Grade 11: Scarlet Letter Scarlet Letter Unit Resources - Filestack

Grade 11: Scarlet Letter

Scarlet Letter Unit Resources

Student Resource Location

Section 1: Lessons 1-7

Text: Excerpts from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards Pages 2 - 7

Text: “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne Pages 8 - 21

Lesson handouts Pages 22- 39


Text: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Purchase

Text: excerpt from Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville Pages 40 - 49

Lesson handouts Pages 50 - 67



Lesson handouts Pages 68-72



Lesson handouts No handouts



Text: “John Brown’s Speech to the Court at his Trial” by John Brown Pages 73 - 74




Lesson Handouts Page 81



Lesson handouts Pages 82 -83

Section 8: Lessons 24-27, Practice Cold Read Task


Lesson handouts Page 84

Section 9: Lessons 28-31, Culminating Writing Task




Text: Wisconsin v. Yoder (No. 70-110) Supreme Court of the United States Pages 89 - 129

Text: Gallup Poll results on Religion Digital access

Text: “Americans Say More Religion in US Would Be Positive” by Frank Newport (Gallup)

Digital access

Lesson handouts Page 130

Section 11: Lessons 34-39, Extension Task,

Lesson handouts Page 131 - 144

Section 12: Lessons 40-41, Cold-Read Task

http://www.americanreading.com/louisiana-doe/








http://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/Religion.aspx

http://viewpure.com/6VpebAGzRd8?start=0&end=0


Excerpts from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

Jonathan Edwards

Paragraph 18

All wicked Men's Pains and Contrivance which they use to escape Hell, while they

continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked Men, don’t secure ‘em from Hell one

Moment. Almost every natural Man that hears of Hell, flatters himself that he shall escape

it; he depends upon himself for his own Security; he flatters himself in what he has done,

in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Every one lays out Matters in his own

Mind how he shall avoid Damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for

himself, and that his Schemes won’t fail. They hear indeed that there are but few saved,

and that the bigger Part of Men that have died heretofore are gone to Hell; but each one

imagines that he lays out Matters better for his own escape than others have done. He

don’t intend to come to that Place of Torment; he says within himself, that he intends to

take Care that shall be effectual, and to order Matters so for himself as not to fail.

Paragraph 19

But the foolish Children of Men miserably delude themselves in their own

Schemes, and in Confidence in their own Strength and Wisdom; they trust to nothing but

a Shadow. The bigger Part of those who heretofore have lived under the same Means of

Grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to Hell; and it was not because they were

not as wise as those who are now alive: it was not because they did not lay out Matters as

well for themselves to secure their own escape. If we could speak with them, and inquire

of them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear

about Hell, ever to be the Subjects of Misery: we doubtless, should hear one and another

reply, "No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out Matters otherwise in my Mind; I

thought I should contrive well for myself -- I thought my Scheme good. I intended to take

effectual Care; but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that Time, and in

that Manner; it came as a Thief -- Death outwitted me: God's Wrath was too quick for me.


Oh, my cursed Foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain Dreams

of what I would do hereafter; and when I was saying, Peace and Safety, then sudden

Destruction came upon me."

Paragraph 20

God has laid himself under no Obligation, by any Promises to keep any natural

Man out of Hell one Moment. God certainly has made no Promises either of eternal Life,

or of any Deliverance or Preservation from eternal Death, but what are contained in the

Covenant of Grace, the Promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the Promises are Yea

and Amen. But surely they have no Interest in the Promises of the Covenant of Grace that

are not the Children of the Covenant, and that don’t believe in any of the Promises of the

Covenant, and have no Interest in the Mediator of the Covenant.

Paragraph 21

So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about Promises made to

natural Men's earnest seeking and knocking, ‘tis plain and manifest, that whatever Pains a

natural Man takes in Religion, whatever Prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is

under no manner of Obligation to keep him a Moment from eternal Destruction.

Paragraph 22

So that, thus it is that natural Men are held in the Hand of God, over the Pit of

Hell; they have deserved the fiery Pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is

dreadfully provoked, his Anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually

suffering the Executions of the fierceness of his Wrath in Hell, and they have done nothing

in the least to appease or abate that Anger, neither is God in the least bound by any

Promise to hold ‘em up one moment; the Devil is waiting for them, Hell is gaping for them,

the Flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow

them up; the Fire pent up in their own Hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no

Interest in any Mediator, there are no Means within Reach that can be any Security to

them. In short, they have no Refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every


Moment is the mere arbitrary Will, and uncovenanted, unobliged Forbearance of an

incensed God.

Paragraph 23

The Use may be of Awakening unconverted Persons in this Congregation. This that

you have heard is the Case of every one of you that are out of Christ. -- That World of

Misery, that Lake of burning Brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the

dreadful Pit of the glowing Flames of the Wrath of God; there is Hell's wide gaping Mouth

open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any Thing to take hold of; there is nothing

between you and Hell but the Air; ‘tis only the Power and mere Pleasure of God that holds

you up.

Paragraph 24

You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of Hell, but do not

see the Hand of God in it; but look at other Things, as the good State of your bodily

Constitution, your Care of your own Life, and the Means you use for your own

Preservation. But indeed these Things are nothing; if God should withdraw his Hand, they

would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin Air to hold up a Person that is

suspended in it.

Paragraph 25

Your Wickedness makes you as it were heavy as Lead, and to tend downwards

with great Weight and Pressure towards Hell; and if God should let you go, you would

immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless Gulf, and your

healthy Constitution, and your own Care and Prudence, and best Contrivance, and all your

Righteousness, would have no more Influence to uphold you and keep you out of Hell,

than a Spider's Web would have to stop a falling Rock. Were it not for the sovereign

Pleasure of God, the Earth would not bear you one Moment; for you are a Burden to it;

the Creation groans with you; the Creation is made Subject to the Bondage of your

corruption, not willingly; the Sun don’t willingly shine upon you to give you Light to serve

Sin and Satan; the Earth don’t willingly yield her Increase to satisfy your Lusts; nor is it


willingly a Stage for your Wickedness to be acted upon; the Air don’t willingly serve you

for Breath to maintain the Flame of Life in your Vitals, while you spend your Life in the

Service of God's Enemies. God's Creatures are Good, and were made for Men to serve

God with, and don’t willingly subserve to any other Purpose, and groan when they are

abused to Purposes so directly contrary to their Nature and End. And the World would

spew you out, were it not for the sovereign Hand of him who hath subjected it in Hope.

There are the black Clouds of God's Wrath now hanging directly over your Heads, full of

the dreadful Storm, and big with Thunder; and were it not for the restraining Hand of God,

it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign Pleasure of God, for the

present, stays his rough Wind; otherwise it would come with Fury, and your Destruction

would come like a Whirlwind, and you would be like the Chaff of the Summer threshing

Floor.

Paragraph 27

The Bow of God's Wrath is bent, and the Arrow made ready on the String, and

Justice bends the Arrow at your Heart, and strains the Bow, and it is nothing but the mere

Pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any Promise or Obligation at all, that

keeps the Arrow one Moment from being made drunk with your Blood.

Paragraph 28

Thus all you that never passed under a great Change of Heart, by the mighty

Power of the SPIRIT of GOD upon your Souls; all you that were never born again, and

made new Creatures, and raised from being dead in Sin, to a State of new, and before

altogether unexperienced Light and Life, (however you may have reformed your Life in

many Things, and may have had religious Affections, and may keep up a Form of Religion

in your Families and Closets, and in the House of God, and may be strict in it,) you are thus

in the Hands of an angry God; ‘tis nothing but his mere Pleasure that keeps you from

being this Moment swallowed up in everlasting Destruction.

Paragraph 29


However unconvinced you may now be of the Truth of what you hear, by and by

you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like Circumstances

with you, see that it was so with them; for Destruction came suddenly upon most of them;

when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and Safety: Now

they see, that those Things on which they depended for Peace and Safety, were nothing

but thin Air and empty Shadows.

Paragraph 30

The God that holds you over the Pit of Hell, much as one holds a Spider, or some

loathsome Insect over the Fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his Wrath towards

you burns like Fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the

Fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his Sight; you are ten thousand Times

more abominable in his Eyes, as the most hateful venomous Serpent is in ours. You have

offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn Rebel did his Prince; and yet it is

nothing but his Hand that holds you from falling into the Fire every Moment. It is to be

ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to Hell the last Night; that you was suffered

to awake again in this World, after you closed your Eyes to sleep. And there is no other

Reason to be given, why you have not dropped into Hell since you arose in the Morning,

but that God's Hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have

not gone to Hell, since you have sat here in the House of God, provoking his pure Eyes by

your sinful wicked Manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that

is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into Hell.

Paragraph 35

How awful are those Words, Isa. 63:3, Which are the Words of the great God. "I

will tread them in mine Anger, and will trample them in my Fury, and their Blood shall be

sprinkled upon my Garments, and I will stain all my Raiment." It is perhaps impossible to

conceive of Words that carry in them greater Manifestations of these three Things, viz.

Contempt, and Hatred, and fierceness of Indignation. If you cry to God to pity you, he will

be so far from pitying you in your doleful Case, or showing you the least Regard or Favor,

http://biblia.com/bible/kjv1900/Isa.%2063.3


that instead of that, he will only tread you under Foot. And though he will know that you

cannot bear the Weight of Omnipotence treading upon you, yet he will not regard that,

but he will crush you under his Feet without Mercy; he will crush out your Blood, and

make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his Garments, so as to stain all his Raiment. He will

not only hate you, but he will have you in the utmost Contempt: no Place shall be thought

fit for you, but under his Feet to be trodden down as the Mire of the Streets.

Paragraph 42

And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know that you are going

down to Hell, to bear the dreadful Wrath of that God, who is now angry with you every

Day and every Night? Will you be content to be the Children of the Devil, when so many

other Children in the Land are converted, and are become the holy and happy Children of

the King of Kings?

Paragraph 44

Therefore, let every one that is out of CHRIST, now awake and fly from the Wrath

to come. The Wrath of Almighty GOD is now undoubtedly hanging over a great Part of this

Congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not

behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed."

This text is in the public domain.


“The Minister’s Black Veil”

Nathaniel Hawthorne

THE SEXTON stood in the porch of Milford meeting-house, pulling busily at the

bell-rope. The old people of the village came stooping along the street. Children, with

bright faces, tripped merrily beside their parents, or mimicked a graver gait, in the

conscious dignity of their Sunday clothes. Spruce bachelors looked sidelong at the pretty

maidens, and fancied that the Sabbath sunshine made them prettier than on weekdays.

When the throng had mostly streamed into the porch, the sexton began to toll the bell,

keeping his eye on the Reverend Mr. Hooper's door. The first glimpse of the clergyman's

figure was the signal for the bell to cease its summons.

"But what has good Parson Hooper got upon his face?" cried the sexton in

astonishment.

All within hearing immediately turned about, and beheld the semblance of Mr.

Hooper, pacing slowly his meditative way towards the meeting-house. With one accord

they started, expressing more wonder than if some strange minister were coming to dust

the cushions of Mr. Hooper's pulpit.

"Are you sure it is our parson?" inquired Goodman Gray of the sexton.

"Of a certainty it is good Mr. Hooper," replied the sexton. "He was to have

exchanged pulpits with Parson Shute, of Westbury; but Parson Shute sent to excuse

himself yesterday, being to preach a funeral sermon."

The cause of so much amazement may appear sufficiently slight. Mr. Hooper, a

gentlemanly person, of about thirty, though still a bachelor, was dressed with due clerical

neatness, as if a careful wife had starched his band, and brushed the weekly dust from

his Sunday's garb. There was but one thing remarkable in his appearance. Swathed about

his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr.

Hooper had on a black veil. On a nearer view it seemed to consist of two folds of crape,

which entirely concealed his features, except the mouth and chin, but probably did not

intercept his sight, further than to give a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate


things. With this gloomy shade before him, good Mr. Hooper walked onward, at a slow

and quiet pace, stooping somewhat, and looking on the ground, as is customary with

abstracted men, yet nodding kindly to those of his parishioners who still waited on the

meeting-house steps. But so wonder-struck were they that his greeting hardly met with a

return.

"I can't really feel as if good Mr. Hooper's face was behind that piece of crape,"

said the sexton.

"I don't like it," muttered an old woman, as she hobbled into the meeting-house.

"He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face."

"Our parson has gone mad!" cried Goodman Gray, following him across the

threshold.

A rumor of some unaccountable phenomenon had preceded Mr. Hooper into the

meeting-house, and set all the congregation astir. Few could refrain from twisting their

heads towards the door; many stood upright, and turned directly about; while several

little boys clambered upon the seats, and came down again with a terrible racket. There

was a general bustle, a rustling of the women's gowns and shuffling of the men's feet,

greatly at variance with that hushed repose which should attend the entrance of the

minister. But Mr. Hooper appeared not to notice the perturbation of his people. He

entered with an almost noiseless step, bent his head mildly to the pews on each side, and

bowed as he passed his oldest parishioner, a white-haired great-grandsire, who occupied

an arm-chair in the centre of the aisle. It was strange to observe how slowly this

venerable man became conscious of something singular in the appearance of his pastor.

He seemed not fully to partake of the prevailing wonder, till Mr. Hooper had ascended

the stairs, and showed himself in the pulpit, face to face with his congregation, except for

the black veil. That mysterious emblem was never once withdrawn. It shook with his

measured breath, as he gave out the psalm; it threw its obscurity between him and the

holy page, as he read the Scriptures; and while he prayed, the veil lay heavily on his


uplifted countenance. Did he seek to hide it from the dread Being whom he was

addressing?

Such was the effect of this simple piece of crape, that more than one woman of

delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house. Yet perhaps the pale-faced

congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them.

Mr. Hooper had the reputation of a good preacher, but not an energetic one: he

strove to win his people heavenward by mild, persuasive influences, rather than to drive

them thither by the thunders of the Word. The sermon which he now delivered was

marked by the same characteristics of style and manner as the general series of his pulpit

oratory. But there was something, either in the sentiment of the discourse itself, or in the

imagination of the auditors, which made it greatly the most powerful effort that they had

ever heard from their pastor's lips. It was tinged, rather more darkly than usual, with the

gentle gloom of Mr. Hooper's temperament. The subject had reference to secret sin, and

those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal

from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them. A

subtle power was breathed into his words. Each member of the congregation, the most

innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast, felt as if the preacher had crept upon

them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought.

Many spread their clasped hands on their bosoms. There was nothing terrible in what

Mr. Hooper said, at least, no violence; and yet, with every tremor of his melancholy

voice, the hearers quaked. An unsought pathos came hand in hand with awe. So sensible

were the audience of some unwonted attribute in their minister, that they longed for a

breath of wind to blow aside the veil, almost believing that a stranger's visage would be

discovered, though the form, gesture, and voice were those of Mr. Hooper.

At the close of the services, the people hurried out with indecorous confusion,

eager to communicate their pent-up amazement, and conscious of lighter spirits the

moment they lost sight of the black veil. Some gathered in little circles, huddled closely

together, with their mouths all whispering in the centre; some went homeward alone,


wrapt in silent meditation; some talked loudly, and profaned the Sabbath day with

ostentatious laughter. A few shook their sagacious heads, intimating that they could

penetrate the mystery; while one or two affirmed that there was no mystery at all, but

only that Mr. Hooper's eyes were so weakened by the midnight lamp, as to require a

shade. After a brief interval, forth came good Mr. Hooper also, in the rear of his flock.

Turning his veiled face from one group to another, he paid due reverence to the hoary

heads, saluted the middle aged with kind dignity as their friend and spiritual guide,

greeted the young with mingled authority and love, and laid his hands on the little

children's heads to bless them. Such was always his custom on the Sabbath day. Strange

and bewildered looks repaid him for his courtesy. None, as on former occasions, aspired

to the honor of walking by their pastor's side. Old Squire Saunders, doubtless by an

accidental lapse of memory, neglected to invite Mr. Hooper to his table, where the good

clergyman had been wont to bless the food, almost every Sunday since his settlement.

He returned, therefore, to the parsonage, and, at the moment of closing the door, was

observed to look back upon the people, all of whom had their eyes fixed upon the

minister. A sad smile gleamed faintly from beneath the black veil, and flickered about his

mouth, glimmering as he disappeared.

"How strange," said a lady, "that a simple black veil, such as any woman might

wear on her bonnet, should become such a terrible thing on Mr. Hooper's face!"

"Something must surely be amiss with Mr. Hooper's intellects," observed her

husband, the physician of the village. "But the strangest part of the affair is the effect of

this vagary, even on a sober-minded man like myself. The black veil, though it covers only

our pastor's face, throws its influence over his whole person, and makes him ghostlike

from head to foot. Do you not feel it so?"

"Truly do I," replied the lady; "and I would not be alone with him for the world. I

wonder he is not afraid to be alone with himself!"

"Men sometimes are so," said her husband.


The afternoon service was attended with similar circumstances. At its conclusion,

the bell tolled for the funeral of a young lady. The relatives and friends were assembled

in the house, and the more distant acquaintances stood about the door, speaking of the

good qualities of the deceased, when their talk was interrupted by the appearance of Mr.

Hooper, still covered with his black veil. It was now an appropriate emblem. The

clergyman stepped into the room where the corpse was laid, and bent over the coffin, to

take a last farewell of his deceased parishioner. As he stooped, the veil hung straight

down from his forehead, so that, if her eyelids had not been closed forever, the dead

maiden might have seen his face. Could Mr. Hooper be fearful of her glance, that he so

hastily caught back the black veil? A person who watched the interview between the

dead and living, scrupled not to affirm, that, at the instant when the clergyman's features

were disclosed, the corpse had slightly shuddered, rustling the shroud and muslin cap,

though the countenance retained the composure of death. A superstitious old woman

was the only witness of this prodigy. From the coffin Mr. Hooper passed into the

chamber of the mourners, and thence to the head of the staircase, to make the funeral

prayer. It was a tender and heart-dissolving prayer, full of sorrow, yet so imbued with

celestial hopes, that the music of a heavenly harp, swept by the fingers of the dead,

seemed faintly to be heard among the saddest accents of the minister. The people

trembled, though they but darkly understood him when he prayed that they, and

himself, and all of mortal race, might be ready, as he trusted this young maiden had

been, for the dreadful hour that should snatch the veil from their faces. The bearers went

heavily forth, and the mourners followed, saddening all the street, with the dead before

them, and Mr. Hooper in his black veil behind.

"Why do you look back?" said one in the procession to his partner.

I had a fancy," replied she, "that the minister and the maiden's spirit were

walking hand in hand."

"And so had I, at the same moment," said the other.


That night, the handsomest couple in Milford village were to be joined in

wedlock. Though reckoned a melancholy man, Mr. Hooper had a placid cheerfulness for

such occasions, which often excited a sympathetic smile where livelier merriment would

have been thrown away. There was no quality of his disposition which made him more

beloved than this. The company at the wedding awaited his arrival with impatience,

trusting that the strange awe, which had gathered over him throughout the day, would

now be dispelled. But such was not the result. When Mr. Hooper came, the first thing

that their eyes rested on was the same horrible black veil, which had added deeper

gloom to the funeral, and could portend nothing but evil to the wedding. Such was its

immediate effect on the guests that a cloud seemed to have rolled duskily from beneath

the black crape, and dimmed the light of the candles. The bridal pair stood up before the

minister. But the bride's cold fingers quivered in the tremulous hand of the bridegroom,

and her deathlike paleness caused a whisper that the maiden who had been buried a few

hours before was come from her grave to be married. If ever another wedding were so

dismal, it was that famous one where they tolled the wedding knell. After performing the

ceremony, Mr. Hooper raised a glass of wine to his lips, wishing happiness to the new-

married couple in a strain of mild pleasantry that ought to have brightened the features

of the guests, like a cheerful gleam from the hearth. At that instant, catching a glimpse of

his figure in the looking-glass, the black veil involved his own spirit in the horror with

which it overwhelmed all others. His frame shuddered, his lips grew white, he spilt the

untasted wine upon the carpet, and rushed forth into the darkness. For the Earth, too,

had on her Black Veil.

The next day, the whole village of Milford talked of little else than Parson

Hooper's black veil. That, and the mystery concealed behind it, supplied a topic for

discussion between acquaintances meeting in the street, and good women gossiping at

their open windows. It was the first item of news that the tavern-keeper told to his

guests. The children babbled of it on their way to school. One imitative little imp covered


his face with an old black handkerchief, thereby so affrighting his playmates that the

panic seized himself, and he well-nigh lost his wits by his own waggery.

It was remarkable that of all the busybodies and impertinent people in the

parish, not one ventured to put the plain question to Mr. Hooper, wherefore he did this

thing. Hitherto, whenever there appeared the slightest call for such interference, he had

never lacked advisers, nor shown himself adverse to be guided by their judgment. If he

erred at all, it was by so painful a degree of self-distrust, that even the mildest censure

would lead him to consider an indifferent action as a crime. Yet, though so well

acquainted with this amiable weakness, no individual among his parishioners chose to

make the black veil a subject of friendly remonstrance. There was a feeling of dread,

neither plainly confessed nor carefully concealed, which caused each to shift the

responsibility upon another, till at length it was found expedient to send a deputation of

the church, in order to deal with Mr. Hooper about the mystery, before it should grow

into a scandal. Never did an embassy so ill discharge its duties. The minister received

them with friendly courtesy, but became silent, after they were seated, leaving to his

visitors the whole burden of introducing their important business. The topic, it might be

supposed, was obvious enough. There was the black veil swathed round Mr. Hooper's

forehead, and concealing every feature above his placid mouth, on which, at times, they

could perceive the glimmering of a melancholy smile. But that piece of crape, to their

imagination, seemed to hang down before his heart, the symbol of a fearful secret

between him and them. Were the veil but cast aside, they might speak freely of it, but

not till then. Thus they sat a considerable time, speechless, confused, and shrinking

uneasily from Mr. Hooper's eye, which they felt to be fixed upon them with an invisible

glance. Finally, the deputies returned abashed to their constituents, pronouncing the

matter too weighty to be handled, except by a council of the churches, if, indeed, it might

not require a general synod.

