Detterance

For my teach a friend assignment I decided to teach the theory of nuclear deterrace. The theory of nuclear detterance is a big issue that we are dealing with in the world right now. Especially, since the 21st century detterance may be far more difficult for the United States than it has been in the past. Therefore , I thought that it would be a great topic to branch of off since without deterrence the Cold war could have resulted in nuclear war.

In preparing my lesson to teach I first made a quick notes sheet for myself to address key points of what I thought was necessary for my student to know. I also though by having a notes sheet if I lost my train of thought or was unable to remember what I want to address next that I could quickly look down at my guide and bring myself right back on track. From pervious experiences, I know that sometimes lecturing the whole time can get a little boring. So to engage my student more into the topic at hand I used one of the videos that you provided us in class about the practice test of nuclear bombs and I also found a quick video the would also explain the theory of nuclear detterance in a more simplistic way. I selected my student by the fact that I decided to do this project while I was home for thanksgiving break so I thought it would be interesting to find out my 16 year old brothers intake on deterrence as it relates to International Relations. Although it took a little bribery and me buying him chipotle for lunch I was able to get a hour of his time to teach and discuss the topic.

The materials that I used in teaching this subject were lecture notes and an article on deterrence that we were told to had read one night for class. I also used to multimedia videos from YouTube. I selected this approach because I learned in puschology class that adolescents are more responsive in class when you do not just engage in lecture. So, I thought by visually showing them short video clips on the matter it would result in a more open discussion atmosphere.

I would have to say that I believe my student really enjoyed the topic, he was attentive and extremely responsive to the materials that I through at him. At one point he was really intrigued with the video I showed him about the test if nuclear bombs in the world from United States, Russia, etc. I could tell just by his facial expressions when watching this video he was bewildered by the fact that so many countries have nuclear bombs that until today he was unaware of.

I was shocked by all the questions and comments my student ended up asking me. He questioned on the fact that although the theory nuclear detterance seemed like it worked in the midst of the Cold War how do we know it going to still work in the future? I answered by telling him that this is a great question that unfortunately we do not still have the answer to. Although we must understand that a nuclear war is the last thing a country wants, so if the country's ruler has any kind of morals they are not going to want to make this an end result, unless it is the only way and their is always another way to solve an issue. Intrigued to ask more he then was curiouss to know why wvryone just could not be arms free? I replied by enlightening him on what we had discussed in class how "fear" plays a major role in international relations. The fact that country's can never fully trust one another creates fear and with this fear country's believe they have to come up with tactics and build up more on their nuclear warfare just in case they ever feel threatened or in risk of a war they can be prepared. Lastly, after a couple of questions we wrapped it up by discussing what tactics could be possible in slowly getting rid of nuclear weapons. The following ideas are what we came up with:

The main teaching point that i was trying to convey to my student is that detterance is a issue that we can not truly rely on if we come against a country that is willing to use nuclear weapons and start a full out nuclear war, regardless of the risk . Since it was a heated topic of debate late in politic articles , I felt like it was a great topic to enlighten my student on in regards to the international relations.

After my teaching lesson was over I looked at what my student had to say, to see if it an any way had to deal with the message I was trying to convey and proudly it did! I think the reason why it did was because he was so interested and engage in the topic. I know for me tht when I'm interested in a topic I tend to engage more and be a lot more responsive in class then when I do not.

I really enjoyed this project. It was fun being able to teach a family memeber something I have been learning in class. Not only did it help me understand and learn nuclear detterance better for myself by teaching someone else it also informed someone on a political issue that is pretty serious that he was unaware of beforehand. If I had to teach the subject again I would definetly keep my lesson plan the same because I thought it was a success and my student seemed really engaged in the topic, which made it a lot easier to teach. Although I might add a game of some sort if I was to teach it next time to try in make the class more engaging and alittle more interactive by incorporating some kind of stimulation that shows how scary it would be if nuclear detterance was not in affect.