Walk on as Motivation Activity for Nationalism

I just introduced the concept of nationalism to my students. Before this year, we just tackled the definition of nationalism and then look at the factor which contributed to nationalism in the Philippines before the 1896 revolution.

This year though, I gave it a new twist, courtesy of a teacher I met in Baguio (forgot po his name though, sorry.).

In a talk I gave to teachers, I was talking about using media in teaching social studies and one of the materials I used was U2's Walk On song (check out that link, wink, wink).

As the one website puts it:

"if you see at the booklet, there's a note, were u2 says that this song is dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi, pronounced ( Ong San Soo Chee ), in some parts of the lyrics U2 mention the struggle of this woman to free her country. Burma, a country of 47 million people is ruled by fear. A military machine of 400.000 soldiers denies a whole nation its most basic rights. Aung San Suu Kyi, pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate, symbolises the struggle of Burma's people to be free. She has spent six years under house arrest, her movements are still severely restricted, her phone is frequently cut and she is prevented from seeing her family. Hundreds of her supporters are detained, many suffering torture and in some cases death. Her message is a simple one - that only by fighting fear can you truly be free - a message Burma's military fears and aims to silence." - http://hem.bredband.net/steverud/U2MoL/ATYCLB/walkon.html

During the talk I gave, I used it for application in Asian History. The teacher from Baguio said that it can actually be used for any lesson for nationalism. Voila! That's when I decided to use it to introduce nationalism.

How did I conduct the lesson? First, I asked students to listen to the song (with lyrics flashed, OF COURSE). But before asking them to do that I asked them to reflect on these questions (this served as my seatwork) :

1.) Sino ang katutubo o indio (wala pang Filipino noon) na pinakaposibleng kumata nito sa panahong ng hispanikong Pilipinas batay sa nabasang kabanata ukol sa Pagsibol ng Nasyonalismo sa Pilipinas? Bakit?
2.) Kanino niya ikinakanta ito?

Instead of asking them to just write the answers down, I also asked them to draw or make a visual representation of the answers. For me, this might stimulate their imaginations better.

Of course, after listening to it, we analyzed the song and looked at possible characters in the hispanic times that could have sang U2's song. (Possibilities are endless, just keep in mind that you'll have to channel the examples to nationalism.)I also explained to them that this was actually a song composed by Bono and dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi.

For their homework, I also asked them to select a song that would be appropriate for someone who would fight the Spaniards because of nationalism. I also asked them to include the lyrics and a short explanation of why they chose the song.

Oh yeah, I still gave them the definition of nationalism and the factors that contributed to the growing sense of it then.

Here are the Lyrics to the Song:

Walk On
By Bono
Performed by U2

And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage that you can bring
Love is not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind...

And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong

Oh, oh
Walk on, walk on
What you got, they can't steal it
No, they can't even feel it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight

You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed, to be seen
You could have flown away
A singing bird in an open cage
Who will only fly, only fly, for freedom

Oh, oh
Walk on, walk on
What you got, they can't deny it
Can't sell it, or buy it
Walk on, walk on
You stay safe tonight

And I know it aches
How your heart, it breaks
You can only take so much

Walk on...
Walk on...

Home...
Hard to know what it is, if you never had one
Home...
I can't say where it is, but I know I'm going
Home...
That's where the hurt is...

And I know it aches
And your heart, it breaks
And you can only take so much

Walk on...
(Hooo)

Leave it behind
You got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel

All this you can leave behind

All that you reason, (it's only time)
(And I'll never fill up all I find)
All that you sense
All that you scheme
All you dress-up
All that you've seen
All you create
All that you wreck
All that you hate