I worked with The New York Times to create this guide for teachers who wanted to address the #MeToo movement in their classes. It incorporates many ideas about how to bring contemporary issues and news stories into the classroom. The piece was originally published in 2018, but society is still grappling with many on these issues, and these teaching techniques can easily be applied to contemporary news stories. This copy is for archival purposes only. View the original version here.

— Christopher Pepper

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The #MeToo movement has inspired a “tsunami” of stories, from newspaper front pages to social media to private conversations between friends and relatives. It is, many believe, a watershed cultural moment.

Has it touched your community or school? How have you and your students responded?

As The Times’s new gender editor, Jessica Bennett, writes:

In the weeks since The New York Times and The New Yorker first broke stories of the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s decades-long abuse of women he worked with, the hashtag #MeToo has exploded on social media as a vehicle for women to share their stories. For perhaps the first time in history, powerful men are falling, like dominos, and women are being believed.

But the #MeToo moment has become something larger: a lens through which we view the world, a sense of blinders being taken off.

In this unit, we pull together a wealth of Times reporting, opinion and video to suggest several ways to begin confronting the questions and issues the movement raises. We asked Christopher Pepper, a health educator in the San Francisco Unified School District who helped design the district’s high school sex education curriculum, to co-write this piece with Learning Network staff. Before beginning, we suggest reading our advice on talking about sensitive issues in the news.

Though we realize there is already enough here for at least a week’s-worth of work, we’d love to add your ideas as well. How are you talking about these issues in your school or classroom? Please let us know in the comments.

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Warm-Up

Begin the lesson by having students write about what they already know, or think they know, about sexual harassment and the #MeToo movement.

You can have the class submit their thoughts anonymously by putting folded pieces of paper into a basket, or you can have them write publicly by using a graffiti board. Or, you can invite them to share first in partners or small groups.

To prompt their thinking, you might start by asking:

• What have you heard or learned about sexual harassment?

• What do you know about the #MeToo movement?

• How do you feel about the movement? You can represent your feelings with a word or an image.

• What questions do you have about this movement and the many issues it has raised over the past several months?

• Why might this be a difficult topic to discuss in class?

After students have had time to reflect, discuss all but the last question as a class. If students wrote anonymously, you might read aloud from some of the submissions to get the discussion started. As the class talks, highlight patterns in their feelings and observations and write down student questions on a poster paper so you can continue to address them over the course of the unit.

Finally, take on the last question: Why might this be a difficult topic to discuss in class? What barriers might there be to learning about this topic and discussing it as a group? Are there ground rules that should be developed? If so, what should they be? Over all, do they think this is an important topic to take on in school? Why or why not?

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Build Background Knowledge on Sexual Harassment

For students to understand the significance of the #MeToo movement, they must understand the events that led to this cultural reckoning. Start by watching the Retro Report video “Why Hasn’t Sexual Harassment Disappeared?,” which traces the evolution of sexual harassment in the workplace from the defining of the term in the mid-1970s, to Anita Hill’s testimony in 1991, to the current deluge of allegations against powerful men in entertainment, media, politics and other industries.

Agree on Definitions

As they watch, ask students to come up with a working definition of “sexual harassment” using a Frayer model or some other vocabulary tool. The definition of this term is part of the conversation that the #MeToo movement, and those before it, has sparked, so students can continue to add to and revise their definitions as they learn throughout the unit.

The Times defines sexual harassment in the workplace this way:

Sexual harassment in the workplace is an umbrella term that encompasses a range of unwanted behaviors. This includes nonphysical harassment, including suggestive remarks and gestures, or requests for sexual favors. Physical harassment includes touches, hugs, kisses and coerced sex acts.

It can be perpetrated by anyone — a manager, a colleague, a client. The perpetrator or the recipient may be male or female. It does not need to occur inside the office.

Note to teachers: Discussing sexual harassment often involves legal and technical language. The Times uses the terms “sexual harassment” and “sexual misconduct” to refer to a range of behaviors that are sexual in nature and nonconsensual. The term “sexual assault” usually signifies a felony sexual offense, like rape.

For more information, see the legal definition of sexual harassment from the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, these examples of sexual harassment from the United Nations and this definition of consent from the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.

You might have students read these documents and add examples and non-examples of sexual harassment to their Frayer model. Depending on the reading level of your students, you may also want to prepare a vocabulary sheet to help them understand other words they may not know related to this topic. You might also ask them why it is so important to understand how all these terms are defined.

