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Labor History: Hardball and Handshakes

I. Introduction - rationale, goals, target audience
Even in an era of free agency and million dollar agreements, baseball is more than money. Beyond the big salaries is a complex process of finding common ground individually and institutionally. As players and management organized themselves, the transition of our National Pastime from a social sport to a professional industry provides a unique lesson in free enterprise through the evolution of contracts and commerce.

Appropriate for students in high school or college, critical thinking and decision-making skills are engaged in this fascinating look at the relationship between employer and employee. How does baseball compare to other entities that utilize collective bargaining and contract negotiation? From the boardroom to the locker room, learn the answers in this study of competition and cooperation. Throughout American history, the teamwork to earn a voice and a seat at the table has forged an important, time-tested principle: labor is not a commodity.

II. Objectives - in completing this lesson, students will:
A. Examine historical data from various perspectives, including museum and library collections, player contracts, labor agreements, organizational structures, artifacts and primary sources.

B. Compare and contrast models of resolving differences throughout the various player organizations in baseball's labor history - such as individual contracts, management philosophies, meet and confer, collective bargaining, mediation and arbitration.

C. Understand, through research, discussion and role play: human and civil rights with responsibilities; the purpose and concept of organizing a labor union; the decision-making process that defines the employer-employee relationship, including negotiation, conflict resolution and contract enforcement.

III. Preparing the Students
A. Background
For as long as baseball players and team owners have had a professional relationship involving salaries and profits, each group has tried to protect its interests - including benefits and working conditions. The player-owner relationship began when baseball professionalized in the second half of the 1800s. As this alliance has evolved throughout the history of organized baseball, it has had a fundamental impact on the game, on and off the field. Fans may know about the Major League Baseball Players' Association (MLBPA) and the strikes of the 1980s and 1990s, but many may not realize the first player union was founded over a hundred years ago. Since then, there have been at least five distinct player unions interacting with various owners and commissioners as influenced by the precepts of the National Labor Relations Act (the Wagner Act) and the National Labor Relations Board. This collaborative effort has resulted in the dynamic, healthy National Pastime baseball is today.

B. Vocabulary
AFL-CIO
Allocation of resources
Anti-trust
Arbitration
Associations
Benefits
Binding arbitration
Blacklist
Civil rights
Club
Collective bargaining
Collusion
Commissioner
Competition
Contract
Employer / employee
Employment at-will
Franchise
Free agency
Free market
Indentured servant
Injunction
Interstate commerce
Labor agreement
Labor as a commodity
Labor union
League
Lockout
Loophole
Major League Baseball
Mediation
MLBPA
Monopoly
Organization
Pensions
Professional
Profits
Reserve clause
Salary
Salary cap
Shop steward
Strike
Working conditions

C. Suggested Pre-Program Activities
1) Research and acquire an historical understanding of baseball player organizations within the context of a broader labor movement, beginning in the 19th century. These should include:
a) National Association of Baseball Players (1858)
b) National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (1871)
c) Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players (1885)
d) Players' Protective Association (1900)
e) Fraternity of Professional Baseball Players of America (1912)
f) American Baseball Guild (1946)
g) Major League Baseball Players Association (1952)

2) Teachers and commencement-level students may wish to visit the American Labor Studies Center Web site at www.labor-studies.org or the AFL-CIO at www.aflcio.org.

3) Utilizing quotes provided in the Additional Resources section (V.), construct a timeline and assign the viewpoints and personalities to different eras of baseball's labor history movement.

4) Plot the location of major league teams in 1925. Given the constraints and realities of travel during that era, discuss the salary and working conditions a player might negotiate as a part of his annual contract. Other typically non-negotiable provisions might include, but would not be limited to: meal money, clothing, travel costs, lodging expenses, etc. These funds should be sufficient for the duration of a season. Project the same expenses forward to the present day.
List other benefits and expenses the contemporary player might request that would be different from those of 1925.

5) Discuss the concept of a major league baseball player. What distinguishes a professional from an amateur? How does the employer-employee relationship determine a player's responsibility to the team and vice a versa? What would happen if the players and owners did not have a performance agreement that binds them to certain standards and structures, including compensation and rules?

6) Chart the organizational structure of Major League Baseball, including the commissioner's office, the owners, the players' association and the teams of incorporation. Explain the respective roles, responsibilities and interdependency of each.