But there was one person in the village unappalled by the awe with which the

black veil had impressed all beside herself. When the deputies returned without an


explanation, or even venturing to demand one, she, with the calm energy of her

character, determined to chase away the strange cloud that appeared to be settling

round Mr. Hooper, every moment more darkly than before. As his plighted wife, it should

be her privilege to know what the black veil concealed. At the minister's first visit,

therefore, she entered upon the subject with a direct simplicity, which made the task

easier both for him and her. After he had seated himself, she fixed her eyes steadfastly

upon the veil, but could discern nothing of the dreadful gloom that had so overawed the

multitude: it was but a double fold of crape, hanging down from his forehead to his

mouth, and slightly stirring with his breath.

"No," said she aloud, and smiling, "there is nothing terrible in this piece of crape,

except that it hides a face which I am always glad to look upon. Come, good sir, let the

sun shine from behind the cloud. First lay aside your black veil: then tell me why you put

it on."

Mr. Hooper's smile glimmered faintly.

"There is an hour to come," said he, "when all of us shall cast aside our veils.

Take it not amiss, beloved friend, if I wear this piece of crape till then."

"Your words are a mystery, too," returned the young lady. "Take away the veil

from them, at least."

"Elizabeth, I will," said he, "so far as my vow may suffer me. Know, then, this veil

is a type and a symbol, and I am bound to wear it ever, both in light and darkness, in

solitude and before the gaze of multitudes, and as with strangers, so with my familiar

friends. No mortal eye will see it withdrawn. This dismal shade must separate me from

the world: even you, Elizabeth, can never come behind it!"

"What grievous affliction hath befallen you," she earnestly inquired, "that you

should thus darken your eyes forever?"

"If it be a sign of mourning," replied Mr. Hooper, "I, perhaps, like most other

mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil."


"But what if the world will not believe that it is the type of an innocent sorrow?"

urged Elizabeth. "Beloved and respected as you are, there may be whispers that you hide

your face under the consciousness of secret sin. For the sake of your holy office, do away

this scandal!"

The color rose into her cheeks as she intimated the nature of the rumors that

were already abroad in the village. But Mr. Hooper's mildness did not forsake him. He

even smiled again--that same sad smile, which always appeared like a faint glimmering of

light, proceeding from the obscurity beneath the veil.

"If I hide my face for sorrow, there is cause enough," he merely replied; "and if I

cover it for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?"

And with this gentle, but unconquerable obstinacy did he resist all her entreaties.

At length Elizabeth sat silent. For a few moments she appeared lost in thought,

considering, probably, what new methods might be tried to withdraw her lover from so

dark a fantasy, which, if it had no other meaning, was perhaps a symptom of mental

disease. Though of a firmer character than his own, the tears rolled down her cheeks.

But, in an instant, as it were, a new feeling took the place of sorrow: her eyes were fixed

insensibly on the black veil, when, like a sudden twilight in the air, its terrors fell around

her. She arose, and stood trembling before him.

"And do you feel it then, at last?" said he mournfully.

She made no reply, but covered her eyes with her hand, and turned to leave the

room. He rushed forward and caught her arm.

"Have patience with me, Elizabeth!" cried he, passionately. "Do not desert me,

though this veil must be between us here on earth. Be mine, and hereafter there shall be

no veil over my face, no darkness between our souls! It is but a mortal veil--it is not for

eternity! O! you know not how lonely I am, and how frightened, to be alone behind my

black veil. Do not leave me in this miserable obscurity forever!"

"Lift the veil but once, and look me in the face," said she.

"Never! It cannot be!" replied Mr. Hooper.


"Then farewell!" said Elizabeth.

She withdrew her arm from his grasp, and slowly departed, pausing at the door,

to give one long shuddering gaze, that seemed almost to penetrate the mystery of the

black veil. But, even amid his grief, Mr. Hooper smiled to think that only a material

emblem had separated him from happiness, though the horrors, which it shadowed

forth, must be drawn darkly between the fondest of lovers.

From that time no attempts were made to remove Mr. Hooper's black veil, or, by

a direct appeal, to discover the secret which it was supposed to hide. By persons who

claimed a superiority to popular prejudice, it was reckoned merely an eccentric whim,

such as often mingles with the sober actions of men otherwise rational, and tinges them

all with its own semblance of insanity. But with the multitude, good Mr. Hooper was

irreparably a bugbear. He could not walk the street with any peace of mind, so conscious

was he that the gentle and timid would turn aside to avoid him, and that others would

make it a point of hardihood to throw themselves in his way. The impertinence of the

latter class compelled him to give up his customary walk at sunset to the burial ground;

for when he leaned pensively over the gate, there would always be faces behind the

gravestones, peeping at his black veil. A fable went the rounds that the stare of the dead

people drove him thence. It grieved him, to the very depth of his kind heart, to observe

how the children fled from his approach, breaking up their merriest sports, while his

melancholy figure was yet afar off. Their instinctive dread caused him to feel more

strongly than aught else, that a preternatural horror was interwoven with the threads of

the black crape. In truth, his own antipathy to the veil was known to be so great, that he

never willingly passed before a mirror, nor stooped to drink at a still fountain, lest, in its

peaceful bosom, he should be affrighted by himself. This was what gave plausibility to

the whispers, that Mr. Hooper's conscience tortured him for some great crime too

horrible to be entirely concealed, or otherwise than so obscurely intimated. Thus, from

beneath the black veil, there rolled a cloud into the sunshine, an ambiguity of sin or

sorrow, which enveloped the poor minister, so that love or sympathy could never reach


him. It was said that ghost and fiend consorted with him there. With self-shudderings

and outward terrors, he walked continually in its shadow, groping darkly within his own

soul, or gazing through a medium that saddened the whole world. Even the lawless wind,

it was believed, respected his dreadful secret, and never blew aside the veil. But still

good Mr. Hooper sadly smiled at the pale visages of the worldly throng as he passed by.

Among all its bad influences, the black veil had the one desirable effect, of

making its wearer a very efficient clergyman. By the aid of his mysterious emblem--for

there was no other apparent cause--he became a man of awful power over souls that

were in agony for sin. His converts always regarded him with a dread peculiar to

themselves, affirming, though but figuratively, that, before he brought them to celestial

light, they had been with him behind the black veil. Its gloom, indeed, enabled him to

sympathize with all dark affections. Dying sinners cried aloud for Mr. Hooper, and would

not yield their breath till he appeared; though ever, as he stooped to whisper

consolation, they shuddered at the veiled face so near their own. Such were the terrors

of the black veil, even when Death had bared his visage! Strangers came long distances to

attend service at his church, with the mere idle purpose of gazing at his figure, because it

was forbidden them to behold his face. But many were made to quake ere they

departed! Once, during Governor Belcher's administration, Mr. Hooper was appointed to

preach the election sermon. Covered with his black veil, he stood before the chief

magistrate, the council, and the representatives, and wrought so deep an impression that

the legislative measures of that year were characterized by all the gloom and piety of our

earliest ancestral sway.

In this manner Mr. Hooper spent a long life, irreproachable in outward act, yet

shrouded in dismal suspicions; kind and loving, though unloved, and dimly feared; a man

apart from men, shunned in their health and joy, but ever summoned to their aid in

mortal anguish. As years wore on, shedding their snows above his sable veil, he acquired

a name throughout the New England churches, and they called him Father Hooper.

Nearly all his parishioners, who were of mature age when he was settled, had been


borne away by many a funeral: he had one congregation in the church, and a more

crowded one in the churchyard; and having wrought so late into the evening, and done

his work so well, it was now good Father Hooper's turn to rest.

Several persons were visible by the shaded candle-light, in the death chamber of

the old clergyman. Natural connections he had none. But there was the decorously grave,

though unmoved physician, seeking only to mitigate the last pangs of the patient whom

he could not save. There were the deacons, and other eminently pious members of his

church. There, also, was the Reverend Mr. Clark, of Westbury, a young and zealous

divine, who had ridden in haste to pray by the bedside of the expiring minister. There

was the nurse, no hired handmaiden of death, but one whose calm affection had

endured thus long in secrecy, in solitude, amid the chill of age, and would not perish,

even at the dying hour. Who, but Elizabeth! And there lay the hoary head of good Father

Hooper upon the death pillow, with the black veil still swathed about his brow, and

reaching down over his face, so that each more difficult gasp of his faint breath caused it

to stir. All through life that piece of crape had hung between him and the world: it had

separated him from cheerful brotherhood and woman's love, and kept him in that

saddest of all prisons, his own heart; and still it lay upon his face, as if to deepen the

gloom of his darksome chamber, and shade him from the sunshine of eternity.

For some time previous, his mind had been confused, wavering doubtfully

between the past and the present, and hovering forward, as it were, at intervals, into the

indistinctness of the world to come. There had been feverish turns, which tossed him

from side to side, and wore away what little strength he had. But in his most convulsive

struggles, and in the wildest vagaries of his intellect, when no other thought retained its

sober influence, he still showed an awful solicitude lest the black veil should slip aside.

Even if his bewildered soul could have forgotten, there was a faithful woman at his

pillow, who, with averted eyes, would have covered that aged face, which she had last

beheld in the comeliness of manhood. At length the death-stricken old man lay quietly in

the torpor of mental and bodily exhaustion, with an imperceptible pulse, and breath that


grew fainter and fainter, except when a long, deep, and irregular inspiration seemed to

prelude the flight of his spirit.

The minister of Westbury approached the bedside.

"Venerable Father Hooper," said he, "the moment of your release is at hand. Are

you ready for the lifting of the veil that shuts in time from eternity?"

Father Hooper at first replied merely by a feeble motion of his head; then,

apprehensive, perhaps, that his meaning might be doubtful, he exerted himself to speak.

"Yea," said he, in faint accents, "my soul hath a patient weariness until that veil

be lifted."

"And is it fitting," resumed the Reverend Mr. Clark, "that a man so given to

prayer, of such a blameless example, holy in deed and thought, so far as mortal judgment

may pronounce; is it fitting that a father in the church should leave a shadow on his

memory, that may seem to blacken a life so pure? I pray you, my venerable brother, let

not this thing be! Suffer us to be gladdened by your triumphant aspect as you go to your

reward. Before the veil of eternity be lifted, let me cast aside this black veil from your

face!"

And thus speaking, the Reverend Mr. Clark bent forward to reveal the mystery of

so many years. But, exerting a sudden energy, that made all the beholders stand aghast,

Father Hooper snatched both his hands from beneath the bedclothes, and pressed them

strongly on the black veil, resolute to struggle, if the minister of Westbury would contend

with a dying man.

"Never!" cried the veiled clergyman. "On earth, never!"

"Dark old man!" exclaimed the affrighted minister, "with what horrible crime

upon your soul are you now passing to the judgment?"

Father Hooper's breath heaved; it rattled in his throat; but, with a mighty effort,

grasping forward with his hands, he caught hold of life, and held it back till he should

speak. He even raised himself in bed; and there he sat, shivering with the arms of death

around him, while the black veil hung down, awful at that last moment, in the gathered


terrors of a lifetime. And yet the faint, sad smile, so often there, now seemed to glimmer

from its obscurity, and linger on Father Hooper's lips.

"Why do you tremble at me alone?" cried he, turning his veiled face round the

circle of pale spectators. "Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me, and women

shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What, but the

mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crape so awful? When the

friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does

not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his

sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look

around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!"

While his auditors shrank from one another, in mutual affright, Father Hooper

fell back upon his pillow, a veiled corpse, with a faint smile lingering on the lips. Still

veiled, they laid him in his coffin, and a veiled corpse they bore him to the grave. The

grass of many years has sprung up and withered on that grave, the burial stone is moss-

grown, and good Mr. Hooper's face is dust; but awful is still the thought that it

mouldered beneath the Black Veil!

NOTE. Another clergyman in New England, Mr. Joseph Moody, of York, Maine,

who died about eighty years since, made himself remarkable by the same eccentricity

that is here related of the Reverend Mr. Hooper. In his case, however, the symbol had a

different import. In early life he had accidentally killed a beloved friend; and from that

day till the hour of his own death, he hid his face from men.



“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and “The Minister’s Black Veil” Handout

Activity 1: Analyzing a Prompt

Read the following prompt:

Jonathan Edwards’ sermon describes the sinful nature of his congregation in an attempt to convince them to change their ways. “The Minister’s Black Veil” is a parable by Nathaniel Hawthorne that illustrates sin and hypocrisy. Hawthorne, though he lived in the 1800s, set many of his stories in the time of his Puritan ancestors. Despite different methodology, both pieces provide insight into the Puritanical ideals upon which the United States was founded. Compare and contrast the meaning and style of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and “The Minister’s Black Veil.” How does each author convey his meaning to the reader? Which author’s style is more effective and why?

1.) Underline the two texts will you need to compare. 2.) Box the statement in the prompt that explains the subject of your comparison. 3.) As you read the texts, what kind of information will you need to identify to write your essay? __________________________________________________________________________________________

Activity Two: Guided Reading and Annotation of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

Read the selected paragraphs from Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” which is a famous sermon credited with sparking a religious revival. As you read, use the question in the right margin to guide your annotations.

(1) All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Every one lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail. They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the greater part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done. He does not intend to come to that place of torment; he says within himself, that he intends to take effectual care, and to order matters so for himself as not to fail.

Define the term in bold.

Highlight the central idea of

this paragraph.

(2) But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The greater part of those who heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to


hell; and it was not because they were not as wise as those who are now alive: it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If we could speak with them, and inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear about hell, ever to be the subjects of misery: we doubtless, should hear one and another reply, "No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself -- I thought my scheme good. I intended to take effectual care; but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and in that manner; it came as a thief -- Death outwitted me: God's wrath was too quick for me. Oh, my cursed foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do hereafter; and when I was saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction came upon me."

Why would Edwards use a

hypothetical example

(underlined portion)? What

is the consequent effect?

What idea is he trying to

communicate?

(3) God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment…. So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made to natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and manifest, that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction.


Highlight the central idea of

the paragraph.

4) So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.


Highlight examples of

strong diction and imagery.

What is the consequent

effect?

(5) The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons

in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you

that are out of Christ. --That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone,

is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames

of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have

nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing

between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of

God that holds you up.

Highlight Edwards’

statement of purpose.




effect?

What literary device does


he employ (underlined

portion), and what is the

effect?

(6) You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own pre-servation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it.

What pronoun does

Edwards repeat in this

paragraph? What effect

does this repetition have on

the piece?

7) Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God's enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are the black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff on the summer threshing floor.

Identify the literary devices

that are underlined and

their consequent effect.




effect?

(8) The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string,

and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is

nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any

promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being

made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great

change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all

Identify the literary device

that is underlined and its

consequent effect.


you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from

being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced

light and life, are in the hands of an angry God. However you may have

reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and

may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house

of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this

moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you

may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully

convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with

you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most

of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace

and safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for

peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.




effect?

(9) The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or

some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked:

his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing

else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you

in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the

most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely

more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his

hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be

ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you

was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep.

And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell

since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up. There is

no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat

here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked

manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to

be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.

(10) How awful are those words, Isa. 63:3, which are the words of the great

God. "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and

their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my

raiment." It is perhaps impossible to conceive of words that carry in them

greater manifestations of these three things, …contempt, and hatred, and

fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far from

Identify the literary device

that is underlined and its

consequent effect?




effect?

What allusion does

Edwards include in this

paragraph? What is its

effect?


pitying you in your doleful case, or showing you the least regard or favour,

that instead of that, he will only tread you under foot. And though he will

know that you cannot bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet

he will not regard that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he

will crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his

garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but he will

have you in the utmost contempt: no place shall be thought fit for you, but

under his feet to be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

(11) And you, young men, and young women, will you neglect this precious season which you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ? You especially have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will soon be with you as with those persons who spent all the precious days of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness and hardness.

How does Edwards use

rhetorical questions in this

paragraph? What is its

effect?

(12) And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God, who is now angry with you every day and every night? Will you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings?

How does Edwards use

rhetorical questions in this

paragraph and what is its

effect?

(13) Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed."

What is his final call to

action?

Activity Three: Purpose and Tone

1.) Using the tone words handout, write down words that characterize Edwards’ tone. Support your answer with evidence from the text.

2.) In your own words, write a statement that communicates Edwards’ overall purpose.

3.) How does Edwards appeal to his audience’s emotions? Do you think he is successful? Why or why not?

Activity Four: Guided Reading and Annotation of “The Minister’s Black Veil”

With your partner, read your new version of pages 1-3 of “The Minister’s Black Veil”.

Step One: Highlight words and phrases with connotative meanings or strong imagery. What patterns emerge? In the margins of your text, note the effects of these words and phrases.


Step Two: Highlight words or phrases with figurative meaning. Label figurative devices. What patterns emerge? In the margins of your text, note the effects of these words and phrases.

Step Three: Highlight any syntactical patterns and note the effect of these patterns in the margins of your text.

Step Four: Write a brief objective summary of the passage below.























Activity Five: Independent Analysis Questions

After reading, answer the following questions independently.

1.) What kind of minister is Parson Hooper? Use textual evidence to support your answer.

2.) How does the congregation respond to Parson Hooper’s veil? Why? Use textual evidence to support your answer.

3.) What is the narrator’s tone in this story? Use textual evidence to support your answer.

4.) What would you say is a possible central idea of this story?

Activity Six: Making Inferences and Writing Commentary

Using information found in both Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and in Nathaniel

Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,” complete the chart below in order to draw conclusions about each author’s

style. Compare Parson Hooper with Jonathan Edwards. Both are representative of Puritanical ministers, yet their

approaches with their congregations are very different. What language, details, or elements in each text most

contribute to their different styles and impact?

Category: You choose a category based on patterns of language, details, or elements in the text that most contribute to style and meaning.

Jonathan Edwards Parson Hooper

Inference: Textual Evidence:












Activity Seven: Writing a Thesis Statement for a Compare/ Contrast Essay

Like thesis statements for literary analysis papers, a thesis statement for a compare/ contrast essay answers the question of the writing prompt and expresses your position on or interpretation of a particular subject. However, compare/ contrast thesis statements need to include additional information to help your readers understand the direction of your essay.

In order to write a compare/ contrast thesis statement for this essay, you must include: ● the elements you are comparing ● a statement that evaluates the author’s style. Which author was more effective?

When writing your thesis statement, do not simply state that the two authors/ styles are alike or different. Instead, use your thesis statement to identify why the comparison is useful or important to understand. You want your readers to understand how comparing or contrasting these items helps them better understand the characters, tones, or themes of both literary works.

Now, look back at the prompt for your assignment (Activity One). Write your own thesis statement to answer the prompt. You can use the templates below to help you.

If you prefer Edwards’ style…

While I would characterize Hawthorne’s style as ______________________ and _____________________, (adjective) (adjective)

Jonathan Edwards ____________________________________ the reader’s understanding of Puritan ideals (changes, adapts, adjusts, modifies, challenges)

of religion by __________________________________________________________________________ (Explain Edwards’ purpose for his audience)

If you prefer Hawthorne’s style…

While I would characterize Jonathan Edwards as _____________________ and _______________________, (character trait) (character trait)

the character of Parson Hooper _____________________________ the reader’s understanding of Puritan (changes, adapts, adjusts, modifies, challenges)

ideals of religion by ______________________________________________________________________. (Explain Hawthorne’s purpose for his audience)


Activity Eight: Writing Introductions for Compare/ Contrast Essays

When writing compare/ contrast essays about a literature topic, you will want to follow some of the same organizational strategies for developing your introduction as you would follow when you write literary analysis papers. In your introduction, you will want to include some background information about the texts you are comparing and contrasting, as well as to provide reasons as to why the comparison is significant or how the comparison helps you understand the idea better.

● Background information (What is my subject?):

● What are you comparing/ contrasting? (Identify the titles and authors of the texts you are comparing/ contrasting.):

● What points of comparison will you use? (Identify the common categories from the texts.):

● What is your purpose for writing this essay? (In general, what will you be discussing in this essay?):

● Thesis statement (Why is the comparison significant?):

Use your answers to the questions above to create your introduction paragraph here:

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________


Activity Nine: Organizing and Developing a Comparison

When organizing your compare/ contrast essay, you first need to determine the categories, or points of comparison you will discuss. Next, you have to decide whether you are going to follow a block or point-by-point organizational strategy. In this essay, you are going to follow a point-by-point approach to organize your writing, which means that you will address both objects of your comparison in an alternating fashion.

Topic Statement: ___________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence (with lead-in) from Text 1 (Either “Sinners…” or “The Minister’s Black Veil”): __________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Commentary: __________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Commentary: __________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Assertion/ Transition: ________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence (with lead-in) from Text 2 (Either “Sinners…” or “The Minister’s Black Veil”): __________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Commentary: __________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Commentary: __________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Conclusion Sentence: While both texts describe __________________________, ___________________ (subject) (author)

_________________________ that _________________________________________________________. (indicates, reveals, demonstrates) (big thematic idea)

Following the same pattern, write on your own sheet of paper the next body paragraph that deals with an aspect of style.



