Oklahoma Social Studies MWH.C.3.3.A
The Standard
- MWH.C.3
- Analyze developments in politics, science, and philosophy contributing to human advancement and the rise of modern institutions of self-government.
- MWH.C.3.3
- Analyze the impact of the Enlightenment on modern government and economic institutions.
Explain how the major ideas of enlightened philosophy influenced the concepts of natural rights and consent of the governed.
Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies (2026) · MWH.C.3.3
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students read short passages from Locke and Rousseau. They explain how ideas about rights people already have and political power from the people challenged rule by birth.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain that Locke saw life, liberty, and property as rights a government should protect, not gifts from a king. They can connect Rousseau's social contract to a passage in the Declaration of Independence about where government gets its power.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think a king grants people their rights. They may think consent means everyone must approve every law, or assume everyone had equal political rights when these ideas spread.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: How did Locke's view of rights and Rousseau's social contract each challenge a king's claim to rule by birth? Write two sentences and use one detail from a Declaration of Independence excerpt.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs printed Locke, Rousseau, and Declaration excerpts; have them connect related claims with string and label each connection.
Ask: If people have rights before government exists, when can they replace a ruler? Write an answer using Locke and the Declaration.
Sort cards reading 'king grants rights,' 'people choose rulers,' and 'rights exist before laws,' then explain which claims challenge monarchy.
Show a local election ballot; ask students how officials receive authority and why winning an election does not erase individual rights.
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Related Standards
- USG.C.2.1.D
Describe how Enlightenment philosophy contributed to the concept of a social contract, the existence of natural, inalienable rights (e.g., life, liberty, and th...
- MWH.C.3.3.B
Describe the contributions of major Enlightenment thinkers (e.g., Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau), contrasting the views of Thomas Hobbes regarding the ...
- USG.C.1.3.D
Evaluate how religious traditions, moral philosophy, and enlightenment principles contributed to the development of key American founding ideas, such as natural...
- 8.C.1.5.B
Describe the intellectual origins of American political thought as proposed by such Enlightenment philosophers as John Locke and his theory on natural rights.
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