle with a
ball peen hammer," said George.
"I'd think it would be real interesting, hearing all the
different sounds," said Hazel a little envious. "All the
things they think up."
"Um," said George.
"Only, if I was Handicapper General, you know what
I would do?" said Hazel. Hazel, as a matter of fact,
bore a strong resemblance to the Handicapper
General, a woman named Diana Moon Glampers. "If
I was Diana Moon Glampers," said Hazel, "I'd have
chimes on Sunday-just chimes. Kind of in honor of
religion."
"I could think, if it was just chimes," said George.
"Well-maybe make 'em real loud," said Hazel. "I
think I'd make a good Handicapper General."
"Good as anybody else," said George.

"Who knows better than I do what normal is?" said

Hazel.
"Right," said George. He began to think
glimmeringly about his abnormal son who was now
in jail, about Harrison, but a twenty-one-gun salute in
his head stopped that.
"Boy!" said Hazel, "that was a doozy, wasn't it?"
It was such a doozy that George was white and
trembling, and tears stood on the rims of his red eyes.
Two of of the eight ballerinas had collapsed to the
studio floor, were holding their temples.
"All of a sudden you look so tired," said Hazel. "Why
don't you stretch out on the sofa, so's you can rest
your handicap bag on the pillows, honeybunch." She
was referring to the forty-seven pounds of birdshot in
a canvas bag, which was padlocked around George's
neck. "Go on and rest the bag for a little while," she
said. "I don't care if you're not equal to me for a
while."
George weighed the bag with his hands. "I don't mind
it," he said. "I don't notice it any more. It's just a part
of me."
"You been so tired lately-kind of wore out," said
Hazel. "If there was just some way we could make a
little hole in the bottom of the bag, and just take out a
few of them lead balls. Just a few."
"Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine
for every ball I took out," said George. "I don't call
that a bargain."
"If you could just take a few out when you came
home from work," said Hazel. "I mean-you don't
compete with anybody around here. You just sit
around."
"If I tried to get away with it," said George, "then
other people'd get away with it-and pretty soon we'd
be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody
competing against everybody else. You wouldn't like
that, would you?"

If Hazel hadn't been able to come up with an answer

to this question, George couldn't have supplied one. A
siren was going off in his head.
"Reckon it'd fall all apart," said Hazel.
"What would?" said George blankly.
"Society," said Hazel uncertainly. "Wasn't that what
you just said?
"Who knows?" said George.
The television program was suddenly interrupted for
a news bulletin. It wasn't clear at first as to what the
bulletin was about, since the announcer, like all
announcers, had a serious speech impediment. For
about half a minute, and in a state of high excitement,
the announcer tried to say, "Ladies and Gentlemen."
He finally gave up, handed the bulletin to a ballerina
to read.
"That's all right-" Hazel said of the announcer, "he
tried. That's the big thing. He tried to do the best he
could with what God gave him. He should get a nice
raise for trying so hard."
"Ladies and Gentlemen," said the ballerina, reading
the bulletin. She must have been extraordinarily
beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous.
And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and
most graceful of all the dancers, for her handicap
bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred
pound men.
And she had to apologize at once for her voice, which
was a very unfair voice for a woman to use. Her
voice was a warm, luminous, timeless melody.
"Excuse me-" she said, and she began again, making
her voice absolutely uncompetitive.
"Harrison Bergeron, age fourteen," she said in a
grackle squawk, "has just escaped from jail, where he
was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the
government. He is a genius and an athlete, is underhandicapped, and should be regarded as extremely
dangerous."

"I'd hate it," said Hazel.

"There you are," said George. The minute people
start cheating on laws, what do you think happens to
society?"

A police photograph of Harrison Bergeron was

flashed on the screen-upside down, then sideways,
upside down again, then right side up. The picture
showed the full length of Harrison against a
background calibrated in feet and inches. He was
exactly seven feet tall.

The rest of Harrison's appearance was Halloween and

hardware. Nobody had ever born heavier handicaps.
He had outgrown hindrances faster than the H-G men
could think them up. Instead of a little ear radio for a
mental handicap, he wore a tremendous pair of
earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses.
The spectacles were intended to make him not only
half blind, but to give him whanging headaches
besides.
Scrap metal was hung all over him. Ordinarily, there
was a certain symmetry, a military neatness to the
handicaps issued to strong people, but Harrison
looked like a walking junkyard. In the race of life,
Harrison carried three hundred pounds.
And to offset his good looks, the H-G men required
that he wear at all times a red rubber ball for a nose,
keep his eyebrows shaved off, and cover his even
white teeth with black caps at snaggle-tooth random.

"Even as I stand here" he bellowed, "crippled,

hobbled, sickened - I am a greater ruler than any man
who ever lived! Now watch me become what I can
become!"
Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like
wet tissue paper, tore straps guaranteed to support
five thousand pounds.
Harrison's scrap-iron handicaps crashed to the floor.
Harrison thrust his thumbs under the bar of the
padlock that secured his head harness. The bar
snapped like celery. Harrison smashed his
headphones and spectacles against the wall.
He flung away his rubber-ball nose, revealed a man
that would have awed Thor, the god of thunder.

"If you see this boy," said the ballerina, "do not - I
repeat, do not - try to reason with him."