7) Research what laws and regulations govern labor relations in Major League Baseball. How is professional baseball subject to the National Labor Relations Act (the Wagner Act) and the National Labor Relations Board?

8) As a class, research the structure and explain the governance of a professional baseball team. Compare and contrast this organization with other entities, such as the school, the community, a local business, the city or state government. Categorize these according to social, political or industrial organizations. Do they employ labor through an individual or collective agreement?

9) Identify and list sources of revenue (e.g. ticket prices, concessions, television contracts, etc.) that influence the culture of labor in Major League Baseball and may affect the interaction of the team, the owner, the players and the fans. Role-play either actual or hypothetical negotiation issues involving these sources and portray the deliberation from each participant's perspective of the process.

IV. Presentation
If you are participating in a school visit or videoconference please do not review this section with your students. It will be taught as part of the presentation.

A. Opening
1) Discuss the terms "hardball" and "handshakes" as they pertain to the study of owner-player relationships. How are these phrases relevant to the process of negotiating contracts and labor agreements?

2) Ask students to brainstorm, informally listing or briefly describing changes in American history and/or labor relations that may have influenced the following periods in Major League Baseball player agreements:
a) Individual standardized player contracts (1850 to 1900)
b) Individual contracts between players, teams and their leagues (1900 to 1950)
c) Contracts represented by associations and/or collective bargaining (1950 to the present)

3) Using previous research, engage students in creative role-play to depict famous ballplayers, team owners and other historical figures who provide insights on life, working conditions, management perspectives and terms of employment during their respective eras. The dialogue should include references to American culture and society, including the economics of the age.

B. Lesson
1) Divide students into pairs or equal groups representing various eras from 1870 to the present. Provide a copy of a player's contract from each period utilizing those found in the Additional Resources and Planning a Videoconference sections for this thematic unit.

2) Ask each group to list important elements of their assigned contract. Essential questions should identify aspects pertaining to compensation, benefits, working conditions, general terms and conditions of employment, the signing parties and any indication of how the agreement may have been reached.

3) Working together, the students should create a chart that compares and contrasts contracts from successive eras. The common categories of comparison may include those listed above, but should be determined by discussion and consensus of the students.

4) Talk about differences in contracts among each era. Ask students to determine commonalities in language and provisions among the agreements, hypothesizing why some elements did not change while others changed considerably over time. List indications of contracts moving from individual agreements to those produced as a result of collective bargaining.

5) To what extent were each of these contracts settled amicably? Were strikes or lockouts necessary to resolve differences?

C. Conclusion
1) List and discuss historical attempts by the players to organize and defend their working conditions. What motivated ballplayers during various eras to mobilize and form these associations? What did and did not work? Why were these early attempts to unionize initially limited in their success and ultimately futile?

2) Compare previous attempts to form player associations with the enduring success of the modern-day Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA).

V. Enrichment and Assessment Activities
A. Compare the salary, benefits and working conditions of minor league baseball players to those of major league players. Find examples of photos and primary source documents, as well as testimonials from local players and owners.

B. Conduct a comparative analysis of employment conditions in Major League Baseball, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the Negro leagues and Minor League Baseball.
Include such factors as contracts, compensation and working conditions.

C. Research and present biographical reports on key figures related to baseball's labor history. These could include:
1) Marvin Miller
2) Donald Fehr
3) Curt Flood
4) John Montgomery Ward
5) Harry Taylor
6) Robin Roberts
7) David Fultz
8) Albert Spalding
9) Robert Murphy
10) Jim "Catfish" Hunter
11) Happy Chandler
12) Kenesaw Mountain Landis
13) Oliver Wendell Holmes
14) Sen. Robert Wagner
15) Robert Cannon
16) Bowie Kuhn
17) Jim Creighton
18) Bob Friend
19) Ban Johnson
20) William Hulbert
21) Clark Griffith
22) Hughey Jennings
23) Charles Comiskey
24) John Gaherin
25) Walter O'Malley
26) William Veeck, Jr.
27) Harvey Kuenn
28) Emanuel Celler

D. Compare and contrast the respective roles of Judge Robert Cannon and Marvin Miller in establishing the structure for the present-day agreement between players and owners.