Annotate a Timeline

As students watch, read and research during this unit, they might take notes by creating an annotated timeline, plotting the events that have led up to the #MeToo moment and briefly explaining what makes them significant in the current context.

After they have watched the Retro Report video, invite them to read “The ‘Click’ Moment: How the Weinstein Scandal Unleashed a Tsunami” and add the information in it to their timelines.

The article begins:

Forty years ago this month, Ms. magazine put sexual harassment on its cover for the first time. Understanding the sensitivity of the topic, the editors used puppets for the cover image — a male hand reaching into a woman’s blouse — rather than a photograph. It was banned from some supermarkets nonetheless.

In 1977, the term sexual harassment had not been defined in the law and had barely entered the public lexicon. And yet, to read that Ms. article today, amid a profound shift in discourse, is to feel haunted by its familiarity.

It describes an executive assistant who quit after her boss asked for oral sex; a student who dropped out after being assaulted by her adviser; a black medical administrator whose white supervisor asked if the women in her neighborhood were prostitutes — and, subsequently, if she would have group sex with him and several colleagues.

Citing a survey in which 88 percent of women said they were harassed at work, the author said the problem permeated almost every profession, but was particularly pernicious “in the supposedly glamorous profession of acting,” in which Hollywood’s casting couch remained a “strong convention.”

“What we have so far seen,” the article stated, “is only the tip of a very large and very destructive iceberg.”

Four decades later, as allegations against Harvey Weinstein and others continue to metastasize, it feels as if we have crashed into the iceberg. Disaster metaphors — tsunami, hurricane, avalanche, landslide — seem to be in endless rotation to describe the moment, but the point is that a great many powerful men have seen their careers disintegrate, and with astonishing speed.

Review the sexual harassment timelines that students have created and, if you would like to go deeper, compare them to this interactive sexual harassment timeline from KQED.

Have a Class Discussion

In response to the video and article discuss as a class:

• What has catalyzed the #MeToo moment? Why is this suddenly in the news?

• What progress has been made since people first started talking about sexual harassment in the workplace in the 1970s? In your opinion, what still needs to be done and why?

• What effects have sexual harassment and misconduct in general had on society? What examples can you give?

• Do men and boys have a different role to play than women and girls in fighting sexual harassment? If so, how? If not, why not?

• In your opinion, is this a watershed moment or turning point in the conversation around sexual misconduct in the workplace and beyond? Why or why not?

To end this part of the unit, you might invite your students to weigh in with their answers on our Student Opinion question: “What Is Your Reaction to the #MeToo Movement?” (Our student questions are open for response indefinitely.)

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Understand the Impact of Sexual Harassment on Individuals and Society Today

Since the allegations against the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein broke late in 2017, the conversation about sexual harassment has evolved, becoming more complex and nuanced. In an article for The Cut, Rebecca Traister writes about the impact of widespread sexual harassment not only on individual people, but also on our society as a whole:

All these variations, all these stories … I’m so tired. Tired of getting — or hearing about other women getting — grabbed or pinched or demeaned, tired of having had to laugh. I’m tired of feeling paralyzed, unable to confront friends and colleagues about what they just said or did, because we know being the scold is its own form of self-exile, of exposure and vulnerability, of risk. If this were a feminist mini-series, gorgeously shot, with a tidy narrative, this beat — the outpouring of stories and memories we didn’t even know we’d repressed — would be wrapping up, and we’d be moving on to the denouement. But there is no sign of a pause; there are indications that it is just beginning.

In hearing these individual tales, we’re not only learning about individual trespasses but for the first time getting a view of the matrix in which we’ve all been living: We see that the men who have had the power to abuse women’s bodies and psyches throughout their careers are in many cases also the ones in charge of our political and cultural stories.

And in “The #MeToo Moment: What’s Next?” Jessica Bennett writes for The Times:

I hope we talk about culture as much as we talk about individuals, and recognize that while the Weinsteins of the world are extreme, the messages we learn about sex, and power, and courtship, and consent, are deeply ingrained and start young — and will take far more than a workplace sexual harassment training to unlearn.

In this section, students explore how the pervasiveness of sexual harassment affects all of us on personal, professional and societal levels. They also begin to address some of the many questions the #MeToo conversation has sparked on the nature of sexual misconduct: Why does it happen? Why has it persisted? Why do victims often not speak up against their abusers? Is it about sex, power, both or something else?