Activity Ten: Writing a Conclusion for a Compare/ Contrast Essay

When writing conclusions for compare/ contrast essays, you want to avoid repeating the assertions or listing the similarities and differences you have already covered in your paper. Instead, focus on explaining what new connections readers can make between the two elements you are comparing. Why is one author’s style more effective than the other? Why is the relationship between these two ideas important? While conclusions do not need to be lengthy, they do need to tie together for readers the points of comparison made in the body paragraphs to the argument you presented in your thesis statement.

When thinking about your conclusion, consider the following questions:

● Are the elements you are comparing and contrasting more alike, or are their differences more important?

● Why is it important for readers to think about your comparison?

● What important or interesting conclusion can you draw about these texts now that you have looked at their similarities and differences?

Use your answers to the questions above to create your conclusion paragraph here:

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

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Tone Words1

Tone is the speaker’s attitude toward the subject of a text and is revealed through the author’s word choice,

organization, choice of detail, and sentence structure. The tone of a text impacts meaning. Your understanding of the

text, how you feel about the text, and how the text impacts you are all related to the tone.

The following are sample tone words, which can be used to describe the tone of a text.

Positive Tone Neutral Tone Negative Tone

● Eager, zealous

● Imaginative, fanciful, whimsical

● Humorous, playful, comical

● Respectful, admiring, approving

● Sincere

● Powerful, confident

● Complimentary, proud

● Calm, tranquil, peaceful

● Sentimental, nostalgic, wistful

● Excited, exuberant, exhilarated

● Happy, joyful, giddy, contented

● Conversational, informal

● Matter-of-fact

● Reflective

● Impartial, objective, indifferent

● Scholarly, instructive

● Practical, pragmatic

● Subdued, restrained, low-key

● Serious, formal, solemn

● Uncertain

● Straightforward, direct, candid

● Accusatory, pointed

● Cynical, bitter, biting, sharp

● Satirical, critical

● Condescending, arrogant, haughty

● Contemptuous, scornful

● Sarcastic, ironic, mocking, wry

● Silly, childish

● Sad, depressed, melancholy

● Angry, indignant, harsh

● Fearful, panicked, anxious

● Demanding, insistent, urgent

● Skeptical, dubious, questioning

● Pretentious, pompous

1 Adapted from

http://www.mhasd.k12.wi.us/cms/lib04/WI01001388/Centricity/Domain/123/Huge_list_of_tone_words_with_definitions.pdf

http://www.mhasd.k12.wi.us/cms/lib04/WI01001388/Centricity/Domain/123/Huge_list_of_tone_words_with_definitions.pdf


Fluency excerpts from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

Jonathan Edwards

Text Notes

Paragraph 19

But the foolish Children of Men miserably delude

themselves in their own Schemes, and in Confidence in their

own Strength and Wisdom; they trust to nothing but a

Shadow. The bigger Part of those who heretofore have lived

under the same Means of Grace, and are now dead, are

undoubtedly gone to Hell; and it was not because they were

not as wise as those who are now alive: it was not because

they did not lay out Matters as well for themselves to secure

their own escape. If we could speak with them, and inquire of

them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and

when they used to hear about Hell, ever to be the Subjects of

Misery: we doubtless, should hear one and another reply, "No,

I never intended to come here: I had laid out Matters

otherwise in my Mind; I thought I should contrive well for

myself -- I thought my Scheme good. I intended to take

effectual Care; but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look

for it at that Time, and in that Manner; it came as a Thief --

Death outwitted me: God's Wrath was too quick for me. Oh,

my cursed Foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing

myself with vain Dreams of what I would do hereafter; and

when I was saying, Peace and Safety, then sudden Destruction

came upon me."


Paragraph 22

So that, thus it is that natural Men are held in the Hand of God,

over the Pit of Hell; they have deserved the fiery Pit, and are already

sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his Anger is as great

towards them as to those that are actually suffering the Executions of the

fierceness of his Wrath in Hell, and they have done nothing in the least to

appease or abate that Anger, neither is God in the least bound by any

Promise to hold ‘em up one moment; the Devil is waiting for them, Hell is

gaping for them, the Flames gather and flash about them, and would fain

lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the Fire pent up in their own

Hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no Interest in any

Mediator, there are no Means within Reach that can be any Security to

them. In short, they have no Refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that

preserves them every Moment is the mere arbitrary Will, and

uncovenanted, unobliged Forbearance of an incensed God.



Rubric for Compare/ Contrast Essay

3 2 1 0

Reading and Understanding Text

● Shows full comprehension of ideas both explicit and inferential indicated by grade-level reading standards

● Accurate analysis and reasoning is demonstrated through ample textual evidence

● Shows comprehension of ideas indicated by grade-level reading standards

● Mostly accurate analysis and reasoning is demonstrated through adequate textual evidence

● Shows limited comprehension of ideas indicated by grade-level reading standards

● Minimally accurate analysis and reasoning is demonstrated through minimal textual evidence

● Shows no comprehension of ideas indicated by grade-level reading standards

● Inaccurate or no analysis and reasoning is demonstrated with little or no textual evidence

Writing about Text

● Addresses the prompt and introduces a topic or precise claim(s), distinguishing claim(s) from counterclaims

● Development is even and organized to make important connections and distinctions with relevant support2

● Language creates cohesion and clarifies relationships among ideas

● Formal and objective style and tone consistently demonstrate awareness of purpose and audience

● Addresses the prompt and states a topic or claim(s)

● Development is organized with some support and cohesion

● Language creates cohesion and links ideas

● Style and tone demonstrate awareness of purpose and audience

● Addresses the prompt and has an introduction

● Development and support are minimal

● Language links ideas ● Style and tone

demonstrate limited awareness of purpose or audience

● Does not address the prompt

● Lacks organization, is undeveloped, and does not provide support

● Language and style demonstrate no awareness of purpose or audience

Language Conventions

● Full command of conventions indicated by grade-level standards

● Few minor errors do not interfere with meaning

● Some command of conventions indicated by grade-level standards

● May have errors that occasionally interfere with meaning

● Limited command of conventions indicated by grade-level standards

● Errors often interfere with meaning

● No command of conventions indicated by grade-level standards

● Frequent and varied errors interfere with meaning

2 Support includes evidence, facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, other information and examples.


Conversation Stems for Class Discussion3

As you engage in class discussion, it is important to consider the other side, expressing understanding for those who

have a different point of view. To do this, you can insert a concession in your comments. You can also use the templates

in the chart to help frame your answers.

Concession Stems

● Although I grant that __, I still maintain that __. ● While it is true that __, it does not necessarily follow that __. ● On one hand I agree with X that __. But on the other hand, I insist that __. ● It cannot be denied that __; however, I believe__. ● Certainly…, but __. ● It goes without saying… ● Perhaps…, yet__.

TO DISAGREE TO AGREE--WITH A DIFFERENCE TO QUALIFY

● I think X is mistaken because she overlooks _____.

● X’s claim that _____ rests upon the questionable assumption that _____.

● I disagree with X’s view that _____ because in the text, _____.

● X contradicts herself. On the one hand, she argues _____. But on the other hand, she also says _____.

● By focusing on _____, X overlooks the deeper problem of _____.

● I agree that _____ because my experience _____ confirms it.

● X is surely right about _____ because, as she may not be aware, recent studies have shown that _____.

● X’s theory of _____ is extremely useful because it sheds insight on the difficult problem of _____.

● I agree that _____, a point that needs emphasizing since so many people believe _____.

● Those unfamiliar with this school of thought may be interested to know that it basically boils down to _____.

● Although I agree with X up to a point, I cannot accept his overall conclusion that _____.

● Although I disagree with much that X says, I fully endorse his final conclusion that _____.

● Though I concede that _____, I still insist that _____.

● X is right that _____, but I do not agree when she claims that _____.

● I am of two minds about X’s claim that _____. On the one hand I agree that _____. On the other hand, I’m not sure if _____.

3 They Say, I Say by Gerald Graff


excerpt from Democracy in America

Alexis de Tocqueville

Volume II, Chapter V:

“How Religion in the United States Avails Itself of Democratic Tendencies”

I HAVE shown in a preceding chapter that men cannot do without dogmatic belief,

and even that it is much to be desired that such belief should exist among them. I now

add that, of all the kinds of dogmatic belief, the most desirable appears to me to be

dogmatic belief in matters of religion; and this is a clear inference, even from no higher

consideration than the interests of this world.

There is hardly any human action, however particular it may be, that does not

originate in some very general idea men have conceived of the Deity, of his relation to

mankind, of the nature of their own souls, and of their duties to their fellow creatures.

Nor can anything prevent these ideas from being the common spring from which all the

rest emanates.

Men are therefore immeasurably interested in acquiring fixed ideas of God, of the

soul, and of their general duties to their Creator and their fellow men; for doubt on these

first principles would abandon all their actions to chance and would condemn them in

some way to disorder and impotence.

This, then, is the subject on which it is most important for each of us to have fixed

ideas; and unhappily it is also the subject on which it is most difficult for each of us, left to

himself, to settle his opinions by the sole force of his reason. None but minds singularly

free from the ordinary cares of life, minds at once penetrating, subtle, and trained by

thinking, can, even with much time and care, sound the depths of these truths that are so

necessary. And, indeed, we see that philosophers are themselves almost always

surrounded with uncertainties; that at every step the natural light which illuminates their

path grows dimmer and less secure, and that, in spite of all their efforts, they have


discovered as yet only a few conflicting notions, on which the mind of man has been

tossed about for thousands of years without every firmly grasping the truth or finding

novelty even in its errors. Studies of this nature are far above the average capacity of

men; and, even if the majority of mankind were capable of such pursuits, it is evident that

leisure to cultivate them would still be wanting. Fixed ideas about God and human nature

are indispensable to the daily practice of men's lives; but the practice of their lives

prevents them from acquiring such ideas.

The difficulty appears to be without a parallel. Among the sciences there are some

that are useful to the mass of mankind and are within its reach; others can be approached

only by the few and are not cultivated by the many, who require nothing beyond their

more remote applications: but the daily practice of the science I speak of is indispensable

to all, although the study of it is inaccessible to the greater number.

General ideas respecting God and human nature are therefore the ideas above all

others which it is most suitable to withdraw from the habitual action of private judgment

and in which there is most to gain and least to lose by recognizing a principle of authority.

The first object and one of the principal advantages of religion is to furnish to each of

these fundamental questions a solution that is at once clear, precise, intelligible, and

lasting, to the mass of mankind. There are religions that are false and very absurd, but it

may be affirmed that any religion which remains within the circle I have just traced,

without pretending to go beyond it (as many religions have attempted to do, for the

purpose of restraining on every side the free movement of the human mind ), imposes a

salutary restraint on the intellect; and it must be admitted that, if it does not save men in

another world, it is at least very conducive to their happiness and their greatness in this.

This is especially true of men living in free countries. When the religion of a

people is destroyed, doubt gets hold of the higher powers of the intellect and half

paralyzes all the others. Every man accustoms himself to having only confused and

changing notions on the subjects most interesting to his fellow creatures and himself. His

opinions are ill-defended and easily abandoned; and, in despair of ever solving by himself


the hard problems respecting the destiny of man, he ignobly submits to think no more

about them.

Such a condition cannot but enervate the soul, relax the springs of the will, and

prepare a people for servitude. Not only does it happen in such a case that they allow

their freedom to be taken from them; they frequently surrender it themselves. When

there is no longer any principle of authority in religion any more than in politics, men are

speedily frightened at the aspect of this unbounded independence. The constant agitation

of all surrounding things alarms and exhausts them. As everything is at sea in the sphere

of the mind, they determine at least that the mechanism of society shall be firm and fixed;

and as they cannot resume their ancient belief, they assume a master.

For my own part, I doubt whether man can ever support at the same time

complete religious independence and entire political freedom. And I am inclined to think

that if faith be wanting in him, he must be subject; and if he be free, he must believe.

Perhaps, however, this great utility of religions is still more obvious among nations

where equality of conditions prevails than among others. It must be acknowledged that

equality, which brings great benefits into the world, nevertheless suggests to men (as will

be shown hereafter ) some very dangerous propensities. It tends to isolate them from one

another, to concentrate every man's attention upon himself; and it lays open the soul to

an inordinate love of material gratification.

The greatest advantage of religion is to inspire diametrically contrary principles

There is no religion that does not place the object of man's desires above and beyond the

treasures of earth and that does not naturally raise his soul to regions far above those of

the senses. Nor is there any which does not impose on man some duties towards his kind

and thus draw him at times from the contemplation of himself. This is found in the most

false and dangerous religions.

Religious nations are therefore naturally strong on the very point on which

democratic nations are weak; this shows of what importance it is for men to preserve

their religion as their conditions become more equal.


I have neither the right nor the intention of examining the supernatural means

that God employs to infuse religious belief into the heart of man. I am at this moment

considering religions in a purely human point of view; my object is to inquire by what

means they may most easily retain their sway in the democratic ages upon which we are

entering.

It has been shown that at times of general culture and equality the human mind

consents only with reluctance to adopt dogmatic opinions and feels their necessity acutely

only in spiritual matters. This proves, in the first place, that at such times religions ought

more cautiously than at any other to confine themselves within their own precincts; for in

seeking to extend their power beyond religious matters, they incur a risk of not being

believed at all. The circle within which they seek to restrict the human intellect ought

therefore to be carefully traced, and beyond its verge the mind should be left entirely free

to its own guidance.

Mohammed professed to derive from Heaven, and has inserted in the Koran, not

only religious doctrines, but political maxims, civil and criminal laws, and theories of

science. The Gospel, on the contrary, speaks only of the general relations of men to God

and to each other, beyond which it inculcates and imposes no point of faith. This alone,

besides a thousand other reasons, would suffice to prove that the former of these

religions will never long predominate in a cultivated and democratic age, while the latter

is destined to retain its sway at these as at all other periods.

In continuation of this same inquiry I find that for religions to maintain their

authority, humanly speaking, in democratic ages, not only must they confine themselves

strictly within the circle of spiritual matters, but their power also will depend very much

on the nature of the belief they inculcate, on the external forms they assume, and on the

obligations they impose.

The preceding observation, that equality leads men to very general and very vast

ideas, is principally to be understood in respect to religion. Men who are similar and equal

in the world readily conceive the idea of the one God, governing every man by the same


laws and granting to every man future happiness on the same conditions. The idea of the

unity of mankind constantly leads them back to the idea of the unity of the Creator; while

on the contrary in a state of society where men are broken up into very unequal ranks,

they are apt to devise as many deities as there are nations, castes, classes, or families, and

to trace a thousand private roads to heaven.

It cannot be denied that Christianity itself has felt, to some extent, the influence

that social and political conditions exercise on religious opinions.

When the Christian religion first appeared upon earth, Providence, by whom the

world was doubtless prepared for its coming, had gathered a large portion of the human

race, like an immense flock, under the scepter of the Caesars. The men of whom this

multitude was composed were distinguished by numerous differences, but they had this

much in common: that they all obeyed the same laws, and that every subject was so weak

and insignificant in respect to the Emperor that all appeared equal when their condition

was contrasted with his. This novel and peculiar state of mankind necessarily predisposed

men to listen to the general truths that Christianity teaches, and may serve to explain the

facility and rapidity with which they then penetrated into the human mind. The

counterpart of this state of things was exhibited after the destruction of the Empire. The

Roman world being then, as it were, shattered into a thousand fragments, each nation

resumed its former individuality. A scale of ranks soon grew up in the bosom of these

nations; the different races were more sharply defined, and each nation was divided by

castes into several peoples. In the midst of this common effort, which seemed to be

dividing human society into as many fragments as possible, Christianity did not lose sight

of the leading general ideas that it had brought into the world. But it appeared,

nevertheless, to lend itself as much as possible to the new tendencies created by this

distribution of mankind into fractions. Men continue to worship one God, the Creator and

Preserver of all things; but every people, every city, and, so to speak, every man thought

to obtain some distinct privilege and win the favor of an especial protector near the

throne of grace. Unable to subdivide the Deity, they multiplied and unduly enhanced the


importance of his agents. The homage due to saints and angels became an almost

idolatrous worship for most Christians; and it might be feared for a moment that the

religion of Christ would retrograde towards the superstitions which it had overcome.

It seems evident that the more the barriers are removed which separate one

nation from another and one citizen from another, the stronger is the bent of the human

mind, as if by its own impulse, towards the idea of a single and all-powerful Being,

dispensing equal laws in the same manner to every man. In democratic ages, then, it is

particularly important not to allow the homage paid to secondary agents to be confused

with the worship due to the Creator alone. Another truth is no less clear, that religions

ought to have fewer external observances in democratic periods than at any others.

In speaking of philosophical method among the Americans I have shown that

nothing is more repugnant to the human mind in an age of equality than the idea of

subjection to forms. Men living at such times are impatient of figures; to their eyes,

symbols appear to be puerile artifices used to conceal or to set off truths that should

more naturally be bared to the light of day; they are unmoved by ceremonial observances

and are disposed to attach only a secondary importance to the details of public worship.

Those who have to regulate the external forms of religion in a democratic age

should pay a close attention to these natural propensities of the human mind in order not

to run counter to them unnecessarily.

I firmly believe in the necessity of forms, which fix the human mind in the

contemplation of abstract truths and aid it in embracing them warmly and holding them

with firmness. Nor do I suppose that it is possible to maintain a religion without external

observances; but, on the other hand, I am persuaded that in the ages upon which we are

entering it would be peculiarly dangerous to multiply them beyond measure, and that

they ought rather to be limited to as much as is absolutely necessary to perpetuate the

doctrine itself, which is the substance of religion, of which the ritual is only the form.1 A

religion which became more insistent in details, more inflexible, and more burdened with

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/ch1_05.htm#note1


small observances during the time that men became more equal would soon find itself

limited to a band of fanatic zealots in the midst of a skeptical multitude.

I anticipate the objection that, as all religions have general and eternal truths for

their object, they cannot thus shape themselves to the shifting inclinations of every age

without forfeiting their claim to certainty in the eyes of mankind. To this I reply again that

the principal opinions which constitute a creed, and which theologians call articles of

faith, must be very carefully distinguished from the accessories connected with them.

Religions are obliged to hold fast to the former, whatever be the peculiar spirit of the age;

but they should take good care not to bind themselves in the same manner to the latter at

a time when everything is in transition and when the mind, accustomed to the moving

pageant of human affairs, reluctantly allows itself to be fixed on any point. The

permanence of external and secondary things seems to me to have a chance of enduring

only when civil society is itself static; under any other circumstances I am inclined to

regard it as dangerous.

We shall see that of all the passions which originate in or are fostered by equality,

there is one which it renders peculiarly intense, and which it also infuses into the heart of

every man; I mean the love of well-being. The taste for well-being is the prominent and

indelible feature of democratic times.

It may be believed that a religion which should undertake to destroy so deep-

seated a passion would in the end be destroyed by it; and if it attempted to wean men

entirely from the contemplation of the good things of this world in order to devote their

faculties exclusively to the thought of another, it may be foreseen that the minds of men

would at length escape its grasp, to plunge into the exclusive enjoyment of present and

material pleasures.

The chief concern of religion is to purify, to regulate, and to restrain the excessive

and exclusive taste for well-being that men feel in periods of equality; but it would be an

error to attempt to overcome it completely or to eradicate it. Men cannot be cured of the


love of riches, but they may be persuaded to enrich themselves by none but honest

means.

This brings me to a final consideration, which comprises, as it were, all the others.

The more the conditions of men are equalized and assimilated to each other, the more

important is it for religion, while it carefully abstains from the daily turmoil of secular

affairs, not needlessly to run counter to the ideas that generally prevail or to the

permanent interests that exist in the mass of the people. For as public opinion grows to be

more and more the first and most irresistible of existing powers, the religious principle has

no external support strong enough to enable it long to resist its attacks. This is not less

true of a democratic people ruled by a despot than of a republic. In ages of equality kings

may often command obedience, but the majority always commands belief; to the

majority, therefore, deference is to be paid in whatever is not contrary to the faith.

I showed in the first Part of this work how the American clergy stand aloof from

secular affairs. This is the most obvious but not the only example of their self-restraint. In

America religion is a distinct sphere, in which the priest is sovereign, but out of which he

takes care never to go. Within its limits he is master of the mind; beyond them he leaves

men to themselves and surrenders them to the independence and instability that belong

to their nature and their age. I have seen no country in which Christianity is clothed with

fewer forms, figures, and observances than in the United States, or where it presents

more distinct, simple, and general notions to the mind. Although the Christians of America

are divided into a multitude of sects, they all look upon their religion in the same light.

This applies to Roman Catholicism as well as to the other forms of belief. There are no

Roman Catholic priests who show less taste for the minute individual observances, for

extraordinary or peculiar means of salvation, or who cling more to the spirit and less to

the letter of the law than the Roman Catholic priests of the United States. Nowhere is that

doctrine of the church which prohibits the worship reserved to God alone from being

offered to the saints more clearly inculcated or more generally followed. Yet the Roman

Catholics of America are very submissive and very sincere.


Another remark is applicable to the clergy of every communion. The American

ministers of the Gospel do not attempt to draw or to fix all the thoughts of man upon the

life to come; they are willing to surrender a portion of his heart to the cares of the

present, seeming to consider the goods of this world as important, though secondary,

objects. If they take no part themselves in productive labor, they are at least interested in

its progress and they applaud its results, and while they never cease to point to the other

world as the great object of the hopes and fears of the believer, they do not forbid him

honestly to court prosperity in this. Far from attempting to show that these things are

distinct and contrary to one another, they study rather to find out on what point they are

most nearly and closely connected.