E. Research and role-play a panel discussion involving players from the major leagues, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and the Negro leagues. The characters should discuss labor issues related to their respective leagues and selected eras.

F. Evaluate the implications and repercussions of a labor strike or lockout as a means of resolving conflicts and pressuring the other side to gain an advantage in the process of collective bargaining. Research and report on an actual labor strike, either in baseball or American history, including the economic, social, political and industrial impact of a work stoppage.

G. Conduct a class debate on the role of a labor union in professional baseball. Do players of such status actually need to be represented in their contract negotiations? Choose both sides of the issue, discussing the pros and cons of player representation in collective bargaining.

H. Examine the role of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in documenting baseball's labor history. What power or influence, if any, does the Hall of Fame have in representing the tradition of player representation and performance?

I. Document the economic effect of player-owner relations in the history of well-known baseball controversies, such as the Black Sox scandal of 1919 or the joint holdout of Hall of Fame pitching greats, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, in 1966. How did labor-management conflicts lead to these predicaments?

J. Compare the Major League Baseball Players Association with other professional labor unions, such as those representing teachers, autoworkers, electricians, etc.

K. Consider the economic effects and labor implications of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947. To what extent were players and labor-management relations impacted by the advent of civil rights? How do current contracts protect civil rights and defend players against discrimination?

L. Study well-known court cases involving baseball labor disputes. At the very least, include the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case, Flood vs. Kuhn. Report on the outcome of this and other judicial decisions affecting baseball and labor.

M. Using the book, The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter, read the account by Hall of Famer Edd Roush of his legendary holdouts and contract disputes in the early 1900s. Discuss how such differences and disagreements might be handled in the context of today's collective bargaining agreements.

N. Create a PowerPoint presentation that chronicles the history of labor-management relations in baseball, including some of its most successful figures and milestones. When appropriate, integrate photographs, statistics, graphs, primary source documents, text, audio or video files, and key vocabulary terms.

O. Explore the extent to which support workers in baseball are unionized. These could include umpires, ticket takers, concession workers, ground crews, etc. The umpire strike of 1979 and the more recent demise of the umpire's union led by Richie Phillips are especially pertinent.

VI. Additional Resources
A. Quotations
1) "A well-paid slave is a slave nonetheless." - Curt Flood

2) "By combination among themselves, stronger than the strongest trust, the owners were able to enforce the most arbitrary measures, and the player had either to submit or get out of the profession in which he had spent years attaining proficiency."
-Manifesto of the Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players, November 6, 1889

3) "The essential dignity of equals sitting down together just can't be overemphasized." - Marvin Miller

4) "After twelve years of being in the major leagues, I do not feel I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes."
-Curt Flood

5) "The players are getting too much money for their own …good. Sure, we know who bid the contracts up to where they are now, but now it's got to stop." - Writer Roger Angell explaining management thinking at the start of the 1981 baseball strike.

6) "The players' definition of give-and-take bargaining is we give and they take." - Barry Rona, management's labor counsel, shortly before the 1985 baseball strike.

7) "Acting in concert with regard to free agency rights is prohibited whatever may be the economic situation of the individual clubs."
-Thomas Roberts

8) "I did it for the guys sitting on the bench, the utility men who couldn't crack the lineup with [the Dodgers] but who could make it elsewhere. These guys should have an opportunity to make a move and go to another club." - Andy Messersmith

9) "The thinking of the average major league ballplayer, was: 'we have it so good we don't know what to ask for next.'" - Judge Robert Cannon

10) "Baseball is too much of a business to be a sport and too much of a sport to be a business." - Phil Wrigley

11) "Professional baseball is on the wane. Salaries must come down or the interest of the public must be increased in some way. If one or the other does not happen, bankruptcy stares every team in the face." - Albert Goodwill Spalding, 1881

12) "I am enormously disturbed by this arbitration decision. If this interpretation prevails, baseball's reserve system is eliminated by the stroke of a pen. This would be a disaster for the great majority of players, for the clubs and most of the fans." - Bowie Kuhn

13) "It would be very useful if we cold get into the mode where we are more interested in the size of the pie than in the size of the slice that would go to the clubs and the slice that would go to the players." - Charles O'Connor, Owners' Chief Negotiator, 1996

14) "Players have to step in and say, 'Don [Fehr], we appreciated what you've done, but we have to look out for the game." - Robin Roberts, 2002