Jigsaw

Assign, or allow students to choose, one of the following articles to read in small “expert” groups for a jigsaw activity.

Remind them that each of these articles provides just one opinion, with which they may agree or disagree. You might provide them with some guiding questions and ask them to annotate as they read:

• What is the author’s overall argument about the root causes of sexual harassment?

• What points resonate with you? Which challenge your beliefs? Why?

• What evidence does the author provide to support his or her argument? Is it credible and substantial?

“How Wall Street Bro Talk Keeps Women Down” critiques men’s participation in the objectification of women:

For my entire life, I’ve heard men talk about women. On baseball fields, in wrestling locker rooms, at frat parties and in private conversations, I’ve listened to men dissect women into body parts. When I was younger, I did it, too. Casually objectifying women — speaking in an unguarded way, using language we never would in mixed company — brought us together.

“Sexual Harassment: It’s About Power, Not Lust” was written in 1991, but its premise remains relevant:

One of a flood of tales that have surfaced in the wake of Anita F. Hill’s accusations of sexual harassment in hearings on Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court nomination, the story underscores a picture that is emerging from extensive research on such harassment: it has less to do with sex than with power. It is a way to keep women in their place; through harassment men devalue a woman’s role in the work place by calling attention to her sexuality.

“The Unexamined Brutality of the Male Libido” offers a contentious counterpoint to that power argument:

Men arrive at this moment of reckoning woefully unprepared. Most are shocked by the reality of women’s lived experience. Almost all are uninterested or unwilling to grapple with the problem at the heart of all this: the often ugly and dangerous nature of the male libido.

“When Saying ‘Yes’ Is Easier Than Saying ‘No’” examines the tricky subject of consent in intimate relationships:

Sometimes “yes” means “no,” simply because it is easier to go through with it than explain our way out of the situation. Sometimes “no” means “yes,” because you actually do want to do it, but you know you’re not supposed to lest you be labeled a slut. And if you’re a man, that “no” often means “just try harder” — because, you know, persuasion is part of the game.

“She Didn’t Fight Back: 5 (Misguided) Reasons People Doubt Sexual Assault Survivors” challenges myths about sexual assault:

There are all sorts of reasons women who report sexual misconduct, from unwanted advances by their bosses to groping or forced sex acts, are not believed, and with a steady drumbeat of new reports making headlines, the country is hearing a lot of them.

“Men and Women Say They’re More Different Than Similar” explores the traditional notions of gender that underlie a culture of sexual harassment:

Men are tough; women are in touch with their feelings. Men are providers; women are nurturers. Men should punch back when provoked; women should be physically attractive. These stereotypical beliefs about gender differences remain strong, found a new survey from the Pew Research Center on Tuesday.

Then, create “teaching” groups with one or two students from each “expert” group. Allow each student to present his or her article and ask the other students to take notes on the different perspectives in a graphic organizer such as this one.

Class Discussion

After all students have presented their points, invite them to discuss in their small groups or as a whole class the factors that contribute to a culture of sexual harassment. Encourage them to respectfully agree or disagree by citing evidence from the articles or their own experiences. Some conversation starters might include:

• Why does sexual harassment happen?

• If this has been happening all along, why are we just hearing about it now?

• Why is the problem of sexual misconduct so widespread?

• What is the role of gender in sexual harassment?

• What can we do as a society? What can we do as individuals?

• Based on your reading, do you think discussing and learning about sexual harassment is important? Why or why not?

Two Ways to Close This Section of the Unit: A Barometer Activity or a Gallery Walk

Barometer

In a barometer activity, students listen to a statement and then stand up and move to a point between “Strongly Agree” and “Strongly Disagree” that reflects their opinion. Begin by stating the prompt, then allow students to find their place on the continuum. After all students have moved, ask a few to explain why they chose that position. If they feel so moved by the discussion, let them change their place on the barometer and explain why they did so. You may also want students to prepare their answers in writing before engaging in the discussion.

Some possible prompts include:

• Stereotypes about men and women are harmful.

• It’s hard to tell the difference between sexual harassment and flirting.

• Sexual harassment is natural.

• If we wanted to end sexual harassment, it would be easy to do.

• Sexual harassment is mostly a women’s issue.

• Sexual harassment is a problem at our school.

