All That Glitters is Not Gold: Bread and Power in 1789
Bread... the staff of life. In France in 1789, it accounted for approximately 70% of the French diet. The average French citizen ate 2-3 pounds of it per day. So, when harvests failed in France in the late 1780s, hunger spread quickly and so did anger. This was the reality for the vast majority of France. As beautiful as Versailles was, it was highly unlikely you were ever going to experience that level of excess. More than likely, in 1789, you were going to be starving. So, how do we, as teachers, convey that contrast to our students? How do we connect that hunger to the system that sustained such inequality -a system that was literally rotting at the core. And where am I getting all these facts on bread? This is where CLIL becomes especially powerful. With the Internet, the potential for teachers to support academic curriculum and enrich student learning in a foreign language is virtually limitless. Yes, the mater...