All the American clergy know and respect the intellectual supremacy exercised by

the majority; they never sustain any but necessary conflicts with it. They take no share in

the altercations of parties, but they readily adopt the general opinions of their country

and their age, and they allow themselves to be borne away without opposition in the

current of feeling and opinion by which everything around them is carried along. They

endeavor to amend their contemporaries, but they do not quit fellowship with them.

Public opinion is therefore never hostile to them; it rather supports and protects them,

and their belief owes its authority at the same time to the strength which is its own and to

that which it borrows from the opinions of the majority.

Thus it is that by respecting all democratic tendencies not absolutely contrary to

herself and by making use of several of them for her own purposes, religion sustains a

successful struggle with that spirit of individual independence which is her most

dangerous opponent.

FOOTNOTES

1 In all religions there are some ceremonies that are inherent in the substance of

the faith itself, and in these nothing should on any account be changed. This is especially


the case with Roman Catholicism, in which the doctrine and the form are frequently so

closely united as to form but one point of belief.



Symbolism Chart

As you read The Scarlet Letter, complete the chart below. In the first column, list the symbols found in the

novel. In the second column, provide the proper citation information. (page number, paragraph number, etc.).

In the third column, describe the meaning of the symbols in the novel.

Symbol Citation Information Meaning


Character Development Chart Locate quotations or descriptions in The Scarlet Letter for the following characters, which reveal aspects of their personality and how they feel about the central

ideas and the events of the story.

Character Character Description Character Development How Character Development Reveals or

Connects to a Central Idea

Hester Prynne

Chillingworth


Dimmesdale

Pearl


excerpt from Democracy in America

Alexis de Tocqueville

Volume II, Chapter V:

“How Religion in the United States Avails Itself of Democratic Tendencies”

Instructions: With a partner, closely read de Toqueville’s Democracy in America excerpt. Using the steps below,

determine how de Toqueville appeals to his audience to convince them of his purpose.

● Step One: Draw a box around any words that you do not know, and use context clues or a dictionary to identify a

synonym for the boxed word. Write each synonym above the boxed words.

● Step Two: In the right column, write a summary for each paragraph of the text.

● Step Three: Highlight the central ideas of the text.

● Step Four: Complete the Claim Chart on page 12

● Step Five: After you have completed steps one through five, respond to the following using the frame below: How

does de Toqueville appeal to his audience to convince them of his purpose?

Frame: In Democracy in America Alexis de Toqueville argues ________________________________________

(His claim/ central idea)

by ______________________________________________________________________________________________

(How does de Toqueville structure his argument to prove it to be true?)

Text Summary

(1) I HAVE shown in a preceding chapter that men cannot do without dogmatic

belief, and even that it is much to be desired that such belief should exist among them.

I now add that, of all the kinds of dogmatic belief, the most desirable appears to me to

be dogmatic belief in matters of religion; and this is a clear inference, even from no

higher consideration than the interests of this world.

(2) There is hardly any human action, however particular it may be, that does

not originate in some very general idea men have conceived of the Deity, of his

relation to mankind, of the nature of their own souls, and of their duties to their

fellow creatures. Nor can anything prevent these ideas from being the common spring

from which all the rest emanates.


(3) Men are therefore immeasurably interested in acquiring fixed ideas of

God, of the soul, and of their general duties to their Creator and their fellow men; for

doubt on these first principles would abandon all their actions to chance and would

condemn them in some way to disorder and impotence.

(4) This, then, is the subject on which it is most important for each of us to

have fixed ideas; and unhappily it is also the subject on which it is most difficult for

each of us, left to himself, to settle his opinions by the sole force of his reason. None

but minds singularly free from the ordinary cares of life, minds at once penetrating,

subtle, and trained by thinking, can, even with much time and care, sound the depths

of these truths that are so necessary. And, indeed, we see that philosophers are

themselves almost always surrounded with uncertainties; that at every step the

natural light which illuminates their path grows dimmer and less secure, and that, in

spite of all their efforts, they have discovered as yet only a few conflicting notions, on

which the mind of man has been tossed about for thousands of years without every

firmly grasping the truth or finding novelty even in its errors. Studies of this nature are

far above the average capacity of men; and, even if the majority of mankind were

capable of such pursuits, it is evident that leisure to cultivate them would still be

wanting. Fixed ideas about God and human nature are indispensable to the daily

practice of men's lives; but the practice of their lives prevents them from acquiring

such ideas.

(5) The difficulty appears to be without a parallel. Among the sciences there

are some that are useful to the mass of mankind and are within its reach; others can

be approached only by the few and are not cultivated by the many, who require

nothing beyond their more remote applications: but the daily practice of the science I

speak of is indispensable to all, although the study of it is inaccessible to the greater

number.

(6) General ideas respecting God and human nature are therefore the ideas

above all others which it is most suitable to withdraw from the habitual action of


private judgment and in which there is most to gain and least to lose by recognizing a

principle of authority. The first object and one of the principal advantages of religion is

to furnish to each of these fundamental questions a solution that is at once clear,

precise, intelligible, and lasting, to the mass of mankind. There are religions that are

false and very absurd, but it may be affirmed that any religion which remains within

the circle I have just traced, without pretending to go beyond it (as many religions

have attempted to do, for the purpose of restraining on every side the free movement

of the human mind ), imposes a salutary restraint on the intellect; and it must be

admitted that, if it does not save men in another world, it is at least very conducive to

their happiness and their greatness in this.

(7) This is especially true of men living in free countries. When the religion of a

people is destroyed, doubt gets hold of the higher powers of the intellect and half

paralyzes all the others. Every man accustoms himself to having only confused and

changing notions on the subjects most interesting to his fellow creatures and himself.

His opinions are ill-defended and easily abandoned; and, in despair of ever solving by

himself the hard problems respecting the destiny of man, he ignobly submits to think

no more about them.

(8) Such a condition cannot but enervate the soul, relax the springs of the will,

and prepare a people for servitude. Not only does it happen in such a case that they

allow their freedom to be taken from them; they frequently surrender it themselves.

When there is no longer any principle of authority in religion any more than in politics,

men are speedily frightened at the aspect of this unbounded independence. The

constant agitation of all surrounding things alarms and exhausts them. As everything

is at sea in the sphere of the mind, they determine at least that the mechanism of

society shall be firm and fixed; and as they cannot resume their ancient belief, they

assume a master.

(9) For my own part, I doubt whether man can ever support at the same time

complete religious independence and entire political freedom. And I am inclined to


think that if faith be wanting in him, he must be subject; and if he be free, he must

believe.

(10) Perhaps, however, this great utility of religions is still more obvious

among nations where equality of conditions prevails than among others. It must be

acknowledged that equality, which brings great benefits into the world, nevertheless

suggests to men (as will be shown hereafter ) some very dangerous propensities. It

tends to isolate them from one another, to concentrate every man's attention upon

himself; and it lays open the soul to an inordinate love of material gratification.

(11) The greatest advantage of religion is to inspire diametrically contrary

principles There is no religion that does not place the object of man's desires above

and beyond the treasures of earth and that does not naturally raise his soul to regions

far above those of the senses. Nor is there any which does not impose on man some

duties towards his kind and thus draw him at times from the contemplation of

himself. This is found in the most false and dangerous religions.

(12) Religious nations are therefore naturally strong on the very point on

which democratic nations are weak; this shows of what importance it is for men to

preserve their religion as their conditions become more equal.

(13) I have neither the right nor the intention of examining the supernatural

means that God employs to infuse religious belief into the heart of man. I am at this

moment considering religions in a purely human point of view; my object is to inquire

by what means they may most easily retain their sway in the democratic ages upon

which we are entering.

(14) It has been shown that at times of general culture and equality the

human mind consents only with reluctance to adopt dogmatic opinions and feels their

necessity acutely only in spiritual matters. This proves, in the first place, that at such

times religions ought more cautiously than at any other to confine themselves within

their own precincts; for in seeking to extend their power beyond religious matters,

they incur a risk of not being believed at all. The circle within which they seek to


restrict the human intellect ought therefore to be carefully traced, and beyond its

verge the mind should be left entirely free to its own guidance.

(15) Mohammed professed to derive from Heaven, and has inserted in the

Koran, not only religious doctrines, but political maxims, civil and criminal laws, and

theories of science. The Gospel, on the contrary, speaks only of the general relations

of men to God and to each other, beyond which it inculcates and imposes no point of

faith. This alone, besides a thousand other reasons, would suffice to prove that the

former of these religions will never long predominate in a cultivated and democratic

age, while the latter is destined to retain its sway at these as at all other periods.

(16) In continuation of this same inquiry I find that for religions to maintain

their authority, humanly speaking, in democratic ages, not only must they confine

themselves strictly within the circle of spiritual matters, but their power also will

depend very much on the nature of the belief they inculcate, on the external forms

they assume, and on the obligations they impose.

(17) The preceding observation, that equality leads men to very general and

very vast ideas, is principally to be understood in respect to religion. Men who are

similar and equal in the world readily conceive the idea of the one God, governing

every man by the same laws and granting to every man future happiness on the same

conditions. The idea of the unity of mankind constantly leads them back to the idea of

the unity of the Creator; while on the contrary in a state of society where men are

broken up into very unequal ranks, they are apt to devise as many deities as there are

nations, castes, classes, or families, and to trace a thousand private roads to heaven.

(18) It cannot be denied that Christianity itself has felt, to some extent, the

influence that social and political conditions exercise on religious opinions.

(19) When the Christian religion first appeared upon earth, Providence, by

whom the world was doubtless prepared for its coming, had gathered a large portion

of the human race, like an immense flock, under the scepter of the Caesars. The men

of whom this multitude was composed were distinguished by numerous differences,


but they had this much in common: that they all obeyed the same laws, and that

every subject was so weak and insignificant in respect to the Emperor that all

appeared equal when their condition was contrasted with his. This novel and peculiar

state of mankind necessarily predisposed men to listen to the general truths that

Christianity teaches, and may serve to explain the facility and rapidity with which they

then penetrated into the human mind. The counterpart of this state of things was

exhibited after the destruction of the Empire. The Roman world being then, as it were,

shattered into a thousand fragments, each nation resumed its former individuality. A

scale of ranks soon grew up in the bosom of these nations; the different races were

more sharply defined, and each nation was divided by castes into several peoples. In

the midst of this common effort, which seemed to be dividing human society into as

many fragments as possible, Christianity did not lose sight of the leading general ideas

that it had brought into the world. But it appeared, nevertheless, to lend itself as

much as possible to the new tendencies created by this distribution of mankind into

fractions. Men continue to worship one God, the Creator and Preserver of all things;

but every people, every city, and, so to speak, every man thought to obtain some

distinct privilege and win the favor of an especial protector near the throne of grace.

Unable to subdivide the Deity, they multiplied and unduly enhanced the importance

of his agents. The homage due to saints and angels became an almost idolatrous

worship for most Christians; and it might be feared for a moment that the religion of

Christ would retrograde towards the superstitions which it had overcome.

(20) It seems evident that the more the barriers are removed which separate

one nation from another and one citizen from another, the stronger is the bent of the

human mind, as if by its own impulse, towards the idea of a single and all-powerful

Being, dispensing equal laws in the same manner to every man. In democratic ages,

then, it is particularly important not to allow the homage paid to secondary agents to

be confused with the worship due to the Creator alone. Another truth is no less clear,

that religions ought to have fewer external observances in democratic periods than at


any others.

(21) In speaking of philosophical method among the Americans I have shown

that nothing is more repugnant to the human mind in an age of equality than the idea

of subjection to forms. Men living at such times are impatient of figures; to their eyes,

symbols appear to be puerile artifices used to conceal or to set off truths that should

more naturally be bared to the light of day; they are unmoved by ceremonial

observances and are disposed to attach only a secondary importance to the details of

public worship.

(22) Those who have to regulate the external forms of religion in a democratic

age should pay a close attention to these natural propensities of the human mind in

order not to run counter to them unnecessarily.

(23) I firmly believe in the necessity of forms, which fix the human mind in the

contemplation of abstract truths and aid it in embracing them warmly and holding

them with firmness. Nor do I suppose that it is possible to maintain a religion without

external observances; but, on the other hand, I am persuaded that in the ages upon

which we are entering it would be peculiarly dangerous to multiply them beyond

measure, and that they ought rather to be limited to as much as is absolutely

necessary to perpetuate the doctrine itself, which is the substance of religion, of

which the ritual is only the form.1 A religion which became more insistent in details,

more inflexible, and more burdened with small observances during the time that men

became more equal would soon find itself limited to a band of fanatic zealots in the

midst of a skeptical multitude.

(24) I anticipate the objection that, as all religions have general and eternal

truths for their object, they cannot thus shape themselves to the shifting inclinations

of every age without forfeiting their claim to certainty in the eyes of mankind. To this I

reply again that the principal opinions which constitute a creed, and which

theologians call articles of faith, must be very carefully distinguished from the

accessories connected with them. Religions are obliged to hold fast to the former,

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/ch1_05.htm#note1


whatever be the peculiar spirit of the age; but they should take good care not to bind

themselves in the same manner to the latter at a time when everything is in transition

and when the mind, accustomed to the moving pageant of human affairs, reluctantly

allows itself to be fixed on any point. The permanence of external and secondary

things seems to me to have a chance of enduring only when civil society is itself static;

under any other circumstances I am inclined to regard it as dangerous.

(25) We shall see that of all the passions which originate in or are fostered by

equality, there is one which it renders peculiarly intense, and which it also infuses into

the heart of every man; I mean the love of well-being. The taste for well-being is the

prominent and indelible feature of democratic times.

(26) It may be believed that a religion which should undertake to destroy so

deep-seated a passion would in the end be destroyed by it; and if it attempted to

wean men entirely from the contemplation of the good things of this world in order to

devote their faculties exclusively to the thought of another, it may be foreseen that

the minds of men would at length escape its grasp, to plunge into the exclusive

enjoyment of present and material pleasures.

(27) The chief concern of religion is to purify, to regulate, and to restrain the

excessive and exclusive taste for well-being that men feel in periods of equality; but it

would be an error to attempt to overcome it completely or to eradicate it. Men

cannot be cured of the love of riches, but they may be persuaded to enrich

themselves by none but honest means.

(28) This brings me to a final consideration, which comprises, as it were, all

the others. The more the conditions of men are equalized and assimilated to each

other, the more important is it for religion, while it carefully abstains from the daily

turmoil of secular affairs, not needlessly to run counter to the ideas that generally

prevail or to the permanent interests that exist in the mass of the people. For as

public opinion grows to be more and more the first and most irresistible of existing

powers, the religious principle has no external support strong enough to enable it long


to resist its attacks. This is not less true of a democratic people ruled by a despot than

of a republic. In ages of equality kings may often command obedience, but the

majority always commands belief; to the majority, therefore, deference is to be paid

in whatever is not contrary to the faith.

(29) I showed in the first Part of this work how the American clergy stand

aloof from secular affairs. This is the most obvious but not the only example of their

self-restraint. In America religion is a distinct sphere, in which the priest is sovereign,

but out of which he takes care never to go. Within its limits he is master of the mind;

beyond them he leaves men to themselves and surrenders them to the independence

and instability that belong to their nature and their age. I have seen no country in

which Christianity is clothed with fewer forms, figures, and observances than in the

United States, or where it presents more distinct, simple, and general notions to the

mind. Although the Christians of America are divided into a multitude of sects, they all

look upon their religion in the same light. This applies to Roman Catholicism as well as

to the other forms of belief. There are no Roman Catholic priests who show less taste

for the minute individual observances, for extraordinary or peculiar means of

salvation, or who cling more to the spirit and less to the letter of the law than the

Roman Catholic priests of the United States. Nowhere is that doctrine of the church

which prohibits the worship reserved to God alone from being offered to the saints

more clearly inculcated or more generally followed. Yet the Roman Catholics of

America are very submissive and very sincere.

(30) Another remark is applicable to the clergy of every communion. The

American ministers of the Gospel do not attempt to draw or to fix all the thoughts of

man upon the life to come; they are willing to surrender a portion of his heart to the

cares of the present, seeming to consider the goods of this world as important,

though secondary, objects. If they take no part themselves in productive labor, they

are at least interested in its progress and they applaud its results, and while they

never cease to point to the other world as the great object of the hopes and fears of


the believer, they do not forbid him honestly to court prosperity in this. Far from

attempting to show that these things are distinct and contrary to one another, they

study rather to find out on what point they are most nearly and closely connected.

(31) All the American clergy know and respect the intellectual supremacy

exercised by the majority; they never sustain any but necessary conflicts with it. They

take no share in the altercations of parties, but they readily adopt the general

opinions of their country and their age, and they allow themselves to be borne away

without opposition in the current of feeling and opinion by which everything around

them is carried along. They endeavor to amend their contemporaries, but they do not

quit fellowship with them. Public opinion is therefore never hostile to them; it rather

supports and protects them, and their belief owes its authority at the same time to

the strength which is its own and to that which it borrows from the opinions of the

majority.

(32) Thus it is that by respecting all democratic tendencies not absolutely

contrary to herself and by making use of several of them for her own purposes,

religion sustains a successful struggle with that spirit of individual independence

which is her most dangerous opponent.

FOOTNOTES

1 In all religions there are some ceremonies that are inherent in the substance

of the faith itself, and in these nothing should on any account be changed. This is

especially the case with Roman Catholicism, in which the doctrine and the form are

frequently so closely united as to form but one point of belief.



Claim Chart

After reading the text, complete the chart below. In column one, identify each claim or point made in the order that it is made. In column two, describe how each claim or point is developed and refined by particular

phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or sections. In column three, identify the connections made between the claims.

Claim How the Claim is Developed Connections Between Claims


Setting Tracker

As you read The Scarlet Letter, complete the chart below. In the first column, list the setting found in the novel. In the second column, provide the

proper citation information. (page number, paragraph number, etc.). In the third column, list the characters and main events in the structure

scene. In the fourth column, describe what idea Hawthorne is communicating with this scene.

Setting Citation Description ● How is the setting described? Include text that describes the setting.

Central Idea ● What are the main actions in this setting? ● What characters are present here? ● How does this setting help convey a central idea of the text?

Prison Chapter 1 ● “The rust on the ponderous iron–work of its oaken door looked more antique than anything else in the New World...it seemed never to have known a youthful era. Before this ugly edifice… was a grass–plot, much overgrown with burdock, pig–weed, apple–pern, and such unsightly vegetation... “ (paragraph 2).

● But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose–bush...and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him.” (paragraph 2)

● This chapter introduces the Puritan lifestyle. It also contains a description of the prison and the rose-bush.

● Hawthorne describes the rose-bush as symbolizing, “... some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track...” (paragraph 3). It could symbolize Hester.

Scaffold Chapters 2-3

Hester’s Home/ Forest



Vocabulary Log

Page Unknown Word Word in Context Part of Speech and Definition

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.


Character Traits4

Able Accepting Adventurous Aggressive Ambitious Annoying Arrogant Articulate Awkward Boastful Bold Bossy Brave Busy Calm Careful Careless Cautious Cheerful Clever Clumsy Compassionate Conceited Confident Considerate Cooperative Courageous Creative Curious Daring Defiant Demanding Determined Devout Disagreeable Disgruntled Dreamy Eager Efficient Embarrassed

Energetic Excited Expert Fair Faithful Fancy Fighter Forgiving Free Friendly Friendly Frustrated Fun-loving Funny Generous Gentle Giving Gracious Grouchy Handsome Hard-working Helpful Honest Hopeful Humble Humorous Imaginative Impulsive Independent Intelligent Inventive Jealous Judgmental Keen Kind Knowledgeable Lazy Light-hearted Likeable Lively

Loving Loyal Manipulative Materialistic Mature Melancholy Merry Mischievous Naïve Nervous Noisy Obnoxious Opinionated Organized Outgoing Passive Patient Patriotic Personable Pitiful Plain Pleasant Pleasing Popular Prim Proper Proud Questioning Quiet Radical Realistic Rebellious Reflective Relaxed Reliable Religious Reserved Respectful Responsible Reverent

Rude Sad Sarcastic Self-confident Self-conscious Selfish Sensible Sensitive Serious Short Shy Silly Simple Smart Stable Strong Stubborn Studious Successful Tantalizing Tender Tense Thoughtful Thrilling Timid Tireless Tolerant Tough Tricky Trusting Understanding Unhappy Unique Unlucky Vain Warm Wild Willing Wise Witty

4 List adapted from http://www.ltl.appstate.edu/reading_resources/Character_Trait_Descriptive_Adjectives.htm

http://www.ltl.appstate.edu/reading_resources/Character_Trait_Descriptive_Adjectives.htm


Characterization in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Annotation Guide

Directions: Complete the following guided reading and annotation to support your analysis of character in The

Scarlet Letter.

Chapters Three and Four

Activity One: Read paragraphs 1-3 of Chapter 3 of The Scarlet Letter which focus on describing Chillingworth.

List connotative diction that reveals Chillingworth’s character:

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Looking at the connotative diction you highlighted, what kind of character is the author creating in

Chillingworth?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Activity Two: Look again at paragraphs 1-3 of chapter 3 of The Scarlet Letter.

Highlight in a different color figurative language used to describe Chillingworth.

Complete the following:

Hawthorne compares Chillingworth to ______________ in order to show that Chillingworth is

_____________________________________________________________________________. This

comparison shows this because _______________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________.

Activity Three: Review Chillingworth’s dialogue in chapters 3 and 4.

List details that reveal Chillingworth’s characters in this dialogue.


________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

List 2-3 character traits that you can infer Chillingworth possesses based on the textual evidence you identified

in the dialogue.