15) "A glance around the league circuits at the stupendous equipment recently completed or now under construction would convince the casual observer that after paying salaries, the magnate still has enough left to keep the wolf out of the garage." - David Fultz

16) "Like a fugitive slave law, the reserve rule denies him a harbor or a livelihood, and carries him back, bound and shackled, to the club from which he attempted to escape." - John Montgomery Ward

17) "When the players band themselves together in an effort to dictate to us the manner in which we shall conduct our business it will be time for the magnates to retire." - Colonel John Rogers

18) "They [the owners] treated us as if we had been unruly kids who had to be lollipopped and put to be." - Clark Griffith

19) "I question whether many of the players want to make trouble for themselves, for they are a smart, thinking class of men and have no grievances as far as I can see." - Ban Johnson

20) "The reserve clause in baseball players' contracts under the National Agreement intended to protect the rights of clubs operating under the agreement to retain the services of sufficient players." - Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes

21) "Both sides must understand that any blows at the thing called baseball would be regarded by this court as a blow to a national institution." - Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis
22) "The validity of the baseball contract makes me laugh. A baseball owner can do as he wants with a player on 10-day notice." - Robert Murphy

B. Literature
Abrams, Roger I. Legal Bases: Baseball and the Law. Temple University Press, 1998.

Burk, Robert F. Never Just A Game: Players, Owners, and American Baseball to 1920. University of North Carolina Press, 1994.

Burk, Robert F. Much More Than A Game: Players, Owners, & American Baseball
Since 1921 University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

Dworkin, James B. Owners Versus Players: Baseball and Collective Bargaining. Auburn House Publishing Co., 1981.

Helyar, John. Lords of the Realm. Villard Books, 1994.

Jennings, Kenneth M. Balls and Strikes: the Money Game in Professional Baseball. Praeger, 1990.

Jennings, Kenneth M. Swings and Misses: Moribund Labor Relations in Professional
Baseball. Praeger, 1990.

Korr, Charles P. The End of Baseball as We Knew It: the Players Union, 1960-81. University of Illinois Press, 2002.

Lewis, Michael. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. W.W. Norton, 2003.

Lowenfish, Lee. The Imperfect Diamond: a History of Baseball's Labor Wars. Da Capo Press, 1991.

McKelvey, G. Richard. For It's One, Two, Three, Four Strikes You're Out at the
Owners' Ball Game: Players Versus Management in Baseball. McFarland & Co., 2001.

Miller, Marvin. A Whole Different Ball Game: the Sport and Business of Baseball. Carol Publishing Group, 1991.

Staudohar, Paul D. (ed.) Diamond Mines: Baseball & Labor. Syracuse University Press, 2000.

Staudohar, Paul D. Playing for Dollars: Labor Relations and the Sports Business. ILR Press, 1996.

C. Web Links
baseballhalloffame.org
Official site of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

http://labor-studies.org
American Labor Studies Center

aflcio.org
Official site of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations

sabr.org/sabr.cfm?a=cms,c,32,40,0
Society of American Baseball Research

businessofbaseball.com
Society of American Baseball Research Business Committee

baseballindex.org
The Baseball Index, documenting salary and statistical information

sportsbusinessjournal.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.feature&featureId=247
Street & Smiths Sports Business Journal

athomeplate.com/flood.shtml
Web site documenting baseball issues and labor disputes

D. Multi-Media Gallery
1) Video
a) Marvin Miller speaking at the Symposium on Baseball and the American Culture

2) Recommended Movies for In-Class Viewing
a) Baseball, A documentary series by Ken Burns: BMG Video Service, 1994, Inning 1, Inning 3, Inning 8, Inning 9

b) Eight Men Out, Orion Pictures, 1988

c) The Natural, TriStar Pictures, 1984

3) Photographs
a) Marvin Miller
b) Curt Flood
c) John Montgomery Ward
d) Robin Roberts
e) David Fultz
f) Albert Spalding
g) Robert Murphy
h) Jim "Catfish" Hunter
i) Happy Chandler
j) Kenesaw Mountain Landis
k) Robert Cannon
l) Bowie Kuhn
m) Jim Creighton
n) Bob Friend
o) Ban Johnson
p) William Hulbert
q) Clark Griffith
r) Hughey Jennings
s) Charles Comiskey
t) Walter O'Malley
u) William Veeck, Jr.
v) Harvey Kuenn