"I shall now select my Empress!" he said, looking

down on the cowering people. "Let the first woman
who dares rise to her feet claim her mate and her
throne!"

There was the shriek of a door being torn from its

hinges.

A moment passed, and then a ballerina arose,

swaying like a willow.

Screams and barking cries of consternation came

from the television set. The photograph of Harrison
Bergeron on the screen jumped again and again, as
though dancing to the tune of an earthquake.

Harrison plucked the mental handicap from her ear,

snapped off her physical handicaps with marvelous
delicacy. Last of all he removed her mask.

George Bergeron correctly identified the earthquake,

and well he might have - for many was the time his
own home had danced to the same crashing tune.
"My God-" said George, "that must be Harrison!"
The realization was blasted from his mind instantly
by the sound of an automobile collision in his head.
When George could open his eyes again, the
photograph of Harrison was gone. A living, breathing
Harrison filled the screen.
Clanking, clownish, and huge, Harrison stood - in the
center of the studio. The knob of the uprooted studio
door was still in his hand. Ballerinas, technicians,
musicians, and announcers cowered on their knees
before him, expecting to die.
"I am the Emperor!" cried Harrison. "Do you hear? I
am the Emperor! Everybody must do what I say at
once!" He stamped his foot and the studio shook.

She was blindingly beautiful.

"Now-" said Harrison, taking her hand, "shall we
show the people the meaning of the word dance?
Music!" he commanded.
The musicians scrambled back into their chairs, and
Harrison stripped them of their handicaps, too. "Play
your best," he told them, "and I'll make you barons
and dukes and earls."
The music began. It was normal at first-cheap, silly,
false. But Harrison snatched two musicians from
their chairs, waved them like batons as he sang the
music as he wanted it played. He slammed them back
into their chairs.
The music began again and was much improved.
Harrison and his Empress merely listened to the
music for a while-listened gravely, as though
synchronizing their heartbeats with it.
They shifted their weights to their toes.

Harrison placed his big hands on the girls tiny waist,

letting her sense the weightlessness that would soon
be hers.
And then, in an explosion of joy and grace, into the
air they sprang!
Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but
the law of gravity and the laws of motion as well.

It was then that the Bergerons' television tube burned

out.
Hazel turned to comment about the blackout to
George. But George had gone out into the kitchen for
a can of beer.
George came back in with the beer, paused while a
handicap signal shook him up. And then he sat down
again. "You been crying" he said to Hazel.

They reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered,

gamboled, and spun.

"Yup," she said.

They leaped like deer on the moon.

"What about?" he said.

The studio ceiling was thirty feet high, but each leap
brought the dancers nearer to it.

"I forget," she said. "Something real sad on

television."

It became their obvious intention to kiss the ceiling.

They kissed it.

"What was it?" he said.

"It's all kind of mixed up in my mind," said Hazel.

And then, neutraling gravity with love and pure will,

they remained suspended in air inches below the
ceiling, and they kissed each other for a long, long
time.
It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the
Handicapper General, came into the studio with a
double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice,
and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before
they hit the floor.
Diana Moon Glampers loaded the gun again. She
aimed it at the musicians and told them they had ten
seconds to get their handicaps back on.

"Forget sad things," said George.

"I always do," said Hazel.
"That's my girl," said George. He winced. There was
the sound of a rivetting gun in his head.
"Gee - I could tell that one was a doozy," said Hazel.
"You can say that again," said George.
"Gee-" said Hazel, "I could tell that one was a
doozy."

HANDOUT 1: Harrison Bergeron Discussion Questions

Consider the short story we have just read, Harrison Bergeron, and respond to the following
questions in preparation for a whole-class discussion of the text. Dont get hung up on one
question its more important to have at least one thought for each than a very developed answer
for the few you liked.
1. Are people in Harrison Bergeron really Equal?

2. Why are the handicaps in the story ineffective? (not just Harrison Bergerons)

3. Rather than making a speech against rebellion, Diana Moon Glampers says nothing to the
viewers and the TV broadcast quickly cuts out. Why?

4. Why dont George and Hazel have a more severe reaction at the end of the story?
(Consider question 3)

5. Did Harrison Bergeron accomplish anything with his escape? Why, or why not? (consider
questions 3 and 4)

6. What do people in the society of Harrison Bergeron gain from being equal?

7. What do people in the society of Harrison Bergeron lose from being equal?

HANDOUT 2: Edward Snowden Viewing Guide

As you watch the video clip on whistleblower Edward Snowden, make notes on these questions,
but do not focus so heavily on note-taking that you miss the clip its not very long! You will be
given time after the video to complete your thoughts.
Questions apply in chronological order, so work down the sheet as you watch:
1. What are the US Governments (supposed) reasons for persecuting Snowden? Do they
seem to agree with or contradict his first amendment rights?

2. In what way does Snowden say the NSA has misinformed US citizens? What are the
positive and negative impacts of these acts of censorship?

3. Is infringing on citizens ability to freely and anonymously communicate on mediums

like the internet a violation of first amendment rights?

4. Is freedom of information more important than safety, as Snowden represents?

5. In light of Edward Snowden's situation, where he must seek asylum from the US
government, does the first amendment to our constitution truly protect free speech and
minimize censorship?