Chapter Six

Activity Four Read the first five paragraphs of Chapter 6 of The Scarlet Letter which focus on Pearl.

● Write the quote that reveals the meaning of Pearl’s name

_______________________________________________________________________

Activity Five: Fill the chart with words that Hawthorne uses to describe aspects of Pearl’s character.

Physical Description Behavioral Description

How does the contrast in Pearl’s physical and behavioral description develop her as a character?


Activity Six: Read paragraphs 7-9.

● List words and phrases that describe the setting.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

● List words and phrases that describe Pearl’s behavior in each setting.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Activity Seven: Respond to the following in 5-8 complete sentences: How does Hawthorne use Pearl’s

character to help develop settings in Chapter 6? What does this reveal about Pearl, Hester, and/ or Puritan

society?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Chapter Eight

Activity Eight: Read the last five paragraphs of Chapter 8 of The Scarlet Letter which focus on an interaction

between Mistress Hibbins and Hester Prynne.


Activity Nine: Fill the chart with connotative diction that Hawthorne uses to describe each woman.

Mistress Hibbins Hester Prynne

Complete the following:

In chapter 8 Hawthorne depicts Mistress Hibbins as ________________________________ and

Character trait

_________________ by describing her with words like _________________________________,

Character trait

______________________________, and _____________________________ while

Hester’s personality seems more ______________________________ and

Character trait

________________________________ because of the use of diction such as

Character trait

___________________________, ________________________,

and __________________________ describing her.

Activity Ten: Respond to the following in 5-8 complete sentences: What is Hawthorne’s purpose for including

Mistress Hibbins in the story. What does she represent?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________


__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________


“John Brown’s Speech to the Court at his Trial”

John Brown

I have, may it please the court, a few words to say. In the first place, I deny

everything but what I have all along admitted -- the design on my part to free the slaves. I

intended certainly to have made a clean thing of that matter, as I did last winter when I

went into Missouri and there took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side,

moved them through the country, and finally left them in Canada. I designed to have done

the same thing again on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intend murder,

or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slaves to rebellion, or to

make insurrection.

I have another objection; and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer such a

penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly

proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of the witnesses

who have testified in this case)--had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the

intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends--either father, mother,

brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class--and suffered and sacrificed what I

have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would

have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.

This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book

kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches

me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to

them. It teaches me, further, to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them."

I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say I am yet too young to understand that God

is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done--as I have

always freely admitted I have done--in behalf of His despised poor was not wrong, but

right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the

ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the


blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and

unjust enactments--I submit; so let it be done!

Let me say one word further.

I feel entirely satisfied with the treatment I have received on my trial. Considering

all the circumstances it has been more generous than I expected. But I feel no

consciousness of guilt. I have stated that from the first what was my intention and what

was not. I never had any design against the life of any person, nor any disposition to

commit treason, or excite slaves to rebel, or make any general insurrection. I never

encouraged any man to do so, but always discouraged any idea of that kind.

Let me say also a word in regard to the statements made by some of those

connected with me. I her it has been stated by some of them that I have induced them to

join me. But the contrary is true. I do not say this to injure them, but as regretting their

weakness. There is not one of them but joined me of his own accord, and the greater part

of them at their own expense. A number of them I never saw, and never had a word of

conversation with till the day they came to me; and that was for the purpose I have

stated.

Now I have done.



Chapter 14 Guided Analysis

Activity One

Reread Hester and Chillingworth’s conversation in chapter 14. Record details that explain Chillingworth’s revenge plan. __________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Activity Two

Fill in the chart with details and quotes from the text about Hester’s sin on the left and Chillingworth’s sin on

the write in order to compare the two.

Hester’s sin Chillingworth’s sin

Which sin is worse- Hester or Chillingworth’s? Why? Use the text to support your response.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________


Activity Three

Fill in the sentence stem to create a thesis statement, or claim, for your timed writing.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the character of __________________________ commits a

Hester or Chillingworth

greater sin than __________________________ because ________________________________________.

Hester or Chillingworth Why do you believe your chosen character’s sin is greater?

Additionally, your essay should include a counterclaim which addresses the opposing side of your position. This

is generally included in your body paragraph.

While some may believe __________________ is more to blame because __________________________,

Hester or Chillingworth Why might people believe the other side?

actually _________________________ is more to blame because ________________________________.

Hester or Chillingworth Why is your side despite this?

Activity Four

Compose a response to the following prompt in the time allotted in class:

Consider who is most to blame- Hester or Chillingworth- for their current state of affairs. Whose sin is

worse- Hester for cheating on her husband and not revealing her fellow adulterer, or Chillingworth for

letting revenge control his heart and taking advantage of Dimmesdale? Make a claim and use evidence from

chapter 14 as well as other parts of the text as evidence to support your claim.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________


__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________


Annotation Guide “John Brown’s Speech to the Court at his Trial”

John Brown Activity One: Follow the instructions to complete a guided reading of the text.

I have, may it please the court, a few words to say. In the first place, I deny

everything but what I have all along admitted -- the design on my part to free the

slaves. I intended certainly to have made a clean thing of that matter, as I did last

winter when I went into Missouri and there took slaves without the snapping of a gun

on either side, moved them through the country, and finally left them in Canada. I

designed to have done the same thing again on a larger scale. That was all I intended.

I never did intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or

incite slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection.

Define the words in bold. Highlight Brown’s claim and underline his support for his claim. Highlight em dash (--) in this paragraph. How do the phrases following the dash relate to the first part of the sentence? Circle the use of the word intend/ intended. What is the effect of the repetition of these words?

I have another objection; and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer such a

penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been

fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of the

witnesses who have testified in this case)--had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the

powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends--either

father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class--and suffered and

sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man

in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.

Highlight Brown’s claim and underline his support for his claim. Highlight em dash (--) in this paragraph. How does Brown’s use of this structure affect the variety and fluency of his sentences? Circle the use of the word interfered/interference. What is the effect of the repetition of these words?

This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a

book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That

teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do

Define the word in bold. Highlight Brown’s claim and underline his support for his claim.


even so to them. It teaches me, further, to "remember them that are in bonds, as

bound with them." I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say I am yet too young

to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered

as I have done--as I have always freely admitted I have done--in behalf of His despised

poor was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my

life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the

blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights

are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments--I submit; so let it be done!

Highlight em dash (--) in this paragraph. What is the effect of this structure? How do the claims of the first 3 paragraphs relate?

Let me say one word further.

I feel entirely satisfied with the treatment I have received on my trial.

Considering all the circumstances it has been more generous than I expected. But I feel

no consciousness of guilt. I have stated that from the first what was my intention and

what was not. I never had any design against the life of any person, nor any disposition

to commit treason, or excite slaves to rebel, or make any general insurrection. I never

encouraged any man to do so, but always discouraged any idea of that kind.

Highlight Brown’s claim and underline his support for his claim. How do the claims of the first 4 paragraphs relate?

Let me say also a word in regard to the statements made by some of those

connected with me. I hear it has been stated by some of them that I have induced

them to join me. But the contrary is true. I do not say this to injure them, but as

regretting their weakness. There is not one of them but joined me of his own accord,

and the greater part of them at their own expense. A number of them I never saw, and

never had a word of conversation with till the day they came to me; and that was for

the purpose I have stated.

Now I have done.


Highlight Brown’s claim and underline his support for his claim. How do the claims interact over the course of the text?


Activity Two: Read through the text again. Highlight Brown’s use of ethical (ethos), logical (logos), and emotional

(pathos) appeals.

Activity Three: Answer the following questions to further analyze Brown’s argument.

● What is Brown’s central claim? Use textual evidence to support your response.

● How does he use logic and reasoning to develop this claim? Use textual evidence to support your response.

● How does the use of rhetorical appeals help Brown further his main idea or claim? Use textual evidence to support your response.


Discussion Tracker

Fill in student names prior to discussion. Use space in tracker to capture your notes about each student’s participation

and knowledge. Evaluate individual students on the following elements:

Student Name:

Came to discussion having read text & refers to evidence from text in probing/reflection of ideas

Poses questions that elicit elaboration and responds to others’ questions/comments w/relevant observations

Acknowledges new information expressed by others & modifies own view, if warranted


Chapter 20 Post Reading Handout

Directions: Reread Chapter 20 of The Scarlet Letter with a partner and answer the following questions.

1. Fill in the timeline with Dimmesdale’s main actions in this chapter.

● Dimmesdale leaves the forest, looking behind as he walks away and thinking of Hester and Pearl.

● ___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

● ___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

● ___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

● ___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

● ___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

● ___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

● ___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

● ___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

● Dimmesdale throws his election sermon in the fire and begins writing a new one.

2. Dimmesdale moves a lot in this chapter. In the chart, first right down all the settings Dimmesdale inhabits.

Then make notes as to his mental state in each setting.

Setting Mental State


How does Hawthorne develop settings in this chapter to convey a central idea? Use the text to support your

response.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Consider the transformation unfolding in Dimmesdale. What events illustrate his internal struggle? Use

textual evidence to support your response.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is the significance of Mistress Hibbins’s conversation with him? Use textual evidence to support your

response.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. In The Scarlet Letter, how does the Puritan society’s definition of “sin” influence/ affect Dimmesdale? Hester?

How does this convey a central idea of the text?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. How do the events of chapter 20 demonstrate the interaction of hypocrisy and conformity in The Scarlet

Letter? What does Hawthorne seem to be saying about this interaction?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________


Post Reading Questions

1. Review the events that close out the story; analyze the actions and motivations of the characters (e.g.,

Dimmesdale’s final sermon, Pearl’s transformation, Chillingworth leaving his fortune, and Hester

returning to the village.) How do the events of the story help convey a central idea of the text?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Hawthorne specifically addresses the meaning of Pearl’s name. What meaning can you gather about

the other names he uses in this text? How do the meanings of the names correlate with or contradict

the characters? How does this convey central ideas of the text?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Compare and contrast the struggles for redemption that Hester and Dimmesdale endure throughout

the course of The Scarlet Letter. What do their struggles reveal about their character? What does this

reveal about Hawthorne’s central ideas?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Consider the many symbols Hawthorne develops in The Scarlet Letter (e.g. the scarlet letter, the prison

rosebush, Pearl, the meteor, etc.) How do these symbols help further Hawthorne’s central ideas?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________


Culminating Writing Task

Activity One: Analyzing the Prompt

How do Hawthorne’s choices in character development, setting development, and the structure of events

contribute to the development of two central ideas of The Scarlet Letter?

Write a literary analysis to support your claims in answer to the question. Be sure to use appropriate

transitions and varied syntax, grade-appropriate language and a formal style, including proper grammar,

conventions, and spelling. Provide strong and thorough textual evidence that is integrated while maintaining

the flow of ideas and including proper citation.

1. What kind of prompt is this? What will you need to have in an essay that responds to the prompt?

List central ideas of the text:

2.Briefly, outline a few examples of character development.

Which example develops a central idea most? Why?

3. Briefly, outline a few examples of setting development.


4. Briefly, outline the structure of events.



5. What are the central ideas of the novel?

Activity Two: Writing a Claim

Use the template below to write a working claim statement.

The development of characters, setting, and plot in The Scarlet Letter are conveyed through

____________________________________ , ____________________________________, and (focus of character development paragraph) (focus of setting development paragraph)

_____________________________ to _____________________________ how

(focus of plot structure paragraph) (rhetorically accurate verb)

_____________________________________________________________________________.

(2 central ideas)


Activity Three: Topic Sentences for Body Paragraphs

The topic sentences should be precise claims. Use the templates below to help you organize your ideas.

Topic Sentence #1

Hawthorne conveys the central idea that _________________________________________ (central idea/s)

by/ through _______________________________________________________________. (focus of character development paragraph)

Topic Sentence #2

Through __________________________________________________________________ (focus of setting development paragraph)

Hawthorne ______________________________ how (rhetorically accurate verb)

__________________________________________________________________________________. (central idea/s)

Topic Sentence #3

The ____________________________________ further ______________________________ (focus of plot structure paragraph) (rhetorically accurate verb)

_________________________________________________________________________. (central idea/s)


Activity Four: Choosing Evidence

For this essay, you must choose multiple pieces of evidence to use in each paragraph. Complete the graphic

organizer below to help you outline the order in which you will present your evidence. Remember to cite your

evidence using MLA format.

Paragraph # Evidence + Citation How does this evidence develop a central idea?

1 (character

development)

2

(setting development)

3 (plot structure)


Wisconsin v. Yoder (No. 70-110)

Supreme Court of the United States

Syllabus

Respondents, members of the Old Order Amish religion and the Conservative

Amish Mennonite Church, were convicted of violating Wisconsin's compulsory school

attendance law (which requires a child's school attendance until age 16) by declining to

send their children to public or private school after they had graduated from the eighth

grade. The evidence showed that the Amish provide continuing informal vocational

education to their children designed to prepare them for life in the rural Amish

community. The evidence also showed that respondents sincerely believed that high

school attendance was contrary to the Amish religion and way of life, and that they

would endanger their own salvation and that of their children by complying with the law.

The State Supreme Court sustained respondents' claim that application of the

compulsory school attendance law to them violated their rights under the Free Exercise

Clause of the First Amendment, made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth

Amendment.

Held:

1. The State's interest in universal education is not totally free from a balancing

process when it impinges on other fundamental rights, such as those specifically

protected by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the traditional interest

of parents with respect to the religious upbringing of their children. Pp. 213-215.

2. Respondents have amply supported their claim that enforcement of the

compulsory formal education requirement after the eighth grade would gravely

endanger if not destroy the free exercise of their religious beliefs. Pp. 215-219

3. Aided by a history of three centuries as an identifiable religious sect and a long

history as a successful and self-sufficient segment of American society, the Amish have

demonstrated the sincerity of their religious beliefs, the interrelationship of belief with

their mode of life, the vital role that belief and daily conduct play in the continuing


survival of Old Order Amish communities, and the hazards presented by the State's

enforcement of a statute generally valid as to others. Beyond this, they have

[p206] carried the difficult burden of demonstrating the adequacy of their alternative

mode of continuing informal vocational education in terms of the overall interest that

the State relies on in support of its program of compulsory high school education. In light

of this showing, and weighing the minimal difference between what the State would

require and what the Amish already accept, it was incumbent on the State to show with

more particularity how its admittedly strong interest in compulsory education would be

adversely affected by granting an exemption to the Amish. Pp. 212-29, 234-236.

4. The State's claim that it is empowered, as parens patriae, to extend the benefit

of secondary education to children regardless of the wishes of their parents cannot be

sustained against a free exercise claim of the nature revealed by this record, for the

Amish have introduced convincing evidence that accommodating their religious

objections by forgoing one or two additional years of compulsory education will not

impair the physical or mental health of the child, or result in an inability to be self-

supporting or to discharge the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, or in any other

way materially detract from the welfare of society. Pp. 229-234.

49 Wis.2d 430, 182 N.W.2d 539, affirmed.

BURGER, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BRENNAN, STEWART,

WHITE, MARSHALL, and BLACKMUN, JJ., joined. STEWART, J., filed a concurring opinion,

in which BRENNAN, J., joined, post, p. 237. WHITE, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which

BRENNAN and STEWART, JJ., joined, post, p. 237. DOUGLAS, J., filed an opinion dissenting

in part, post, p. 241. POWELL and REHNQUIST, JJ., took no part in the consideration or

decision of the case. [p207]

TOP

Opinion

BURGER, J., Opinion of the Court

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE BURGER delivered the opinion of the Court.


On petition of the State of Wisconsin, we granted the writ of certiorari in this

case to review a decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court holding that respondents'

convictions of violating the State's compulsory school attendance law were invalid under

the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, made

applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment. For the reasons hereafter stated,

we affirm the judgment of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Respondents Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller are members of the Old Order

Amish religion, and respondent Adin Yutzy is a member of the Conservative Amish

Mennonite Church. They and their families are residents of Green County, Wisconsin.

Wisconsin's compulsory school attendance law required them to cause their children to

attend public or private school until reaching age 16, but the respondents declined to

send their children, ages 14 and 15, to public school after they completed the eighth

grade. [n1] The children were not enrolled in any private school, or within any

recognized exception to the compulsory attendance law, [n2] and they are conceded to

be subject to the Wisconsin statute. [p208]

On complaint of the school district administrator for the public schools,

respondents were charged, tried, and convicted of violating the compulsory attendance

law in Green County Court, and were fined the sum of $5 each. [n3] Respondents

defended on the ground that the application [p209] of the compulsory attendance law

violated their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. [n4] The trial

testimony showed that respondents believed, in accordance with the tenets of Old Order

Amish communities generally, that their children's attendance at high school, public or

private, was contrary to the Amish religion and way of life. They believed that, by sending

their children to high school, they would not only expose themselves to the danger of the

censure of the church community, but, as found by the county court, also endanger their

own salvation and that of their children. The State stipulated that respondents' religious

beliefs were sincere.

In support of their position, respondents presented as expert witnesses scholars

on religion and education whose testimony is uncontradicted. They expressed their


opinions on the relationship of the Amish belief concerning school attendance to the

more general tenets of their religion, and described the impact that compulsory high

school attendance could have on the continued survival of Amish communities as they

exist in the United States today. The history of the Amish [p210] sect was given in some

detail, beginning with the Swiss Anabaptists of the 16th century, who rejected

institutionalized churches and sought to return to the early, simple, Christian life

deemphasizing material success, rejecting the competitive spirit, and seeking to insulate

themselves from the modern world. As a result of their common heritage, Old Order

Amish communities today are characterized by a fundamental belief that salvation

requires life in a church community separate and apart from the world and worldly

influence. This concept of life aloof from the world and its values is central to their faith.

A related feature of Old Order Amish communities is their devotion to a life in

harmony with nature and the soil, as exemplified by the simple life of the early Christian

era that continued in America during much of our early national life. Amish beliefs

require members of the community to make their living by farming or closely related

activities. Broadly speaking, the Old Order Amish religion pervades and determines the

entire mode of life of its adherents. Their conduct is regulated in great detail by the

Ordnung, or rules, of the church community. Adult baptism, which occurs in late

adolescence, is the time at which Amish young people voluntarily undertake heavy

obligations, not unlike the Bar Mitzvah of the Jews, to abide by the rules of the church

community. [n5]

Amish objection to formal education beyond the eighth grade is firmly grounded

in these central religious concepts. They object to the high school, and higher education

generally, because the values they teach [p211] are in marked variance with Amish

values and the Amish way of life; they view secondary school education as an

impermissible exposure of their children to a "worldly" influence in conflict with their

beliefs. The high school tends to emphasize intellectual and scientific accomplishments,

self-distinction, competitiveness, worldly success, and social life with other students.

Amish society emphasizes informal "learning through doing;" a life of "goodness," rather


than a life of intellect; wisdom, rather than technical knowledge; community welfare,

rather than competition; and separation from, rather than integration with,

contemporary worldly society.

Formal high school education beyond the eighth grade is contrary to Amish

beliefs not only because it places Amish children in an environment hostile to Amish

beliefs, with increasing emphasis on competition in class work and sports and with

pressure to conform to the styles, manners, and ways of the peer group, but also

because it takes them away from their community, physically and emotionally, during the

crucial and formative adolescent period of life. During this period, the children must

acquire Amish attitudes favoring manual work and self-reliance and the specific skills

needed to perform the adult role of an Amish farmer or housewife. They must learn to

enjoy physical labor. Once a child has learned basic reading, writing, and elementary

mathematics, these traits, skills, and attitudes admittedly fall within the category of

those best learned through example and "doing," rather than in a classroom. And, at this

time in life, the Amish child must also grow in his faith and his relationship to the Amish

community if he is to be prepared to accept the heavy obligations imposed by adult

baptism. In short, high school attendance with teachers who are not of the Amish faith --

and may even be hostile to it -- interposes a serious barrier to the integration of the

Amish child into [p212] the Amish religious community. Dr. John Hostetler, one of the

experts on Amish society, testified that the modern high school is not equipped, in

curriculum or social environment, to impart the values promoted by Amish society.

The Amish do not object to elementary education through the first eight grades

as a general proposition, because they agree that their children must have basic skills in

the "three R's" in order to read the Bible, to be good farmers and citizens, and to be able

to deal with non-Amish people when necessary in the course of daily affairs. They view

such a basic education as acceptable because it does not significantly expose their

children to worldly values or interfere with their development in the Amish community

during the crucial adolescent period. While Amish accept compulsory elementary

education generally, wherever possible. they have established their own elementary


schools, in many respects like the small local schools of the past. In the Amish belief,

higher learning tends to develop values they reject as influences that alienate man from

God.

On the basis of such considerations, Dr. Hostetler testified that compulsory high

school attendance could not only result in great psychological harm to Amish children,

because of the conflicts it would produce, but would also, in his opinion, ultimately result

in the destruction of the Old Order Amish church community as it exists in the United

States today. The testimony of Dr. Donald A. Erickson, an expert witness on education,

also showed that the Amish succeed in preparing their high school age children to be

productive members of the Amish community. He described their system of learning

through doing the skills directly relevant to their adult roles in the Amish community as

"ideal," and perhaps superior to ordinary high school education. The evidence also

showed that the Amish have an excellent [p213] record as law-abiding and generally

self-sufficient members of society.

