Teacher's Reflection
The Magrath Bylaw Project, 2010
Kathy Oviatt-Petrunik
June 8, 2010
When I first looked at this project, I wasn’t sure what it would look like. I knew that I wanted my students to look at some hard issues in a deeper way. I just wasn’t sure if the bylaw concept would be the vehicle that would take them there. I started thinking about approaching the project from a human rights perspective. I wanted my students to consider laws and to question why we have them – whose rights are being protected and whose rights are being forfeited when a law is enforced? We began the study through the eyes of Mildred Taylor in her novel, Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry. It is easy to look outside of ourselves and be critical of what others have done. The outcry of unfairness could be readily seen through the experiences of an African American family post-slavery. I wasn’t sure that our bylaws of our little town would give us any sort of substantial meaningful material to work with – at least the issues were not so blatantly controversial, or so I thought.
We began by looking at the bylaws in a general way – what bylaws were recorded? We looked at the funny bylaws, like the privvy bylaw requiring people to fill in their outhouses, or the swearing bylaw making it so that you might have to spend time in jail for swearing in public. We looked at odd bylaws like the one that says you have to move your vehicle to the left of the street when you encounter another vehicle so that you pass each other on the right sides of both vehicles and the famous pothole creek bridge bylaw that made you drive no faster than you can walk across the bridge. We looked at the funny way that people spoke (wrote) back then. We found some names of people whose families are still prominent in our town. This was all very interesting but I was still looking for something with a deeper connection.
So we went further. We categorized the bylaws and found that almost all of them fell into one of four categories – bylaws about animals, bylaws about town business (taxes, positions, fines and buildings), bylaws about driving and vehicles, and bylaws that required people to behave in different ways (like not spitting in public, or not playing pool after 6 pm on a weeknight, and the curfew bylaw.) We looked at how these bylaws changed from year to year and found that many seemed to evolve and change, while others remained much the same, and others were abandoned altogether.
So we started to ask questions. Not just what the bylaws were and how they were different then from now, but, why do you think they needed a chicken bylaw? And, what might have been going on to make the town pass a bylaw about spitting? Didn’t people just know that you shouldn’t spit on each other? This was what I was looking for – kids asking why and seeking answers. We brought in experts to help us to understand the context, we decided to re-create the scenes that would have forced the town to pass a law about things that we initially thought were funny or silly. My students began to have an understanding of how difficult it would have been for people to figure out how to get along together and to respect each other’s rights. Through the study, and the experience of actually going to the carriage center and talking with “experts”, they were able to do what writers do. They compiled their research and were able to put themselves in the situations they were imagining could have happened. They were able to look at both sides of the issues through the eyes of their characters and struggle with finding solutions that consider both sides of the issue. They were able finally to “get” why things that seem trivial to us now were so significant then. Our single women taxation group dealt with the issues of labor equality for women, dependence, social status, and divorce in a society where being a single woman had social, physical, and financial implications. Our animal bylaw groups looked at finding solutions that protected the animal owner and bystanders and helped neighbors to be neighborly, while considering the economy of the town. They looked at the issue of animals as livelihood and income, not just as pets. The traffic bylaw groups were able to sort out what happens when everyone is trying to get somewhere but there are no guidelines or rules to protect others and make it safe and healthy for everyone. They looked at fairness and equality and rights to life and property. These were the bigger understandings I was looking for – the hooks that will have a greater impact and lay foundations for students to continue to question why as life-long learners.
As an academic endeavor, the students understood very deeply the processes of government and how difficult it is to deal with citizen complaints and issues as people try to live and work together. I appreciated the language arts connection as my students followed the path of a true author of historical fiction. The work they did was as authentic and real as any published writer would do.
When I began, I had no idea if my goals were even possible. Who knew that a few documents saved from the turn of the century had so much depth, breadth and richness to offer? It was the connection the students were able to make that helped them to embrace the task and, as one student says, “have fun while working.”