4) Primary Source Documents
a) Charles Radbourn 1879 Contract (PDF)
b) Paul Cook 1884 Contract (PDF)
c) John McGraw 1895 Contract (PDF)
d) Richard F. Johnston Players League Contract 1889 (PDF)
e) Vivian Kellogg 1948 AAGPBL Contract (PDF)
f) George Herman "Babe" Ruth 1916 Contract (PDF)
g) E.J. Roush 1914 Federal League Contract (PDF)
h) Walter "Buck" Leonard 1949 Negro Leagues Contract (PDF)
i) Joe DiMaggio 1949 Contract (PDF)
j) Jerome Herman "Dizzy" Dean 1936 Contract (PDF)
k) Brooks Robinson 1955 Contract (PDF)
l) Warren Spahn 1965 Contract (PDF)
m) Derek Jeter 2001 Contract - facsimile copy (PDF)

VII. Relevant National Learning Standards
A. U.S. History
1) Understands the conditions affecting employment and labor in the late 19th century (e.g., the change from workshop to factory in different regions; how working conditions changed and how workers responded to new industrial conditions)

2) Understands reactions to developments in labor in late 19th century America (e.g., how management and industry responded to efforts to organize workers, the response of management and government to labor strife in different regions of the country)

3) Understands influences on the workforce during the late 19th century (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity, and skill; how big business and the impersonal nature of factory work affected workers; inroads made by women in male-dominated jobs; legal status of women; the type of work children performed; occupations in which children were employed; dangers they faced during the workday)

4) Understands labor issues of the late 19th century (e.g., organizational and agenda differences between reform and trade unions, the extent of radicalism in the labor movements, labor conflicts of 1894 and their effects)

5) Understands the labor movement during the New Deal era (e.g., the re-emergence of labor militancy and the struggle between craft and industrial unions; the commitment of labor unions to organize diverse groups and secure equitable conditions and pay for minorities; the objectives of labor leaders and advocates; how art, photographs, and song lyrics contributed to the emotional appeal to support unions; WPA projects and their impact on local areas)

6) Understands how the New Deal influenced labor and employment (e.g., the impact of the New Deal on non-union workers; factors contributing to the success of the CIO leadership in organizing the rubber, auto, and steel workers in the period 1937 1941; labor's commitment to organizing; causes, strategies, and leadership of major strikes during the New Deal; the effects of the New Deal agricultural programs on farm laborers)

7) Understands significant influences on the civil rights movement (e.g., the social and constitutional issues involved in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954) court cases; the connection between legislative acts, Supreme Court decisions, and the civil rights movement; the role of women in the civil rights movement and in shaping the struggle for civil rights)

8) Understands influences on business and industry in the 19th century (e.g., how business leaders attempted to limit competition and maximize profits, the role of the government in promoting business, the concept of the "American Dream")

9) Understands the development of business in the late 19th century (e.g., types of business organizations that affected the economy; the impact of industrialization on availability of consumer goods, living standards, and redistribution of wealth; how new industries gained dominance in their field; the changing nature of business enterprise)

10) Understands elements that contributed to the rise of modern capitalist economy (e.g., changes in the modern corporation of the 1920s, including labor policies…)

B. Economics
1) Small and large firms, labor unions and educational and other not-for-profit organizations have different goals and face different rules and constraints. These goals, rules, and constraints influence the benefits and costs of those who work with or for those organizations, and, therefore, their behavior.

2) Collusion among buyers or sellers reduces the level of competition in a market. Collusion is more difficult in markets with large numbers of buyers and sellers.

3) Through the process of collective bargaining with employers, labor unions represent some workers in negotiations involving wages, fringe benefits, and work rules.

4) Property rights, contract enforcement, standards for weights and measures, and liability rules affect incentives for people to produce and exchange goods and services.

5) Employers are willing to pay wages and salaries to workers because they expect to be able to sell the goods and services that those workers produce at prices high enough to cover the wages and salaries and all other costs of production.

6) To earn income people sell productive resources. These include their labor, capital, natural resources, and entrepreneurial talents.

7) More productive workers are likely to be of greater value to employers and earn higher wages than less productive workers.