Although the trial court, in its careful findings, determined that the Wisconsin

compulsory school attendance law, "does interfere with the freedom of the Defendants

to act in accordance with their sincere religious belief," it also concluded that the

requirement of high school attendance until age 16 was a "reasonable and

constitutional" exercise of governmental power, and therefore denied the motion to

dismiss the charges. The Wisconsin Circuit Court affirmed the convictions. The Wisconsin

Supreme Court, however, sustained respondents' claim under the Free Exercise Clause of

the First Amendment, and reversed the convictions. A majority of the court was of the

opinion that the State had failed to make an adequate showing that its interest in

"establishing and maintaining an educational system overrides the defendants' right to

the free exercise of their religion." 49 Wis.2d 430, 447, 182 N.W.2d 539, 547 (1971).

I

There is no doubt as to the power of a State, having a high responsibility for

education of its citizens, to impose reasonable regulations for the control and duration of

basic education. See, e.g., Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 534 (1925). Providing


public schools ranks at the very apex of the function of a State. Yet even this paramount

responsibility was, in Pierce, made to yield to the right of parents to provide an

equivalent education in a privately operated system. There, the Court held that Oregon's

statute compelling attendance in a public school from age eight to age 16 unreasonably

interfered with the interest of parents in directing the rearing of their offspring, including

their education in church-operated schools. As that case suggests, the values of parental

direction of the religious upbringing [p214] and education of their children in their early

and formative years have a high place in our society. See also Ginsberg v. New York, 390

U.S. 629, 639 (1968); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923); cf. Rowan v. Post Office

Dept., 397 U.S. 728 (1970). Thus, a State's interest in universal education, however highly

we rank it, is not totally free from a balancing process when it impinges on fundamental

rights and interests, such as those specifically protected by the Free Exercise Clause of

the First Amendment, and the traditional interest of parents with respect to the religious

upbringing of their children so long as they, in the words of Pierce, "prepare [them] for

additional obligations." 268 U.S. at 535.

It follows that, in order for Wisconsin to compel school attendance beyond the

eighth grade against a claim that such attendance interferes with the practice of a

legitimate religious belief, it must appear either that the State does not deny the free

exercise of religious belief by its requirement or that there is a state interest of sufficient

magnitude to override the interest claiming protection under the Free Exercise Clause.

Long before there was general acknowledgment of the need for universal formal

education, the Religion Clauses had specifically and firmly fixed the right to free exercise

of religious beliefs, and buttressing this fundamental right was an equally firm, even if

less explicit, prohibition against the establishment of any religion by government. The

values underlying these two provisions relating to religion have been zealously protected,

sometimes even at the expense of other interests of admittedly high social importance.

The invalidation of financial aid to parochial schools by government grants for a salary

subsidy for teachers is but one example of the extent to which courts have gone in this

regard, notwithstanding that such aid programs were legislatively determined to be in


the public interest and the service of sound educational policy by States and by Congress.

Lemon v. [p215] Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971); Tilton v. Richardson, 403 U.S. 672

(1971). See also Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 18 (1947).

The essence of all that has been said and written on the subject is that only those

interests of the highest order and those not otherwise served can overbalance legitimate

claims to the free exercise of religion. We can accept it as settled, therefore, that,

however strong the State's interest in universal compulsory education, it is by no means

absolute to the exclusion or subordination of all other interests. E.g., Sherbert v. Verner,

374 U.S. 398 (1963); McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 459 (1961) (separate opinion

of Frankfurter, J.); Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, 165 (1944).

II

We come then to the quality of the claims of the respondents concerning the

alleged encroachment of Wisconsin's compulsory school attendance statute on their

rights and the rights of their children to the free exercise of the religious beliefs they and

their forebears have adhered to for almost three centuries. In evaluating those claims,

we must be careful to determine whether the Amish religious faith and their mode of life

are, as they claim, inseparable and interdependent. A way of life, however virtuous and

admirable, may not be interposed as a barrier to reasonable state regulation of

education if it is based on purely secular considerations; to have the protection of the

Religion Clauses, the claims must be rooted in religious belief. Although a determination

of what is a "religious" belief or practice entitled to constitutional protection may present

a most delicate question, [n6] the very concept of ordered liberty precludes

[p216] allowing every person to make his own standards on matters of conduct in which

society as a whole has important interests. Thus, if the Amish asserted their claims

because of their subjective evaluation and rejection of the contemporary secular values

accepted by the majority, much as Thoreau rejected the social values of his time and

isolated himself at Walden Pond, their claims would not rest on a religious basis.

Thoreau's choice was philosophical and personal, rather than religious, and such belief

does not rise to the demands of the Religion Clauses.


Giving no weight to such secular considerations, however, we see that the record

in this case abundantly supports the claim that the traditional way of life of the Amish is

not merely a matter of personal preference, but one of deep religious conviction, shared

by an organized group, and intimately related to daily living. That the Old Order Amish

daily life and religious practice stem from their faith is shown by the fact that it is in

response to their literal interpretation of the Biblical injunction from the Epistle of Paul to

the Romans, "be not conformed to this world. . . ." This command is fundamental to the

Amish faith. Moreover, for the Old Order Amish, religion is not simply a matter of

theocratic belief. As the expert witnesses explained, the Old Order Amish religion

pervades and determines virtually their entire way of life, regulating it with the detail of

the Talmudic diet through the strictly enforced rules of the church community.

The record shows that the respondents' religious beliefs and attitude toward life,

family, and home have remained constant -- perhaps some would say static -- in a period

of unparalleled progress in human knowledge generally and great changes in

education. [n7] The respondents [p217] freely concede, and indeed assert as an article

of faith, that their religious beliefs and what we would today call "lifestyle" have not

altered in fundamentals for centuries. Their way of life in a church-oriented community,

separated from the outside world and "worldly" influences, their attachment to nature,

and the soil, is a way inherently simple and uncomplicated, albeit difficult to preserve

against the pressure to conform. Their rejection of telephones, automobiles, radios, and

television, their mode of dress, of speech, their habits of manual work do indeed set

them apart from much of contemporary society; these customs are both symbolic and

practical.

As the society around the Amish has become more populous, urban,

industrialized, and complex, particularly in this century, government regulation of human

affairs has correspondingly become more detailed and pervasive. The Amish mode of life

has thus come into conflict increasingly with requirements of contemporary society

exerting a hydraulic insistence on conformity to majoritarian standards. So long as

compulsory education laws were confined to eight grades of elementary basic education


imparted in a nearby rural schoolhouse, with a large proportion of students of the Amish

faith, the Old Order Amish had little basis to fear that school attendance would expose

their children to the worldly influence they reject. But modern compulsory secondary

education in rural areas is now largely carried on in a consolidated school, often remote

from the student's home and alien to his daily home life. As the record so strongly shows,

the values and programs of the modern secondary school are in sharp conflict with the

fundamental mode of life mandated by the Amish religion; modern laws requiring

compulsory secondary education have accordingly engendered great concern and

conflict. [n8] [p218] The conclusion is inescapable that secondary schooling, by

exposing Amish children to worldly influences in terms of attitudes, goals, and values

contrary to beliefs, and by substantially interfering with the religious development of the

Amish child and his integration into the way of life of the Amish faith community at the

crucial adolescent stage of development, contravenes the basic religious tenets and

practice of the Amish faith, both as to the parent and the child.

The impact of the compulsory attendance law on respondents' practice of the

Amish religion is not only severe, but inescapable, for the Wisconsin law affirmatively

compels them, under threat of criminal sanction, to perform acts undeniably at odds with

fundamental tenets of their religious beliefs. See Braunfeld v. Brown, 366 U.S. 599, 605

(1961). Nor is the impact of the compulsory attendance law confined to grave

interference with important Amish religious tenets from a subjective point of view. It

carries with it precisely the kind of objective danger to the free exercise of religion that

the First Amendment was designed to prevent. As the record shows, compulsory school

attendance to age 16 for Amish children carries with it a very real threat of undermining

the Amish community and religious practice as they exist today; they must either

abandon belief and be assimilated into society at large or be forced to migrate to some

other and more tolerant region. [n9] [p219]

In sum, the unchallenged testimony of acknowledged experts in education and

religious history, almost 300 years of consistent practice, and strong evidence of a

sustained faith pervading and regulating respondents' entire mode of life support the


claim that enforcement of the State's requirement of compulsory formal education after

the eighth grade would gravely endanger, if not destroy, the free exercise of

respondents' religious beliefs.

III

Neither the findings of the trial court nor the Amish claims as to the nature of

their faith are challenged in this Court by the State of Wisconsin. Its position is that the

State's interest in universal compulsory formal secondary education to age 16 is so great

that it is paramount to the undisputed claims of respondents that their mode of

preparing their youth for Amish life, after the traditional elementary education, is an

essential part of their religious belief and practice. Nor does the State undertake to meet

the claim that the Amish mode of life and education is inseparable from and a part of the

basic tenets of their religion -- indeed, as much a part of their religious belief and

practices as baptism, the confessional, or a sabbath may be for others.

Wisconsin concedes that, under the Religion Clauses, religious beliefs are

absolutely free from the State's control, but it argues that "actions," even though

religiously grounded, are outside the protection of the First Amendment. [n10] But our

decisions have rejected the idea that [p220] religiously grounded conduct is always

outside the protection of the Free Exercise Clause. It is true that activities of individuals,

even when religiously based, are often subject to regulation by the States in the exercise

of their undoubted power to promote the health, safety, and general welfare, or the

Federal Government in the exercise of its delegated powers. See, e.g., Gillette v. United

States, 401 U.S. 437 (1971); Braunfeld v. Brown, 366 U.S. 599 (1961); Prince v.

Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158 (1944); Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145 (1879). But to

agree that religiously grounded conduct must often be subject to the broad police power

of the State is not to deny that there are areas of conduct protected by the Free Exercise

Clause of the First Amendment, and thus beyond the power of the State to control, even

under regulations of general applicability. E.g., Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398 (1963);

Murdock v. Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105 (1943); Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296,

303-304 (1940). This case, therefore, does not become easier because respondents were


convicted for their "actions" in refusing to send their children to the public high school; in

this context, belief and action cannot be neatly confined in logic-tight compartments. Cf.

Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S.S. at 612.

Nor can this case be disposed of on the grounds that Wisconsin's requirement for

school attendance to age 16 applies uniformly to all citizens of the State and does not, on

its face, discriminate against religions or a particular religion, or that it is motivated by

legitimate secular concerns. A regulation neutral on its face may, in its application,

nonetheless offend the constitutional requirement for governmental neutrality if it

unduly burdens the free exercise of religion. Sherbert v. Verner, supra; cf. Walz v. Tax

Commission, 397 U.S. 664 (1970). The Court must not ignore the danger that an

exception [p221] from a general obligation of citizenship on religious grounds may run

afoul of the Establishment Clause, but that danger cannot be allowed to prevent any

exception, no matter how vital it may be to the protection of values promoted by the

right of free exercise. By preserving doctrinal flexibility and recognizing the need for a

sensible and realistic application of the Religion Clauses,

We have been able to chart a course that preserved the autonomy and freedom

of religious bodies while avoiding any semblance of established religion. This is a "tight

rope," and one we have successfully traversed.

Walz v. Tax Commission, supra, at 672.

We turn, then, to the State's broader contention that its interest in its system of

compulsory education is so compelling that even the established religious practices of

the Amish must give way. Where fundamental claims of religious freedom are at stake,

however, we cannot accept such a sweeping claim; despite its admitted validity in the

generality of cases, we must searchingly examine the interests that the State seeks to

promote by its requirement for compulsory education to age 16, and the impediment to

those objectives that would flow from recognizing the claimed Amish exemption. See,

e.g., Sherbert v. Verner, supra; Martin v. City of Struthers, 319 U.S. 141 (1943); Schneider

v. State, 308 U.S. 147 (1939).


The State advances two primary arguments in support of its system of

compulsory education. It notes, as Thomas Jefferson pointed out early in our history, that

some degree of education is necessary to prepare citizens to participate effectively and

intelligently in our open political system if we are to preserve freedom and

independence. Further, education prepares individuals to be self-reliant and self-

sufficient participants in society. We accept these propositions. [p222]

However, the evidence adduced by the Amish in this case is persuasively to the

effect that an additional one or two years of formal high school for Amish children in

place of their long-established program of informal vocational education would do little

to serve those interests. Respondents' experts testified at trial, without challenge, that

the value of all education must be assessed in terms of its capacity to prepare the child

for life. It is one thing to say that compulsory education for a year or two beyond the

eighth grade may be necessary when its goal is the preparation of the child for life in

modern society as the majority live, but it is quite another if the goal of education be

viewed as the preparation of the child for life in the separated agrarian community that is

the keystone of the Amish faith. See Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. at 400.

The State attacks respondents' position as one fostering "ignorance" from which

the child must be protected by the State. No one can question the State's duty to protect

children from ignorance, but this argument does not square with the facts disclosed in

the record. Whatever their idiosyncrasies as seen by the majority, this record strongly

shows that the Amish community has been a highly successful social unit within our

society, even if apart from the conventional "mainstream." Its members are productive

and very law-abiding members of society; they reject public welfare in any of its usual

modern forms. The Congress itself recognized their self-sufficiency by authorizing

exemption of such groups as the Amish from the obligation to pay social security

taxes. [n11] [p223]

It is neither fair nor correct to suggest that the Amish are opposed to education

beyond the eighth grade level. What this record shows is that they are opposed to

conventional formal education of the type provided by a certified high school because it


comes at the child's crucial adolescent period of religious development. Dr. Donald

Erickson, for example, testified that their system of "learning by doing" was an "ideal

system" of education in terms of preparing Amish children for life as adults in the Amish

community, and that "I would be inclined to say they do a better job in this than most of

the rest of us do." As he put it,

These people aren't purporting to be learned people, and it seems to me the self-

sufficiency of the community is the best evidence I can point to -- whatever is being done

seems to function well. [n12]

We must not forget that, in the Middle Ages, important values of the civilization

of the Western World were preserved by members of religious orders who isolated

themselves from all worldly influences against great obstacles. There can be no

assumption that today's majority is [p224] "right," and the Amish and others like them

are "wrong." A way of life that is odd or even erratic but interferes with no rights or

interests of others is not to be condemned because it is different.

The State, however, supports its interest in providing an additional one or two

years of compulsory high school education to Amish children because of the possibility

that some such children will choose to leave the Amish community, and that, if this

occurs, they will be ill-equipped for life. The State argues that, if Amish children leave

their church, they should not be in the position of making their way in the world without

the education available in the one or two additional years the State requires. However,

on this record, that argument is highly speculative. There is no specific evidence of the

loss of Amish adherents by attrition, nor is there any showing that, upon leaving the

Amish community, Amish children, with their practical agricultural training and habits of

industry and self-reliance, would become burdens on society because of educational

shortcomings. Indeed, this argument of the State appears to rest primarily on the State's

mistaken assumption, already noted, that the Amish do not provide any education for

their children beyond the eighth grade, but allow them to grow in "ignorance." To the

contrary, not only do the Amish accept the necessity for formal schooling through the

eighth grade level, but continue to provide what has been characterized by the


undisputed testimony of expert educators as an "ideal" vocational education for their

children in the adolescent years.

There is nothing in this record to suggest that the Amish qualities of reliability,

self-reliance, and dedication to work would fail to find ready markets in today's society.

Absent some contrary evidence supporting the [p225] State's position, we are unwilling

to assume that persons possessing such valuable vocational skills and habits are doomed

to become burdens on society should they determine to leave the Amish faith, nor is

there any basis in the record to warrant a finding that an additional one or two years of

formal school education beyond the eighth grade would serve to eliminate any such

problem that might exist.

Insofar as the State's claim rests on the view that a brief additional period of

formal education is imperative to enable the Amish to participate effectively and

intelligently in our democratic process, it must fall. The Amish alternative to formal

secondary school education has enabled them to function effectively in their day-to-day

life under self-imposed limitations on relations with the world, and to survive and

prosper in contemporary society as a separate, sharply identifiable and highly self-

sufficient community for more than 200 years in this country. In itself, this is strong

evidence that they are capable of fulfilling the social and political responsibilities of

citizenship without compelled attendance beyond the eighth grade at the price of

jeopardizing their free exercise of religious belief. [n13] When Thomas Jefferson

emphasized the need for education as a bulwark of a free people against tyranny, there is

nothing to indicate he had in mind compulsory education through any fixed age beyond a

basic education. Indeed, the Amish communities singularly parallel and reflect many of

the virtues of Jefferson's ideal of the "sturdy yeoman" who would form the basis of what

he considered as the [p226] ideal of a democratic society. [n14] Even their idiosyncratic

separateness exemplifies the diversity we profess to admire and encourage.

The requirement for compulsory education beyond the eighth grade is a

relatively recent development in our history. Less than 60 years ago, the educational

requirements of almost all of the States were satisfied by completion of the elementary


grades, at least where the child was regularly and lawfully employed. [n15] The

independence [p227] and successful social functioning of the Amish community for a

period approaching almost three centuries and more than 200 years in this country are

strong evidence that there is, at best, a speculative gain, in terms of meeting the duties

of citizenship, from an additional one or two years of compulsory formal education.

Against this background, it would require a more particularized showing from the State

on this point to justify the severe interference with religious freedom such additional

compulsory attendance would entail.

We should also note that compulsory education and child labor laws find their

historical origin in common humanitarian instincts, and that the age limits of both laws

have been coordinated to achieve their related objectives. [n16] In the context of this

case, such considerations, [p228] if anything, support rather than detract from,

respondents' position. The origins of the requirement for school attendance to age 16, an

age falling after the completion of elementary school but before completion of high

school, are not entirely clear. But, to some extent, such laws reflected the movement to

prohibit most child labor under age 16 that culminated in the provisions of the Federal

Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. [n17] It is true, then, that the 16-year child labor age

limit may, to some degree, derive from a contemporary impression that children should

be in school until that age. But, at the same time, it cannot be denied that, conversely,

the 16-year education limit reflects, in substantial measure, the concern that children

under that age not be employed under conditions hazardous to their health, or in work

that should be performed by adults.

The requirement of compulsory schooling to age 16 must therefore be viewed as

aimed not merely at providing educational opportunities for children, but as an

alternative to the equally undesirable consequence of unhealthful child labor displacing

adult workers, or, on the other hand, forced idleness. [n18] The two kinds of statutes --

compulsory school attendance and child labor laws -- tend to keep children of certain

ages off the labor market and in school; this regimen, in turn, provides opportunity to


prepare for a livelihood of a higher order than that which children could pursue without

education, and protects their health in adolescence.

In these terms, Wisconsin's interest in compelling the school attendance of

Amish children to age 16 emerges as somewhat less substantial than requiring such

attendance [p229] for children generally. For, while agricultural employment is not

totally outside the legitimate concerns of the child labor laws, employment of children

under parental guidance and on the family farm from age 14 to age 16 is an ancient

tradition that lies at the periphery of the objectives of such laws. [n19] There is no

intimation that the Amish employment of their children on family farms is in any way

deleterious to their health, or that Amish parents exploit children at tender years. Any

such inference would be contrary to the record before us. Moreover, employment of

Amish children on the family farm does not present the undesirable economic aspects of

eliminating jobs that might otherwise be held by adults.

IV

Finally, the State, on authority of Prince v. Massachusetts, argues that a decision

exempting Amish children from the State's requirement fails to recognize the substantive

right of the Amish child to a secondary education, and fails to give due regard to the

power of the State as parens patriae to extend the benefit of secondary education to

children regardless of the wishes of their parents. Taken at its broadest sweep, the

Court's language in Prince might be read to give support to the State's position. However,

the Court was not confronted in Prince with a situation comparable to that of the Amish

as revealed in this record; this is shown by the [p230] Court's severe characterization of

the evils that it thought the legislature could legitimately associate with child labor, even

when performed in the company of an adult. 321 U.S. at 169-170. The Court later took

great care to confine Prince to a narrow scope in Sherbert v. Verner, when it stated:

On the other hand, the Court has rejected challenges under the Free Exercise

Clause to governmental regulation of certain overt acts prompted by religious beliefs or

principles, for "even when the action is in accord with one's religious convictions, [it] is

not totally free from legislative restrictions." Braunfeld v. Brown, 366 U.S. 599, 603. The


conduct or actions so regulated have invariably posed some substantial threat to public

safety, peace or order. See, e.g., Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145; Jacobson v.

Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11; Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158. . . .

374 U.S. at 402-403.

This case, of course, is not one in which any harm to the physical or mental

health of the child or to the public safety, peace, order, or welfare has been

demonstrated or may be properly inferred. [n20] The record is to the contrary, and any

reliance on that theory would find no support in the evidence.

Contrary to the suggestion of the dissenting opinion of MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS,

our holding today in no degree depends on the assertion of the religious interest of the

child, as contrasted with that of the parents. It is the parents who are subject to

prosecution here for failing to cause their children to attend school, and it [p231] is their

right of free exercise, not that of their children, that must determine Wisconsin's power

to impose criminal penalties on the parent. The dissent argues that a child who expresses

a desire to attend public high school in conflict with the wishes of his parents should not

be prevented from doing so. There is no reason for the Court to consider that point, since

it is not an issue in the case. The children are not parties to this litigation. The State has at

no point tried this case on the theory that respondents were preventing their children

from attending school against their expressed desires, and, indeed, the record is to the

contrary. [n21] The state's position from the outset has been that it is empowered to

apply its compulsory attendance law to Amish parents in the same manner as to other

parents -- that is, without regard to the wishes of the child. That is the claim we reject

today.

Our holding in no way determines the proper resolution of possible competing

interests of parents, children, and the State in an appropriate state court proceeding in

which the power of the State is asserted on the theory that Amish parents are preventing

their minor children from attending high school despite their expressed desires to the

contrary. Recognition of the claim of the State in such a proceeding would, of course, call

into question traditional concepts of parental control over the religious upbringing and


education of their minor children recognized in this Court's past decisions. It is clear that

such an intrusion by a State into family decisions in the area of religious training would

give rise to grave questions of religious freedom comparable to those raised here

[p232] and those presented in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925). On this

record, we neither reach nor decide those issues.

