Our Struggle for Rights Student Activities

Other than the temperance movement, what other reform movements arose in the latter years of the nineteenth century?

What alternatives to apprenticeships for children were created?

Design a comparative chart that looks at the difference between the typical nineteenth century urban dwelling and those of today.

List the problems faced by inhabitants of late nineteenth century cities.

What evidence is there that drunkenness was a serious problem in the latter part of the nineteenth century?

What were the arguments against giving women the right to vote?

Why was World War One the catalyst for winning women the right to vote?

Why were urban epidemics frequent occurrences?

Working men made important gains in the last half of the nineteenth century. What were the most significant ones?

As a creative exercise, as a class decide on a contemporary social issue. Once that issue has been determined, have each student design and draw a poster to promote that particular issue.

Conduct a class discussion/debate whether you think nineteenth century reformers and philanthropists are different from those of today.

Conduct a triad debate (one for, one against, and one judge) on the following resolution: "The temperance movement was misguided and ineffective." Have both sides of the debate research the issue, make opening and closing statements as well as refute arguments coming from the other side. The judge should listen attentively, take notes, and render a final written decision.

Construct a timeline of advances made by women during the nineteenth century.

Research Canada's first female doctor, first female lawyer, first female mayor, first female judge, and first female M.P.

Write a series of three days of diary entries putting yourself in the position of a nineteenth century urban dweller.

Do you think economic disparity was greater or less in the last decades of the nineteenth century than it is today? Justify your position with supporting evidence.

Look at the temperance banner in the chapter. What makes it an effective visual tool?

Research the origins and early growth of the Children's Aid Society.

Why did women spearhead the temperance movement?

Analyze what you think was the motivation behind the work of nineteenth century philanthropists.

Analyze why women in Quebec had to more than twenty years to obtain the right to vote compared to women in all other provinces.

Art is a very useful method of obtaining valuable information. Examine the painting entitled "Meeting of the School Trustees." What observations about the era can you make?

Of the urban problems that existed within the latter part of the nineteenth century, which was the most serious? Why? Justify your choice with supporting historical evidence.

Why was the temperance movement so popular at the time? Could you liken it to any current reform movement?

Why were many of the nineteenth century social reform movements linked very close to the church?

Write a contemporary editorial about the iusse of rampant urban crime. Make sure that your editorial focuses in on both the principal cause(s) of crime as well as some possible solution(s).