8) Changes in demand for specific goods and services often affect the incomes of the workers who make those goods and services.

9) Entrepreneurs and other sellers earn profits when buyers purchase the product they sell at prices high enough to cover the costs of production.

10) Entrepreneurial decisions affect job opportunities for other workers.

11) Entrepreneurial decisions are influenced by government tax and regulatory policies.

12) Economic growth creates new employment and profit opportunities in some industries, but growth reduces opportunities in others.

13) Investments in physical and or human capital can increase productivity, but such investments entail opportunity costs and economic risks.

14) An important role for government in the economy is to define, establish, and enforce property rights. A property right to a good or service includes the right to exclude others from using the good or service and the right to transfer the ownership or use of the resource to others.

15) In the United States, the federal government enforces antitrust laws and regulations to try to maintain effective levels of competition in as many markets as possible; frequently, however, laws and regulations also have unintended effects for example reducing competition.

16) The labor force consists of people age 16 and over who are employed or actively seeking work.

17) The consumer price index (CPI) is the most commonly used measure of price-level changes. It can be used to compare the price level in one year with price levels in earlier or later periods.

18) Market prices are determined through the buying and selling decisions made by buyers and sellers.

19) Labor productivity is output per worker.

20) Responses to incentives are predictable because people usually pursue their self-interest.

21) Changes in incentives cause people to change their behavior in predictable ways.

22) Incentives can be monetary or non-monetary.

23) Scarcity requires the use of some distribution method, whether the method is selected explicitly or not.

24) Choices involve trading off the expected value of one opportunity against the expected value of its best alternative.

25) The choices people make have both present and future consequences.

26) The evaluation of choices and opportunity costs is subjective; such evaluations differ across individuals and societies.

27) Choices made by individuals, firms, or government officials often have long run unintended consequences that can partially or entirely offset the initial effects of the decision.

28) Students address such issues as human rights, economic competition and interdependence and age-old ethnic enmities.

29) Students understand civic ideals and practices of citizenship, such as the balance between rights and responsibilities.

C. Language Arts
1) Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.

2) Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

3) Students adjust their use of spoken, written and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.

4) Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language and genre to create, critique and discuss print and non-print texts.

5) Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

6) Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather, research and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.

7) Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions and social roles.

8) Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

9) Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion and the exchange of information).

D. Fine and Visual Arts
1) Students, individually and in groups, create characters, environments and actions that create tension and suspense.

2) Students analyze descriptions, dialogue, and actions to discover, articulate and justify character motivation and invent character behaviors based on the observation of interactions, ethical choices and emotional responses of people.

3) Students, in an ensemble, interact as the invented characters.

4) Students lead small groups in planning visual and aural elements and in rehearsing improvised and scripted scenes, demonstrating social, group and consensus skills.

5) Students apply research from print and non-print sources, as well as cultural and historical information, to script writing, acting, design and directing choices.

6) Students articulate and support the meanings constructed from their and others' dramatic performances.

7) Students describe and evaluate the perceived effectiveness of their contributions to the collaborative process of developing improvised and scripted scenes.

8) Students integrate visual, spatial and temporal concepts with content to communicate intended meaning in their artworks.

9) Students use subjects, themes and symbols that demonstrate knowledge of contexts, values and aesthetics to communicate intended meaning in artworks.

E. Civics
1) Knows the historical and contemporary role of various organized groups in local, state, and national politics (e.g., unions; professional organizations; religious, charitable, service, and civic groups)

2) Knows alternative ideas about the purposes and functions of law (e.g., regulating relationships among people and between people and their government; providing order, predictability, security, and established procedures for the management of conflict; regulating social and economic relationships in civil society)

3) Knows ways in which Americans have attempted to make the values and principles of the Constitution a reality

4) Understands issues that involve conflicts among fundamental values and principles such as the conflict between liberty and authority

5) Knows how the rights of organized labor and the role of government in regulating business have created political conflict

6) Knows instances in which political conflict in the United States has been divisive and reasons for this division (e.g., the Civil War, labor unrest, civil rights struggles, opposition to the war in Vietnam)

7) Knows important economic rights (e.g., the right to own property, choose one's work, change employment, join a labor union, establish a business), and knows statements of economic rights in the United States Constitution (e.g., requirement of just compensation, contracts, copyright, patents)