Gallery Walk

Or, invite students to share the implications of what they learned with the rest of the class in a gallery walk. On a piece of poster paper, have each student create a “one-pager” about the article they read. In this format, students create a visual of some kind that captures a key aspect of the article, literally or symbolically, but they also include a quotation from the article that seems important, and pose a question for the journalist or for someone mentioned in the article. Here is an activity sheet that can guide them.

After students have completed their work, post it on the walls or leave it at individual desks and invite the class to move around silently and respond to what they see on sticky notes with questions, comments or connections.

Finally, as a class, discuss the larger patterns among the different articles. How does sexual harassment affect individuals? How does it affect society? What might our world look like without it?

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Has #MeToo Gone Too Far? Debate the Issue

The #MeToo movement has tried to hold sexual abusers accountable for their actions in the workplace and in broader society. As with any movement toward widespread social change, though, a backlash has been brewing, with some saying the movement has gone too far.

In “Publicly, We Say #MeToo. Privately, We Have Misgivings.,” Daphne Merkin writes:

For many weeks now, the conversation that has been going on in private about this reckoning is radically different from the public one. This is not a good sign, suggesting the sort of social intimidation that is the underside of a culture of political correctness, such as we are increasingly living in.

The women I know — of all ages — have responded by and large with a mixture of slightly horrified excitement (bordering on titillation) as to who will be the next man accused and overt disbelief.

Publicly, they say the right things, expressing approval and joining in the chorus of voices that applaud the takedown of maleficent characters who prey on vulnerable women in the workplace.

In private it’s a different story. “Grow up, this is real life,” I hear these same feminist friends say. “What ever happened to flirting?” and “What about the women who are the predators?” Some women, including random people I talk to in supermarket lines, have gone so far as to call it an outright witch hunt.

Where do your students stand within the debate? What do they really think about the conversations being had and the ways men are being held accountable for sexual misconduct? Do they think #MeToo has gone too far — or not far enough?

Engage students in a structured discussion, such as a debate, a Fishbowl or a Four Corners activity, where they can voice their opinions honestly and listen to other perspectives respectfully.

We recommend the articles below for a wide variety of perspectives. You might choose to have half the class read one side of the issue and the other half read the other side. Or, have every student read at least one article from each point of view to get a well-rounded understanding of the debate.

Articles generally in support of the #MeToo movement

Yes, This Is a Witch Hunt. I’m a Witch and I’m Hunting You.

Amber Tamblyn: I’m Not Ready for the Redemption of Men

Response to French Letter Denouncing #MeToo Shows a Sharp Divide

How the Myth of the Artistic Genius Excuses the Abuse of Women

When Sexual Assault Victims Are Charged With Lying

Articles that question the movement:

Publicly, We Say #MeToo. Privately, We Have Misgivings.

When #MeToo Goes Too Far

Catherine Deneuve and Others Denounce the #MeToo Movement

I’m Not Convinced Franken Should Quit

The Limits of ‘Believe All Women’

To facilitate the discussion, you might ask:

• Has the #MeToo movement gone too far? If so, what is the limit? If not, why not and is there a limit?

• What should happen to people who are accused or guilty of sexual harassment and assault?

• Should we always “believe all women”? What are the benefits and drawbacks of doing so?

• Do these conversations around sexual harassment and assault make relations between men and women better or worse? Why do you think so?

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Bring It Home: Sexual Harassment and Teenagers

Note to teachers: Any discussion of sexual harassment in our society will quickly involve students’ own experiences, in and out of school. Below are several ideas for how students might consider some of the questions raised by the activities above in terms of how they affect their own communities. This is obviously a sensitive thing to take on in a classroom, and we welcome your ideas. How have you addressed these issues with your students? Please post thoughts to our comments section.

1. Research School Practices and Policies

A recent survey by The Upshot reports:

The victims of sexual harassment who have recently come forward are far from alone: Nearly half of women say they have experienced some form of it at work at least once in their careers. But there has been little research about those responsible.

In a new survey, about a third of men said they had done something at work within the past year that would qualify as objectionable behavior or sexual harassment.

Do your students think peer-to-peer sexual harassment is a problem at your school? How do they know?

Invite them to investigate the policies and protocols already in place school-wide, and perhaps even district- or statewide. Students might interview teachers, administrators and fellow students to learn the following:

• How comprehensive, thoughtful and practical are the policies we have now?

• How well do they seem to work?

• How might they be improved?