The State's argument proceeds without reliance on any actual conflict between

the wishes of parents and children. It appears to rest on the potential that exemption of

Amish parents from the requirements of the compulsory education law might allow some

parents to act contrary to the best interests of their children by foreclosing their

opportunity to make an intelligent choice between the Amish way of life and that of the

outside world. The same argument could, of course, be made with respect to all church

schools short of college. There is nothing in the record or in the ordinary course of

human experience to suggest that non-Amish parents generally consult with children of

ages 14-16 if they are placed in a church school of the parents' faith.

Indeed, it seems clear that, if the State is empowered, as parens patriae, to

"save" a child from himself or his Amish parents by requiring an additional two years of

compulsory formal high school education, the State will, in large measure, influence, if

not determine, the religious future of the child. Even more markedly than in Prince,

therefore, this case involves the fundamental interest of parents, as contrasted with that

of the State, to guide the religious future and education of their children. The history and

culture of Western civilization reflect a strong tradition of parental concern for the

nurture and upbringing of their children. This primary role of the parents in the

upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate as an enduring American

tradition. If not the first, perhaps the most significant statements of the Court in this area

are found in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, in which the Court observed:

Under the doctrine of Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, we think it entirely plain

that the Act [p233] of 1922 unreasonably interferes with the liberty of parents and

guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control. As often

heretofore pointed out, rights guaranteed by the Constitution may not be abridged by


legislation which has no reasonable relation to some purpose within the competency of

the State. The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union

repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing

them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature

of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with

the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.

268 U.S. at 534-535.

The duty to prepare the child for "additional obligations," referred to by the

Court, must be read to include the inculcation of moral standards, religious beliefs, and

elements of good citizenship. Pierce, of course, recognized that, where nothing more

than the general interest of the parent in the nurture and education of his children is

involved, it is beyond dispute that the State acts "reasonably" and constitutionally in

requiring education to age 16 in some public or private school meeting the standards

prescribed by the State.

However read, the Court's holding in Pierce stands as a charter of the rights of

parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children. And, when the interests of

parenthood are combined with a free exercise claim of the nature revealed by this

record, more than merely a "reasonable relation to some purpose within the competency

of the State" is required to sustain the validity of the State's requirement under the First

Amendment. To be sure, the power of the parent, even when linked to a free exercise

claim, may be subject to limitation under Prince [p234] if it appears that parental

decisions will jeopardize the health or safety of the child, or have a potential for

significant social burdens. But, in this case, the Amish have introduced persuasive

evidence undermining the arguments the State has advanced to support its claims in

terms of the welfare of the child and society as a whole. The record strongly indicates

that accommodating the religious objections of the Amish by forgoing one, or at most

two, additional years of compulsory education will not impair the physical or mental

health of the child or result in an inability to be self-supporting or to discharge the duties


and responsibilities of citizenship, or in any other way materially detract from the welfare

of society.

In the face of our consistent emphasis on the central values underlying the

Religion Clauses in our constitutional scheme of government, we cannot accept a parens

patriae claim of such all-encompassing scope and with such sweeping potential for broad

and unforeseeable application as that urged by the State.

V

For the reasons stated we hold, with the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, that the

First and Fourteenth Amendments prevent the State from compelling respondents to

cause their children to attend formal high school to age 16. [n22] Our disposition of this

case, however, in no way [p235] alters our recognition of the obvious fact that courts are

not school boards or legislatures, and are ill-equipped to determine the "necessity" of

discrete aspects of a State's program of compulsory education. This should suggest that

courts must move with great circumspection in performing the sensitive and delicate task

of weighing a State's legitimate social concern when faced with religious claims for

exemption from generally applicable educational requirements. It cannot be

overemphasized that we are not dealing with a way of life and mode of education by a

group claiming to have recently discovered some "progressive" or more enlightened

process for rearing children for modern life.

Aided by a history of three centuries as an identifiable religious sect and a long

history as a successful and self-sufficient segment of American society, the Amish in this

case have convincingly demonstrated the sincerity of their religious beliefs, the

interrelationship of belief with their mode of life, the vital role that belief and daily

conduct play in the continued survival of Old Order Amish communities and their

religious organization, and the hazards presented by the State's enforcement of a statute

generally valid as to others. Beyond this, they have carried the even more difficult burden

of demonstrating the adequacy of their alternative mode of continuing informal

vocational education in terms of precisely those overall interests that the State advances

in support of its program of compulsory high school education. In light of this convincing


[p236] showing, one that probably few other religious groups or sects could make, and

weighing the minimal difference between what the State would require and what the

Amish already accept, it was incumbent on the State to show with more particularity how

its admittedly strong interest in compulsory education would be adversely affected by

granting an exemption to the Amish. Sherbert v. Verner, supra.

Nothing we hold is intended to undermine the general applicability of the State's

compulsory school attendance statutes or to limit the power of the State to promulgate

reasonable standards that, while not impairing the free exercise of religion, provide for

continuing agricultural vocational education under parental and church guidance by the

Old Order Amish or others similarly situated. The States have had a long history of

amicable and effective relationships with church-sponsored schools, and there is no basis

for assuming that, in this related context, reasonable standards cannot be established

concerning the content of the continuing vocational education of Amish children under

parental guidance, provided always that state regulations are not inconsistent with what

we have said in this opinion. [n23]

Affirmed.

MR. JUSTICE POWELL and MR. JUSTICE REHNQUIST took no part in the

consideration or decision of this case. [p237]

1.

The children, Frieda Yoder, aged 15, Barbara Miller, aged 15, and Vernon Yutzy,

aged 14, were all graduates of the eighth grade of public school.

2.

Wis.Stat. § 118.15 (1969) provides in pertinent part:

118.15 Compulsory school attendance

(1)(a) Unless the child has a legal excuse or has graduated from high school, any

person having under his control a child who is between the ages of 7 and 16 years shall

cause such child to attend school regularly during the full period and hours, religious

holidays excepted, that the public or private school in which such child should be


enrolled is in session until the end of the school term, quarter or semester of the school

year in which he becomes 16 years of age.

* * * *

(3) This section does not apply to any child who is not in proper physical or

mental condition to attend school, to any child exempted for good cause by the school

board of the district in which the child resides or to any child who has completed the full

4-year high school course. The certificate of a reputable physician in general practice

shall be sufficient proof that a child is unable to attend school.

(4) Instruction during the required period elsewhere than at school may be

substituted for school attendance. Such instruction must be approved by the state

superintendent as substantially equivalent to instruction given to children of like ages in

the public or private schools where such children reside.

(5) Whoever violates this section . . . may be fined not less than $5 nor more than

$50 or imprisoned not more than 3 months or both.

Section 118.15(1)(b) requires attendance to age 18 in a school district containing

a "vocational, technical and adult education school," but this section is concededly

inapplicable in this case, for there is no such school in the district involved.

3.

Prior to trial, the attorney for respondents wrote the State Superintendent of

Public Instruction in an effort to explore the possibilities for a compromise settlement.

Among other possibilities, he suggested that perhaps the State Superintendent could

administratively determine that the Amish could satisfy the compulsory attendance law

by establishing their own vocational training plan similar to one that has been

established in Pennsylvania. Supp.App. 6. Under the Pennsylvania plan, Amish children of

high school age are required to attend an Amish vocational school for three hours a

week, during which time they are taught such subjects as English, mathematics, health,

and social studies by an Amish teacher. For the balance of the week, the children

perform farm and household duties under parental supervision, and keep a journal of


their daily activities. The major portion of the curriculum is home projects in agriculture

and homemaking. See generally J. Hostetler & G. Huntington, Children in Amish Society:

Socialization and Community Education, c. 5 (1971). A similar program has been

instituted in Indiana. Ibid. See also Iowa Code § 299.24 (1971); Kan.Stat.Ann. § 72-1111

(Supp. 1971).

The Superintendent rejected this proposal on the ground that it would not afford

Amish children "substantially equivalent education" to that offered in the schools of the

area. Supp.App. 6.

4.

The First Amendment provides: "Congress shall make no law respecting an

establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. . . ."

5.

See generally J. Hostetler, Amish Society (1968); J. Hostetler & G. Huntington,

Children in Amish Society (1971); Littell, Sectarian Protestantism and the Pursuit of

Wisdom: Must Technological Objectives Prevail?, in Public Controls for Nonpublic Schools

61 (D. Erickson ed.1969).

6.

See Welsh v. United States, 398 U.S. 333, 351-361 (1970) (Harlan, J., concurring

in result); United States v. Ballard, 322 U.S. 78 (1944).

7.

See generally R. Butts & L. Cremin, A History of Education in American Culture

(1953); L. Cremin, The Transformation of the School (1961).

8.

Hostetler, supra, n. 5, c. 9; Hostetler & Huntington, supra, n. 5.

9.

Some States have developed working arrangements with the Amish regarding

high school attendance. See n. 3, supra. However, the danger to the continued existence

of an ancient religious faith cannot be ignored simply because of the assumption that its


adherents will continue to be able, at considerable sacrifice, to relocate in some more

tolerant State or country or work out accommodations under threat of criminal

prosecution. Forced migration of religious minorities was an evil that lay at the heart of

the Religion Clauses. See, e.g., Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 9-10 (1947);

Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, 2 Writings of

James Madison 183 (G. Hunt ed.1901).

10.

That has been the apparent ground for decision in reversal previous state cases

rejecting claims for exemption similar to that here. See, e.g., State v. Garber, 197 Kan.

567, 419 P.2d 896 (1966), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 51 (1967); State v. Hershberger, 103

Ohio App. 188, 144 N.E.2d 693 (1955); Commonwealth v. Beiler, 168 Pa.Super. 462, 79

A.2d 134 (1951).

11.

Title 26 U.S.C. § 1402(h) authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education, and

Welfare to exempt members of "a recognized religious sect" existing at all times since

December 31, 1950, from the obligation to pay social security taxes if they are, by reason

of the tenets of their sect, opposed to receipt of such benefits and agree to waive them,

provided the Secretary finds that the sect makes reasonable provision for its dependent

members. The history of the exemption shows it was enacted with the situation of the

Old Order Amish specifically in view. H.R.Rep. No. 213, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., 101-102

(1965).

The record in this case establishes without contradiction that the Green County

Amish had never been known to commit crimes, that none had been known to receive

public assistance, and that none was unemployed.

12.

Dr. Erickson had previously written:


Many public educators would be elated if their programs were as successful in

preparing students for productive community life as the Amish system seems to be. In

fact, while some public schoolmen strive to outlaw the Amish approach, others are being

forced to emulate many of its features.

Erickson, Showdown at an Amish Schoolhouse: A Description and Analysis of the

Iowa Controversy, in Public Controls for Nonpublic Schools 15, 53 (D. Erickson ed.1969).

And see Littell, supra, n. 5, at 61.

13.

All of the children involved in this case are graduates of the eighth grade. In the

county court, the defense introduced a study by Dr. Hostetler indicating that Amish

children in the eighth grade achieved comparably to non-Amish children in the basic

skills. Supp.App. 11. See generally Hostetler & Huntington, supra, n. 5, at 88 96.

14.

While Jefferson recognized that education was essential to the welfare and

liberty of the people, he was reluctant to directly force instruction of children "in

opposition to the will of the parent." Instead, he proposed that state citizenship be

conditioned on the ability to "read readily in some tongue, native or acquired." Letter

from Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Cabell, Sept. 9, 1817, in 17 Writings of Thomas

Jefferson 417, 423-424 (Mem. ed.1904). And it is clear that, so far as the mass of the

people were concerned, he envisaged that a basic education in the "three R's" would

sufficiently meet the interests of the State. He suggested that, after completion of

elementary school,

those destined for labor will engage in the business of agriculture, or enter into

apprenticeships to such handicraft art as may be their choice.

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, Sept. 7, 1814, in Thomas Jefferson

and Education in a Republic 93-106 (Arrowood ed.1930). See also id. at 60-64, 70, 83,

136-137.

15.


See Dept. of Interior, Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 47, Digest of State Laws

Relating to Public Education 527-559 (1916); Joint Hearings on S. 2475 and H.R. 7200

before the Senate Committee on Education and Labor and the House Committee on

Labor, 75th Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 2, p. 416.

Even today, an eighth grade education fully satisfies the educational

requirements of at least six States. See Ariz.Rev.Stat.Ann. § 15-321(b)(4) (1956);

Ark.Stat.Ann. § 80-1504 (1947); Iowa Code § 299.2 (1971); S.D.Comp.Laws Ann. § 13-27-1

(1967); Wyo.Stat.Ann. § 21.1-48 (Supp. 1971). (Mississippi has no compulsory education

law.) A number of other States have flexible provisions permitting children aged 14 or

having completed the eighth grade to be excused from school in order to engage in

lawful employment. E.g., Colo.Rev.Stat.Ann. §§ 123-20-5, 80-6-1 to 80-6-12 (1963);

Conn.Gen.Stat.Rev. §§ 10-184, 10-189 (1964); D.C.Code Ann. §§ 31-202, 36-201 to 36-

228 (1967); Ind.Ann.Stat. §§ 28-505 to 28-506, 28-519 (1948); Mass.Gen.Laws Ann., c. 76,

§ 1 (Supp. 1972) and c. 149, § 86 (1971); Mo.Rev.Stat. §§ 167.031, 294.051 (1969);

Nev.Rev.Stat. § 392.110 (1968); N.M.Stat.Ann. § 77-10-6 (1968).

An eighth grade education satisfied Wisconsin's formal education requirements

until 1933. See Wis.Laws 1927, c. 425, § 97; Laws 1933, c. 143. (Prior to 1933, provision

was made for attendance at continuation or vocational schools by working children past

the eighth grade, but only if one was maintained by the community in question.) For a

general discussion of the early development of Wisconsin's compulsory education and

child labor laws, see F. Ensign, Compulsory School Attendance and Child Labor 203-230

(1921).

16.

See, e.g., Joint Hearings, supra, n. 15, pt. 1, at 185-187 (statement of Frances

Perkins, Secretary of Labor), pt. 2, at 381-387 (statement of Katherine Lenroot, Chief,

Children's Bureau, Department of Labor); National Child Labor Committee, 40th

Anniversary Report, The Long Road (1944); 1 G. Abbott, The Child and the State 259-269,

566 (Greenwood reprint 1968); L. Cremin, The Transformation of the School, c. 3 (1961);


A. Steinhilber & C. Sokolowski, State Law on Compulsory Attendance 3-4 (Dept. of Health,

Education, and Welfare 1966).

17.

52 Stat. 1060, as amended, 29 U.S.C. §§ 201-219.

18.

See materials cited n. 16, supra; Casad, Compulsory Education and Individual

Rights, in 5 Religion and the Public Order 51, 82 (D. Giannella ed.1969).

19.

See, e.g., Abbott, supra, n. 16, at 266. The Federal Fair Labor Standards Act of

1938 excludes from its definition of "[o]ppressive child labor" employment of a child

under age 16 by

a parent . . . employing his own child . . . in an occupation other than

manufacturing or mining or an occupation found by the Secretary of Labor to be

particularly hazardous for the employment of children between the ages of sixteen and

eighteen years or detrimental to their health or wellbeing.

29 U.S.C. § 203(1).

20.

Cf., e.g., Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905); Wright v. DeWitt School

District, 238 Ark. 906, 385 S.W.2d 644 (1965); Application of President and Directors of

Georgetown College, Inc., 118 U.S.App.D.C. 80, 87-90, 331 F.2d 1000, 1007-1010 (in

chambers opinion), cert. denied, 377 U.S. 978 (1964).

21.

The only relevant testimony in the record is to the effect that the wishes of the

one child who testified corresponded with those of her parents. Testimony of Frieda

Yoder, Tr. 994, to the effect that her personal religious beliefs guided her decision to

discontinue school attendance after the eighth grade. The other children were not called

by either side.


22.

What we have said should meet the suggestion that the decision of the

Wisconsin Supreme Court recognizing an exemption for the Amish from the State's

system of compulsory education constituted an impermissible establishment of religion.

In Walz v. Tax Commission, the Court saw the three main concerns against which the

Establishment Clause sought to protect as "sponsorship, financial support, and active

involvement of the sovereign in religious activity." 397 U.S. 664, 668 (1970).

Accommodating the religious beliefs of the Amish can hardly be characterized as

sponsorship or active involvement. The purpose and effect of such an exemption are not

to support, favor, advance, or assist the Amish, but to allow their centuries-old religious

society, here long before the advent of any compulsory education, to survive free from

the heavy impediment compliance with the Wisconsin compulsory education law would

impose. Such an accommodation reflects nothing more than the governmental obligation

of neutrality in the face of religious differences, and does not represent that involvement

of religious with secular institutions which it is the object of the Establishment Clause to

forestall.

Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398, 409 (1963).

23.

Several States have now adopted plans to accommodate Amish religious beliefs

through the establishment of an "Amish vocational school." See n. 3, supra. These are not

schools in the traditional sense of the word. As previously noted, respondents attempted

to reach a compromise with the State of Wisconsin patterned after the Pennsylvania

plan, but those efforts were not productive. There is no basis to assume that Wisconsin

will be unable to reach a satisfactory accommodation with the Amish in light of what we

now hold, so as to serve its interests without impinging on respondents' protected free

exercise of their religion.

TOP

Concurrence


STEWART, J., Concurring Opinion

MR JUSTICE STEWART, with whom MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN joins, concurring.

This case involves the constitutionality of imposing criminal punishment upon

Amish parents for their religiously based refusal to compel their children to attend public

high schools. Wisconsin has sought to brand these parents as criminals for following their

religious beliefs, and the Court today rightly holds that Wisconsin cannot constitutionally

do so.

This case in no way involves any questions regarding the right of the children of

Amish parents to attend public high schools, or any other institutions of learning, if they

wish to do so. As the Court points out, there is no suggestion whatever in the record that

the religious beliefs of the children here concerned differ in any way from those of their

parents. Only one of the children testified. The last two questions and answers on her

cross-examination accurately sum up her testimony:

Q. So I take it then, Frieda, the only reason you are not going to school, and did

not go to school since last September, is because of your religion?

A. Yes.

Q. That is the only reason?

A. Yes.

(Emphasis supplied.)

It is clear to me, therefore, that this record simply does not present the

interesting and important issue discussed in Part II of the dissenting opinion of MR.

JUSTICE DOUGLAS. With this observation, I join the opinion and the judgment of the

Court.

TOP

Concurrence

WHITE, J., Concurring Opinion


MR. JUSTICE WHITE, with whom MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN and MR. JUSTICE

STEWART join, concurring.

Cases such as this one inevitably call for a delicate balancing of important but

conflicting interests. I join the opinion and judgment of the Court because I cannot

[p238] say that the State's interest in requiring two more years of compulsory education

in the ninth and tenth grades outweighs the importance of the concededly sincere Amish

religious practice to the survival of that sect.

This would be a very different case for me if respondents' claim were that their

religion forbade their children from attending any school at any time and from complying

in any way with the educational standards set by the State. Since the Amish children are

permitted to acquire the basic tools of literacy to survive in modern society by attending

grades one through eight, and since the deviation from the State's compulsory education

law is relatively slight, I conclude that respondents' claim must prevail, largely because

religious freedom -- the freedom to believe and to practice strange and, it may be,

foreign creeds -- has classically been one of the highest values of our society.

Braunfeld v. Brown, 366 U.S. 599, 612 (1961) (BRENNAN, J., concurring and

dissenting).

The importance of the state interest asserted here cannot be denigrated,

however:

Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local

governments. Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for

education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to our

democratic society. It is required in the performance of our most basic public

responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It is the very foundation of good

citizenship. Today it is a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in

preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his

environment.


Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 493 (1954). [p239] As recently as last

Term, the Court reemphasized the legitimacy of the State's concern for enforcing

minimal educational standards, Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 613

(1971). [n1] Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925), lends no support to the

contention that parents may replace state educational requirements with their own

idiosyncratic views of what knowledge a child needs to be a productive and happy

member of society; in Pierce, both the parochial and military schools were in compliance

with all the educational standards that the State had set, and the Court held simply that,

while a State may posit such standards, it may not preempt the educational process by

requiring children to attend public schools. [n2] In the present case, the State is not

concerned with the maintenance of an educational system as an end in itself; it is rather

attempting to nurture and develop the human potential of its children, whether Amish or

non-Amish: to expand their knowledge, broaden their sensibilities, kindle their

imagination, foster a spirit of free inquiry, and increase their human understanding and

tolerance. It is possible that most Amish [p240] children will wish to continue living the

rural life of their parents, in which case their training at home will adequately equip them

for their future role. Others, however, may wish to become nuclear physicists, ballet

dancers, computer programmers, or historians, and for these occupations, formal

training will be necessary. There is evidence in the record that many children desert the

Amish faith when they come of age. [n3] A State has a legitimate interest not only in

seeking to develop the latent talents of its children, but also in seeking to prepare them

for the lifestyle that they may later choose, or at least to provide them with an option

other than the life they have led in the past. In the circumstances of this case, although

the question is close, I am unable to say that the State has demonstrated that Amish

children who leave school in the eighth grade will be intellectually stultified or unable to

acquire new academic skills later. The statutory minimum school attendance age set by

the State is, after all, only 16.