8) Understands the importance to individuals and society of such economic rights as the right to acquire, use, transfer, and dispose of property; choose one's work and change employment; join labor unions and professional associations; establish and operate a business; copyright and patent; and enter into lawful contracts

9) Understands basic contemporary issues involving personal, political, and economic rights (e.g., personal rights issues such as dress codes, curfews, sexual harassment; political rights issues such as hate speech, fair trial, free press; economic rights issues such as welfare, minimum wage, health care, equal pay for equal work)

10) Understands the importance to individuals and to society of personal rights such as freedom of thought and conscience, privacy and personal autonomy, and the right to due process of law and equal protection of the law

11) Understands the relationship between political rights and the economic right to acquire, use, transfer, and dispose of property

12) Understands the relationship of political rights to economic rights such as the right to choose one's work, to change employment, and to join a labor union and other lawful associations

13) Knows historical and contemporary examples of citizen movements seeking to promote individual rights and the common good (e.g., abolition, suffrage, labor and civil rights movements)

F. Thinking and Reasoning
1) Uses a decision-making grid or matrix to make or study decisions involving a relatively limited number of alternatives and criteria

2) Secures factual information needed to evaluate alternatives

3) Makes decisions based on the data obtained and the criteria identified

4) Analyzes decisions that were major turning points in history and describes how things would have been different if other alternatives had been selected

5) Makes basic distinctions between information that is based on fact and information that is based on opinion

6) Creates a table to compare specific abstract and concrete features of two items

7) Compares different sources of information for the same topic in terms of basic similarities and differences

8) Uses a comparison table to compare multiple items on multiple abstract characteristics

9) Examines different options for solving problems of historical importance and determines why specific courses of action were taken

10) Evaluates the feasibility of various solutions to problems; recommends and defends a solution

G. Historical Understanding
1) Knows how to construct and interpret multiple tier time lines (e.g., a time line that contains important social, economic, and political developments …)

2) Understands patterns of change and continuity in the historical succession of related events

3) Knows how to periodize events of the nation into broadly defined eras

4) Understands historical continuity and change related to a particular development or theme

5) Analyzes the values held by specific people who influenced history and the role their values played in influencing history

6) Analyzes the influences specific ideas and beliefs had on a period of history and specifies how events might have been different in the absence of those ideas and beliefs

7) Analyzes the effects that specific "chance events" had on history and specifies how things might have been different in the absence of those events

8) Analyzes the effects specific decisions had on history and studies how things might have been different in the absence of those decisions

9) Understands that the consequences of human intentions are influenced by the means of carrying them out

10) Understands that change and continuity are equally probable and natural

11) Knows how to avoid seizing upon particular lessons of history as cures for present ills

12) Analyzes how specific historical events would be interpreted differently based on newly uncovered records and/or information

13) Understands how the past affects our private lives and society in general

14) Knows how to perceive past events with historical empathy

15) Knows how to evaluate the credibility and authenticity of historical sources

16) Evaluates the validity and credibility of different historical interpretations

17) Uses historical maps to understand the relationship between historical events and geography

VIII. Planning a Videoconference
A. Videoconference Checklist (PDF)

B. Teachers: Please divide your class in to equal groups of 3-5 students depending on the number your class. You will need to print off one contract and one worksheet for each group. Please choose from the contracts below. Depending on the size of your class not all of the contracts will be needed. Please have your students work within their groups to read the contract and complete the worksheet prior to the videoconference. They will use their completed worksheet (PDF) during the videoconference.

1) Charles Radbourn 1879 Contract (PDF)
2) Paul Cook 1884 Contract (PDF)
3) John McGraw 1895 Contract (PDF)
4) E.J. Roush 1914 Federal League Contract (PDF)
5) George Herman "Babe" Ruth 1916 Contract (PDF)
6) Jerome Herman "Dizzy" Dean 1936 Contract (PDF)
7) Vivian Kellog 1948 All-American Girls Baseball League Contract (PDF)
8) Walter "Buck" Leonard 1949 Negro Leagues Contract (PDF)
9) Brooks Robinson 1955 Contract (PDF)
10) Warren Spahn 1965 Contract (PDF)
11) Derek Jeter 2001 Contract - facsimile copy (PDF)