Based on their analysis, what recommendations might your students make about these policies? How can they communicate these recommendations? For example, might they write a piece for the school newspaper? Send a letter to administrators? Create an annotated reading list for their peers? Sponsor an awareness-raising campaign or “teach-in” around the issue for the school as a whole?

2. Revise Your Sex Ed Curriculum

How much does your school’s sex education curriculum address sexual harassment? Consent? Gender roles? Healthy relationships?

In California, lessons about sexual consent are now required:

The legislation requires school districts that already include health as a graduation requirement to teach about “yes means yes” and sexual violence prevention starting next year. It also asks state education officials to update curriculum guidelines for high school health classes with information about those topics. Under a “yes means yes” standard, sexual activity is considered consensual only when both partners clearly state their willingness to participate through “affirmative, conscious and voluntary agreement” at every stage.

Ask your students to do an audit of their sex education curriculum, either by sharing experiences they have had in class or by analyzing learning materials like worksheets and textbooks. What do they learn about sexual harassment, consent and gender? What messages do boys get about these topics? What messages do girls get? In their opinions, is what they learn about sex helpful in combating the social norms that have allowed sexual misconduct to continue? Or does it perpetuate them?

Invite students to do further research into how to address these issues with young people. In addition to the above resources on sexual harassment, they might also read some of these articles for a deeper look at sex education and consent:

Sex Ed Lesson: ‘Yes Means Yes,’ but It’s Tricky

Teaching Good Sex

Campus Sex … With a Syllabus

Making Consent Cool: Students Advocate for Consensual Sex

Affirmative Consent: Are Students Really Asking?

Talking to Children About Consent

Talking With Both Daughters and Sons About Sex

After they complete the reading, assign them to groups and ask them to outline the sex education curriculum they would like schools to teach. Encourage them to consider gaps in learning about gender, consent and sexual harassment. How can their curriculum help students understand the many factors that contribute to sexual misconduct? How can it disrupt harmful stereotypes about boys and girls? How might the curriculum be balanced to encourage all students to share their voices? Students might even create a sample lesson plan for one of these issues and teach it to the class.

To increase the academic rigor of the exercise, have students compare what’s taught in their school to the National Sexuality Education Standards.

3. Examine the Role of Technology and Social Media in Sexual Harassment

Should sexting be a crime? Invite your students to watch and respond to this video by our colleagues at KQED’s Above the Noise.

Then, have them read “Teenagers, Stop Asking for Nude Photos.” In the article, Lisa Damour writes:

Teenagers are drafted into a sexual culture that rests on a harmful premise: On the heterosexual field, boys typically play offense and girls play defense. This problematic framework underlies the findings of a new study that documents, in alarming detail, girls’ reports of the common coercive practices boys use to solicit nude digital photographs. An analysis of nearly 500 accounts from 12- to 18-year-old girls about their negative experiences with sexting found that over two-thirds had been asked for explicit images. …

… In the wider culture, it appears we have suddenly come to the limit of our tolerance for the sexualized abuse of power by adult men. A logical next step is to recalibrate some of the toxic norms that have taken hold among teenagers. Most schools and many parents already tell teenagers not to send sexualized selfies. But why don’t we also tell adolescents to stop asking for nude photos from one another?

We posed our own Student Opinion question about this article, asking What Advice Should Parents and Counselors Give Teenagers About Sexting? One student wrote:

I find it concerning that the statistics proving males’ higher likelihood of pressuring girls for photos of this nature is so distinct. In light of all that is going on regarding sexual misconduct, in particular the “Me Too” movement, it makes me think that — although it could not be entirely eliminated — the awareness of this issue could prevent this sexting issue, which is the “norm” in today’s world, from expanding into sexual harassment and assault such as molestation and rape. Both the “Me Too” movement and sexting stories provided in the article draw uncanny parallels which must be addressed and cured.

Have your students participate in the conversation by reading other students’ responses and then writing to us with their own ideas about the advice teenagers should get about sexting — and the kinds of support they need when dealing with this issue.

4. Consider What One Individual Can Do

What actions — big or small — can your students commit to as individuals to help create a safe and inclusive society for all people and prevent the continuation of a culture of sexual assault and harassment in their generation?

You might invite your students to write down ideas — as many as they each can come up with — on sticky notes, and post those notes all over a wall of your classroom. Then, as students walk around and read what others wrote, they can think about which of the suggested actions they would be willing to take. They might then keep a private journal of their actions and thoughts around this issue, and report back to class in future days about the results.