Decision in cases such as this and the administration of an exemption for Old

Order Amish from the State's compulsory school attendance laws will inevitably involve


the kind of close and perhaps repeated scrutiny of religious practices, as is exemplified in

today's opinion, which the Court has heretofore been anxious to avoid. But such

entanglement does not create a forbidden establishment of religion where it is essential

to implement free [p241] exercise values threatened by an otherwise neutral program

instituted to foster some permissible, nonreligious state objective. I join the Court

because the sincerity of the Amish religious policy here is uncontested, because the

potentially adverse impact of the state requirement is great, and because the State's

valid interest in education has already been largely satisfied by the eight years the

children have already spent in school.

1. The challenged Amish religious practice here does not pose a substantial

threat to public safety, peace, or order; if it did, analysis under the Free Exercise Clause

would be substantially different. See Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905);

Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158 (1944); Cleveland v. United States, 329 U.S. 14

(1946); Application of President and Directors of Georgetown College, Inc., 118

U.S.App.D.C. 80, 331 F.2d 1000, cert. denied, 377 U.S. 978 (1964).

2. No question is raised concerning the power of the State reasonably to regulate

all schools, to inspect, supervise and examine them, their teachers and pupils; to require

that all children of proper age attend some school, that teachers shall be of good moral

character and patriotic disposition, that certain studies plainly essential to good

citizenship must be taught, and that nothing be taught which is manifestly inimical to the

public welfare.

Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 534 (1925).

3. Dr. Hostetler testified that, though there was a gradual increase in the total

number of Old Order Amish in the United States over the past 50 years, "at the same

time, the Amish have also lost members [of] their church," and that the turnover rate

was such that "probably two-thirds [of the present Amish] have been assimilated non-

Amish people." App. 110. Justice Heffernan, dissenting below opined that "[l]arge

numbers of young people voluntarily leave the Amish community each year, and are


thereafter forced to make their way in the world." 49 Wis.2d 430, 451, 182 N.W.2d 539,

549 (1971).

TOP

Dissent

DOUGLAS, J., Dissenting Opinion

MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS dissenting in part.

I

I agree with the Court that the religious scruples of the Amish are opposed to the

education of their children beyond the grade schools, yet I disagree with the Court's

conclusion that the matter is within the dispensation of parents alone. The Court's

analysis assumes that the only interests at stake in the case are those of the Amish

parents, on the one hand, and those of the State, on the other. The difficulty with this

approach is that, despite the Court's claim, the parents are seeking to vindicate not only

their own free exercise claims, but also those of their high-school-age children.

It is argued that the right of the Amish children to religious freedom is not

presented by the facts of the case, as the issue before the Court involves only the Amish

parents' religious freedom to defy a state criminal statute imposing upon them an

affirmative duty to cause their children to attend high school.

First, respondents' motion to dismiss in the trial court expressly asserts not only

the religious liberty of the adults, but also that of the children, as a defense to the

prosecutions. It is, of course, beyond question that the parents have standing as

defendants in a criminal prosecution to assert the religious interests of their

[p242] children as a defense. [n1] Although the lower courts and a majority of this

Court assume an identity of interest between parent and child, it is clear that they have

treated the religious interest of the child as a factor in the analysis.

Second, it is essential to reach the question to decide the case not only because

the question was squarely raised in the motion to dismiss, but also because no analysis of

religious liberty claims can take place in a vacuum. If the parents in this case are allowed


a religious exemption, the inevitable effect is to impose the parents' notions of religious

duty upon their children. Where the child is mature enough to express potentially

conflicting desires, it would be an invasion of the child's rights to permit such an

imposition without canvassing his views. As in Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, it is

an imposition resulting from this very litigation. As the child has no other effective forum,

it is in this litigation that his rights should be considered. And if an Amish child desires to

attend high school, and is mature enough to have that desire respected, the State may

well be able to override the parents' religiously motivated objections. [p243]

Religion is an individual experience. It is not necessary, nor even appropriate, for

every Amish child to express his views on the subject in a prosecution of a single adult.

Crucial, however, are the views of the child whose parent is the subject of the suit. Frieda

Yoder has in fact, testified that her own religious views are opposed to high-school

education. I therefore join the judgment of the Court as to respondent Jonas Yoder. But

Frieda Yoder's views may not be those of Vernon Yutzy or Barbara Miller. I must dissent,

therefore, as to respondents Adin Yutzy and Wallace Miller, as their motion to dismiss

also raised the question of their children's religious liberty.

II

This issue has never been squarely presented before today. Our opinions are full

of talk about the power of the parents over the child's education. See Pierce v. Society of

Sisters, 268 U.S. 510"] 268 U.S. 510; 268 U.S. 510; Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390. And

we have in the past analyzed similar conflicts between parent and State with little regard

for the views of the child. See Prince v. Massachusetts, supra. Recent cases, however,

have clearly held that the children themselves have constitutionally protectible interests.

These children are "persons" within the meaning of the Bill of Rights. We have so

held over and over again. In Haley v. Ohio, 332 U.S. 596, we extended the protection of

the Fourteenth Amendment in a state trial of a 15-year-old boy. In In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1,

13, we held that "neither the Fourteenth Amendment nor the Bill of Rights is for adults

alone." In In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, we held that a 12-year-old boy, when charged with


an act which would be a crime if committed by an adult, was entitled to procedural

safeguards contained in the Sixth Amendment. [p244]

In Tinker v. Des Moines School District, 393 U.S. 503, we dealt with 13-year-old,

15-year-old, and 16-year-old students who wore armbands to public schools and were

disciplined for doing so. We gave them relief, saying that their First Amendment rights

had been abridged.

Students, in school as well as out of school, are "persons" under our Constitution.

They are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect, just as they

themselves must respect their obligations to the State.

Id. at 511.

In Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, we held that school children

whose religious beliefs collided with a school rule requiring them to salute the flag could

not be required to do so. While the sanction included expulsion of the students and

prosecution of the parents, id. at 630, the vice of the regime was its interference with the

child's free exercise of religion. We said: "Here . . . we are dealing with a compulsion of

students to declare a belief." Id. at 631. In emphasizing the important and delicate task of

boards of education we said:

That they are educating the young for citizenship is reason for scrupulous

protection of Constitutional freedoms of the individual, if we are not to strangle the free

mind at its source and teach youth to discount important principles of our government as

mere platitudes.

Id. at 637.

On this important and vital matter of education, I think the children should be

entitled to be heard. While the parents, absent dissent, normally speak for the entire

family, the education of the child is a matter on which the child will often have decided

views. He may want to be a pianist or an astronaut or an oceanographer. [p245] To do so

he will have to break from the Amish tradition. [n2]


It is the future of the student, not the future of the parents, that is imperiled by

today's decision. If a parent keeps his child out of school beyond the grade school, then

the child will be forever barred from entry into the new and amazing world of diversity

that we have today. The child may decide that that is the preferred course, or he may

rebel. It is the student's judgment, not his parents', that is essential if we are to give full

meaning to what we have said about the Bill of Rights and of the right of students to be

masters of their own destiny. [n3] If he is harnessed to the Amish way of life [p246] by

those in authority over him, and if his education is truncated, his entire life may be

stunted and deformed. The child, therefore, should be given an opportunity to be heard

before the State gives the exemption which we honor today.

The views of the two children in question were not canvassed by the Wisconsin

courts. The matter should be explicitly reserved so that new hearings can be held on

remand of the case. [n4]

III

I think the emphasis of the Court on the "law and order" record of this Amish

group of people is quite irrelevant. A religion is a religion irrespective of what the

misdemeanor or felony records of its members might be. I am not at all sure how the

Catholics, Episcopalians, the Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Unitarians, and my own

Presbyterians would make out if subjected to such a test. It is, of course, true that, if a

group or society was organized to perpetuate crime, and if that is its motive, we would

have rather startling problems akin to those that were raised when, some years back, a

particular sect was challenged here as operating on a fraudulent basis. United States v.

Ballard, 322 U.S. 78. But no such factors are present here, and the Amish, whether with a

high or low criminal [p247] record, [n5] certainly qualify by all historic standards as a

religion within the meaning of the First Amendment.

The Court rightly rejects the notion that actions, even though religiously

grounded, are always outside the protection of the Free Exercise Clause of the First


Amendment. In so ruling, the Court departs from the teaching of Reynolds v. United

States, 98 U.S. 145, 164, where it was said, concerning the reach of the Free Exercise

Clause of the First Amendment,

Congress was deprived of all legislative power over mere opinion, but was left

free to reach actions which were in violation of social duties or subversive of good order.

In that case, it was conceded at polygamy was a part of the religion of the

Mormons. Yet the Court said, "It matters not that his belief [in polygamy] was a part of

his professed religion: it was still belief, and belief only." Id. at 167.

Action which the Court deemed to be antisocial could be punished even though it

was grounded on deeply held and sincere religious convictions. What we do today, at

least in this respect, opens the way to give organized religion a broader base than it has

ever enjoyed, and it even promises that in time Reynolds will be overruled.

In another way, however, the Court retreats when, in reference to Henry

Thoreau, it says his "choice was philosophical [p248] and personal, rather than religious,

and such belief does not rise to the demands of the Religion Clauses." That is contrary to

what we held in United States v. Seeger 380 U.S. 163, where we were concerned with the

meaning of the words "religious training and belief" in the Selective Service Act, which

were the basis of many conscientious objector claims. We said:

Within that phrase would come all sincere religious beliefs which are based upon

a power or being, or upon a faith to which all else is subordinate or upon which all else is

ultimately dependent. The test might be stated in these words: a sincere and meaningful

belief which occupies in the life of its possessor a place parallel to that filled by the God

of those admittedly qualifying for the exemption comes within the statutory definition.

This construction avoids imputing to Congress an intent to classify different religious

beliefs, exempting some and excluding others, and is in accord with the well established

congressional policy of equal treatment for those whose opposition to service is

grounded in their religious tenets.

Id. at 176.


Welsh v. United States, 398 U.S. 333, was in the same vein, the Court saying:

In this case, Welsh's conscientious objection to war was undeniably based in part

on his perception of world politics. In a letter to his local board, he wrote:

I can only act according to what I am and what I see. And I see that the military

complex wastes both human and material resources, that it fosters disregard for (what I

consider a paramount concern) human needs and ends; I see that the means we employ

to "defend" our "way of life" profoundly change that way of life. I see that, in our failure

to [p249] recognize the political, social, and economic realities of the world, we, as a

nation, fail our responsibility as a nation.

Id. at 342.

The essence of Welsh's philosophy, on the basis of which we held he was entitled

to an exemption, was in these words:

"I believe that human life is valuable in and of itself; in its living; therefore I will

not injure or kill another human being. This belief (and the corresponding ‘duty' to

abstain from violence toward another person) is not ‘superior to those arising from any

human relation.' On the contrary: it is essential to every human relation. I cannot,

therefore, conscientiously comply with the Government's insistence that I assume duties

which I feel are immoral and totally repugnant."

Id. at 343.

I adhere to these exalted views of "religion," and see no acceptable alternative to

them now that we have become a Nation of many religions and sects, representing all of

the diversities of the human race. United States v. Seeger, 380 U.S. at 192-193

(concurring opinion).

1.

Thus, in Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, a Jehovah's Witness was

convicted for having violated a state child labor law by allowing her nine-year-old niece

and ward to circulate religious literature on the public streets. There, as here, the narrow

question was the religious liberty of the adult. There, as here, the Court analyzed the


problem from the point of view of the State's conflicting interest in the welfare of the

child. But, as MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN, speaking for the Court, has so recently pointed out,

The Court [in Pierce] implicitly held that the custodian had standing to assert

alleged freedom of religion . . . rights of the child that were threatened in the very

litigation before the Court, and that the child had no effective way of asserting herself.

Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 446 n. 6. Here, as in Pierce, the children have no

effective alternate means to vindicate their rights. The question, therefore, is squarely

before us.

2.

A significant number of Amish children do leave the Old Order. Professor

Hostetler notes that "[t]he loss of members is very limited in some Amish districts, and

considerable in others." J. Hostetler, Amish Society 226 (1968). In one Pennsylvania

church, he observed a defection rate of 30%. Ibid. Rates up to 50% have been reported

by others. Casad, Compulsory High School Attendance and the Old Order Amish: A

Commentary on State v. Garber, 16 Kan.L.Rev. 423, 434 n. 51 (1968).

3.

The court below brushed aside the students' interests with the offhand comment

that, "[w]hen a child reaches the age of judgment, he can choose for himself his religion."

49 Wis.2d 430, 440, 182 N.W.2d 539, 543. But there is nothing in this record to indicate

that the moral and intellectual judgment demanded of the student by the question in this

case is beyond his capacity. Children far younger than the 14- and 15-year-olds involved

here are regularly permitted to testify in custody and other proceedings. Indeed, the

failure to call the affected child in a custody hearing is often reversible error. See, e.g.,

Callicott v. Callicott, 364 S.W.2d 455 (Civ.App. Tex.) (reversible error for trial judge to

refuse to hear testimony of eight-year-old in custody battle). Moreover, there is

substantial agreement among child psychologists and sociologists that the moral and

intellectual maturity of the 14-year-old approaches that of the adult. See, e.g., J. Piaget,

The Moral Judgment of the Child (1948); D. Elkind, Children and Adolescents 750 (1970);


Kohlberg, Moral Education in the Schools: A Developmental View, in R. Muuss,

Adolescent Behavior and Society 193, 199-200 (1971); W. Kay, Moral Development 172-

183 (1968); A. Gesell & F. Ilg, Youth: The Years From Ten to Sixteen 175-182 (1956). The

maturity of Amish youth, who identify with and assume adult roles from early childhood,

see M. Goodman, The Culture of Childhood 92-94 (1970), is certainly not less than that of

children in the general population.

4.

Canvassing the views of all school-age Amish children in the State of Wisconsin

would not present insurmountable difficulties. A 1968 survey indicated that there were

at that time only 256 such children in the entire State. Comment, 1971 Wis.L.Rev. 832,

852 n. 132.

5.

The observation of Justice Heffernan, dissenting below, that the principal opinion

in his court portrayed the Amish as leading a life of "idyllic agrarianism," is equally

applicable to the majority opinion in this Court. So, too, is his observation that such a

portrayal rests on a "mythological basis." Professor Hostetler has noted that "[d]rinking

among the youth is common in all the large Amish settlements." Amish Society 283.

Moreover, "[i]t would appear that, among the Amish, the rate of suicide is just as high, if

not higher, than for the nation." Id. at 300. He also notes an unfortunate Amish

"preoccupation with filthy stories," id. at 282, as well as significant "rowdyism and

stress." Id. at 281. These are not traits peculiar to the Amish, of course. The point is that

the Amish are not people set apart and different.



Wisconsin vs. Yoder Glossary

• Parens patriae- legal protector of citizens who cannot protect themselves (i.e. parents protect children).

• Writ of certiorari- a common law writ by a superior court • Held- decided; ruled • Respondents- defendants • Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment- clause of first amendment forbidding law from

prohibiting free exercise of religion


Extension Task Organizer

Claim (Introduction)

Rough draft: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Final draft: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Reason 1 (Body Paragraph 1) Reason 2 (Body Paragraph 2) Reason 3 (Counterclaim- Body Paragraph 3)


Evidence 1 Evidence 2 Evidence 1 Evidence 2 Evidence 1 Evidence 2

Reasoning 1 Reasoning 2 Reasoning 1 Reasoning 2 Reasoning 1 Reasoning 2


Restate the claim (Conclusion


Extension Task Handout

Activity One: Selecting a Topic for the Extension Task

The Extension Task requires you to investigate the challenges to and limits of the amendment in regard to religion. The first step in that process is to select a topic that examines the role of religion in America (e.g., Supreme Court cases over religious matters, separation of church and state, role of religion in historical

events, religious cults, or history of various religions). Complete the following handout to help you brainstorm about your topic.

Topic: ____________________________________________________________________________________

1. In your own words define or explain your topic.

2. What is do you already know about this topic? Why did you choose it?

3. Generate at least three questions that you plan to answer through your research.


Activity Two: Narrowing a Topic for the Extension Task

Topic: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Quick Tips for Narrowing a Topic

❏ Look at an encyclopedia for general information on your topic and note interesting facts or ideas.

❏ Ask yourself the following questions:

❏ Will my topic fit the assignment? Is my topic still too broad for the length of the paper, speech, etc.?

❏ What kind of information do I need to fulfill the assignment? A brief summary, journal articles, books, essays, encyclopedia articles, statistics? Can I locate these types of research materials for my topic?

Narrowing Chart (example):

Topic Chocolate

Components or Subtopics History of chocolate, making of chocolate, health aspects of chocolate, chocolate addictions, brands of chocolate (Godiva,

Hershey’s, Lindt, etc.), consumption of chocolate, popularity around the world, forms of chocolate

What components or subtopics are of most

interest to you?

Health aspects of chocolate

What new questions do you have about your

topic?

Are there health benefits to eating chocolate? Can chocolate boost your mood? Is chocolate addictive?

Formulate a topic statement I will explore the health benefits of chocolate consumption specifically focusing on how chocolate affects moods and brain

chemistry.


Fill in the chart about your topic:

Topic

Components or Subtopics

What components or subtopics are

of most interest to you?

What new questions do you have

about your topic?

Formulate a topic statement.


Activity Three: Source Tracker for the Extension Task- Part A

Source Title

Locatable Information (Call

Number, Author’s Last Name,

Etc)

Source Type

Book, Online Database, Journal,

Reference, etc.

Paragraphs and Page Numbers to Use

Which research question does this answer?


Activity Four: Source Tracker for the Extension Task- Part B

Part I- Evidence

Source Title Specific Evidence to Include in Essay How does this evidence help answer a research question? Citation-

Paragraphs and Page Numbers



Part II -MLA Citations Use a source citation generator such as Easy Bib or Bib Me to create an MLA citation for each source used.

MLA Citation

Activity Five: Understanding Plagiarism

● My definition of plagiarism:___________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

● Dictionary definition of plagiarism:_____________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


● What is the difference between deliberate and accidental plagiarism?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Define quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing and explain the proper form of citation for each. Include an example of each using information you

gathered from your sources:

● Quoting:___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

● Example:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

● Paraphrasing:______________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

● Example:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

● Summarizing:_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

● Example:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Peer Review Guide

Directions: Complete the following steps to peer review your group member’s essays.

_____ Check the structure of the essay to make sure it follows the suggested structure in the prompt: first

explaining the topic and then defending or disputing the importance of the First Amendment of the

Constitution of the United States.

_____Identify and underline the claim of the essay.

_____Next to the claim, write a brief summary describing the organization and connection between various

ideas of the essay. Did your partner accurately explain their research topic?

Write yes or no here:_________________ If not, why?___________________________

_____Next to each body paragraph, write a one sentence summary. Explain how the supporting claims help to

support the main claim of the essay.

_____Highlight the evidence used in each body paragraph to support the claim.

_____Label counterclaims in the essay as well as rebuttals.

_____Assess the quality of the evidence by placing a plus sign next to relevant evidence and logical reasoning

and a minus sign next to irrelevant evidence or false reasoning.

_____Circle strong vocabulary words in the text and note any unnecessary repetitions.

_____Edit the essay using proofreading marks for spelling mistakes and use of proper punctuation.


Possible Topics Handout Below you will find a list of court cases that challenged first amendment rights.

Choose one to use as the basis of your extension task essay.

• Reynolds v. United States (1879)

o Law banning polygamy was upheld.

• Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940)

o Law requiring special permits for religious solicitors was denied.

• Everson v. Board of Education(1947)

o Upheld New Jersey’s practice of reimbursing families for the price of busing students to

parochial and private schools.

• Braunfeld v. Brown (1961)

o Upheld a Pennsylvania law requiring stores to be closed on Sundays.

• Torcaso v. Watkins (1961)

o Maryland requirement that candidates for public office swear a belief in God was denied.

• Engel v. Vitale (1962)

o New York’s requirement of a prayer beginning the school day was declared unconstitutional.

• Sherbert v. Verner (1963)

o Ruled that states could not deny unemployment benefits to those who denied a job requiring

them to work on the Sabbath.

• Abington School District v. Schempp (1963)

o Pennsylvania law requiring public school to open with Bible reading was struck down.

• Epperson v. Arkansas (1968)

o Arkansas law prohibiting the teaching of evolution declared unconstitutional.

• McDaniel v. Paty (1978)

o Law forbidding members of clergy from public office was overturned.

• Stone v. Graham (1980)

o Laws requiring Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools declared

unconstitutional.

• Marsh v. Chambers (1983)

o Hiring of a chaplain to open a state legislative session with a prayer or invocation was upheld.

• Thornton v. Caldor (1985)

o Private companies could refuse to hire those who refused to work on their personal Sabbath

day.

• Goldman v. Weinberger (1986)

o A Jewish chaplain who wore a yarmulke in the Air Force was submitted to penalties.

• Edwards v. Aguillard (1987)

o Louisiana law couldn’t require teaching of evolution as well as creationism.


• Allegheny County v. Greater Pittsburgh ACLU (1989)

o Placing a nativity scene placed in a courthouse violated the law.

• Lee v. Weisman (1992)

o Clergy-led prayer at school graduations violated the law.

• Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District (1993)

o School districts must provide benefits to deaf children in religious schools.

• Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board v. Pinette (1995)

o A cross placed by a private group in a public forum was upheld.

• Mitchell v. Helms (2000)

o Federal government should provide computer equipment to all schools, including private and

parochial.

• Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002)

o Government program giving children vouchers to attend private and parochial schools was

upheld.

• Van Orden v. Perry (2005)

o Monument of Ten Commandments by Texas courthouse did not violate the law.

• Cutter v. Wilkinson (2005)

o Federal law keeping the government from burdening prisoners’ religious exercise did not

violate the law.

• Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation (2007)

o Taxpayers can’t bring Establishment Clause charges against executive office funded programs.

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