If they need help coming up with ideas, you might have students read one or more of these articles and identify the strategies that the authors suggest men and women can use to stop sexual harassment:

• This Is a Man Problem

• How to Help Kids Disrupt ‘Bro Culture’

• The #MeToo Moment: How to Be a (Good) Bystander

• Steinem, Sandberg and Judd on How to End Sex Harassment

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Respond to What You’ve Learned by Creating Something

At the end of a unit on this topic, students can deepen their reflections and voice their opinions through creative responses like the following. They might work individually on the project of their choice, work together in small groups, or, as a class, choose one of these ideas to do together.

1. Make Art Inspired by the Reckoning

The Times’s gender editor, Jessica Bennett, writes:

From Picasso’s Guernica — observed as a cry against the atrocities of the Spanish War — to the graffiti of the Arab Spring, social movements and injustice have long inspired art of all forms. The #MeToo Moment is no exception.

The Times asked readers to submit work based on this theme and published it with comments from the artist. Let students view the artwork readers created and then ask them to create their own visual representations of the #MeToo moment.

Or, they can design an editorial cartoon in response to an article on sexual harassment, as several students did in our 2017 Editorial Cartoon Contest.

2. Weigh In Like a Late Night Talk Show Host

Late night talk show hosts often use their platforms to respond to the news. Many, like Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah and Jimmy Fallon have been weighing in on the #MeToo movement with passion and humor. Let students watch one or more of the excerpts from the shows above, using it as a mentor text for their own late night talk show.

Which topics from the conversation around sexual harassment get your students most animated? Have them choose an article from The Times Topics Sexual Harassment page or another source and prepare a monologue in response to it. Just as late night hosts do, they should use specific evidence from the article, other resources and their own experiences to defend their position. They should also consider how they can effectively use humor, emotion, empathy and logic to communicate their message.

Note to teacher: Some of the linked videos do use expletives.

3. Remix Beauty Standards

At the Golden Globes this year, women and men wore black in solidarity with victims of sexual misconduct and effectively redefined the purpose of the red carpet. The Times followed suit, as Bonnie Wertheim writes:

At The Times, where I work on the Styles desk, red carpet slide shows are a mainstay of awards season. We watch, pick our personal bests and worsts, and publish images that millions of people then judge for themselves. The photographs, at best, reflect a desire for shiny distractions. But there is a complicity to scrutinizing and ranking these women, too.

Their dresses are not a reflection of their own style or their professional achievements. They speak to the larger economy of Hollywood, whose corruption becomes clearer with each turn of the news cycle. Moreover, our habitual participation in the red carpet industrial complex underscores the widely held perception that women’s bodies are available for public consumption.

So we’re switching things up this year.

We’re sending a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, Damon Winter, to document the Golden Globes red carpet as a news event (you can see some of his coverage of Donald Trump here). We will have a slate of reporters watching and listening for smart, critical quotes from celebrities, not about what they’re wearing, but about the future they envision for their industry — and the world.

The Times has also written about the ways that clothing and beauty companies are responding to the #MeToo moment by changing the way they represent women in their industry.

Have students look at some of the examples above. Then ask them to do their own research in magazines, on social media or on other online platforms and collect images of women and men. Ask them to consider the following questions:

• How are women generally portrayed?

• How are men generally portrayed?

• How might these portrayals contribute to a culture of sexual harassment and assault?

Then, as The Times did on the red carpet this year, invite students to choose one of the images they found and “remix” it in a way that challenges “the widely held perception that women’s bodies are available for public consumption.”

4. Record Oral Histories of #MeToo Experiences by Earlier Generations

The Times asked readers to share the conversations they have had with their families about unwanted sexual encounters. The Times received more that 140 responses, mostly from women, and interviewed members from seven of those families.

Have students listen to one or more of these interviews. What do they notice about how different generations think about sexual harassment? Jessica Bennet parses the results in this piece, interviewing Times staffers of different generations and focusing in part on reactions to recent allegations against Aziz Ansari that raise the question, Is it possible for something to be nonconsensual but also not sexual assault?

After students have listened to or read some of these pieces, invite them to prepare their own questions and interview someone of a different generation to understand their experiences on or thoughts about the #MeToo movement. They can record the interview on audio or video if they like.

Students can and should consider the topics about which they are personally curious, but they might use these questions as starting points:

• Did you learn about sexual harassment when you were my age? If so, what advice did you get? If not, do you wish you had?

• Have you ever had an experience with an unwanted sexual encounter that you want to share with me? What was that like for you?

• What advice do you have for me when it comes to sexual harassment and assault?

• Do you think progress has been made in addressing gender inequality and abuses of power since you were young?

• What do you think about the #MeToo movement? Is it necessary? Has it gone too far?

If students are comfortable, they can share what they learned from their interviews with the class. Discuss the commonalities and differences across generations. If they find differences, why do they think those generational differences exist? Do they think that progress has been made in the conversation around sexual harassment and assault? What do people in older generations have to teach your students on this issue? What does your students’ generation have to teach older generations?

5. Create an Anti-Harassment Campaign Aimed at Your Peers

Since the Harvey Weinstein story broke, people across industries have been looking for ways to fight the problem in their own worlds. Earlier in this lesson we invited students to think about what their schools could do, but this activity goes further by asking them to actually create a campaign that will help educate their peers.

They might first study some examples of campaigns, such as the Time’s Up anti-sexual harassment action plan:

Driven by outrage and a resolve to correct a power imbalance that seemed intractable just months ago, 300 prominent actresses and female agents, writers, directors, producers and entertainment executives have formed an ambitious, sprawling initiative to fight systemic sexual harassment in Hollywood and in blue-collar workplaces nationwide.

The initiative includes:

— A legal defense fund, backed by $13 million in donations, to help less privileged women — like janitors, nurses and workers at farms, factories, restaurants and hotels — protect themselves from sexual misconduct and the fallout from reporting it.

— Legislation to penalize companies that tolerate persistent harassment, and to discourage the use of nondisclosure agreements to silence victims.

— A drive to reach gender parity at studios and talent agencies that has already begun making headway.

— And a request that women walking the red carpet at the Golden Globes speak out and raise awareness by wearing black.

Students can view Time’s Up’s open letter and website as mentor texts. What are the plan’s purpose and goals? What steps does it outline for achieving those goals?

As students begin to brainstorm about what kind of campaign they want to create and what issues they will address, they might borrow ideas from these Times articles:

• Sexual Harassment Training Doesn’t Work. But Some Things Do.

• It’s Not Just Fox: Why Women Don’t Report Sexual Harassment

• How to Stop the Predators Who Aren’t Famous

• Men at Work Wonder if They Overstepped With Women, Too

• Stepping Up to Stop Sexual Assault

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Reflect on Your Learning

As your students finish their final projects, encourage them to return to some key questions we posed at the beginning of this unit:

• How does sexual harassment affect individuals and society?

• How do social and cultural norms contribute to sexual harassment?

• What can individuals do to put an end to sexual misconduct?

• Why is this such a difficult topic to address in class and in wider society?

• Do you think discussing and learning about sexual harassment is important? Why or why not?

Have their answers changed? Become more nuanced or informed? How? What advice might they have for future teachers and students of a class like this one?

__________

Related Resources

Additional Times Resources

Though our unit focuses on how this movement has played out in the United States, it is also surfacing in countries around the globe, from Indonesia and Afghanistan to Italy, Sweden, China and France. You can keep up with reporting on these issues worldwide through the Times Topics page on sexual harassment.

Learning Network Resources

• Lesson | Women on the March: A Lesson Plan on Imagining the Future of Feminism

• Lesson | Crossing the Line Online: Sexual Harassment and Violence in the Age of Social Media

• Lesson | Text to Text | ‘Speak’ and ‘Waking Up to the Enduring Memory of Rape’

• Lesson | Text to Text | ‘The Scarlet Letter’ and ‘Sexism and the Single Murderess’

• Student Opinion Question | What Is Your Reaction to the #MeToo Movement?

• Student Opinion Question | What Should We Do to Fight Sexual Violence Against Young Women?

• Student Opinion Question | Have You Experienced Sexual Harassment?

• Student Opinion Question | What Have Been Your Experiences With Catcalling or Other Kinds of Street Harassment?

Additional Resources From Around the Web

KQED | The Fight Against Sexual Harassment

Stop Sexual Assault in Schools | #MeTooK12 Resources

Equal Rights Advocates | Sexual Harassment at School

United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission | Youth @ Work: Sexual Harassment Is Against the Law