These Learning Links provide ten quick-and-easy, five-minute mini-lessons to promote student thought and dialogue about service and civic engagement. You may use as many of them as you wish, and in whatever order best meets your needs and the interest of your students. The purpose of these mini-lessons is to provide a deeper understanding of philanthropy (the giving of time, talent, and treasure for the common good) and to reinforce the lesson focus. These Learning Links also promote the development of character traits, civic engagement, and student leadership. As appropriate to your grade level, it is recommended that students play an active leadership role in presenting these mini-lessons to their classmates.

1. Read: You have probably heard of Helen Keller. She was a young blind and deaf girl who overcame hardship and inspired other blind people to overcome barriers. Did you also know that Helen Keller was a lifelong civil rights activist? She fought injustice for poor people because she realized that she owed her success to her family’s economic situation and resources. She showed courage in speaking out in protest against powerful people and laws that limited rights. She showed courage when she visited overcrowded and unhealthy apartment buildings in the city and found children working in unsafe conditions. From that experience, she set out to learn how to organize unions. On the opening day of a movie about her life, when she could have been inside in a seat of honor, Helen Keller stood outside the theater with the writers and film crew protesting unfair labor practices. Helen Keller was praised for bravely facing adversity with a smile, but she would have preferred to be remembered for her civil rights work against poverty and racism.
   Discuss: Helen Keller worked with others to build a more just world. Even though it was difficult to blindly face crowds and speak with a shaky voice, she bravely fought injustice for others—not for herself. What injustice have you witnessed for someone else? How can you find the courage to speak out as Helen Keller did about the injustices you observe?

2. Read: Do you have friends who have a different spiritual faith than you do? Many people find it difficult to talk about their spiritual differences, but if we are going to live together, it is important for people of different faiths to understand one another. Although we can’t teach religion in the public school, some teachers think that school is a good place to teach about religion. They argue that if students study different world religions, they grow in respect for others as they learn to protect the rights of people to practice their own religion. A world religion class gives students a place to talk about issues and speak openly about the First Amendment right to exercise religious freedom.
   Discuss: Do you think school is a good place to learn about world religions? Why or Why not? What do you think is the difference between teaching religion and teaching about religion? What do you think are the effects of not learning about world religions? How is religious tolerance related to civil rights?

3. Read: Did you know that slavery still exists today? Because slavery is hidden, we don’t know how many slaves there are, but an estimated 27 million people are “forced to do labor without pay under threat of violence.” Most of them are women and children. In Pakistan, a common form of slavery involves children weaving carpets. In India, children roll cigarettes to pay off their parents’ debt. In Brazil, families are forced at gunpoint to burn trees into charcoal. And in the United States people are used as sex slaves, maids and nannies, garment industry workers, and agricultural labor. It is difficult to stop slavery because slaves work in unregulated industries, but people can do something by learning about the issue, raising awareness, and speaking up.
   Discuss: How can education be used as a tool to fight slavery? How can raising awareness about the issue stop or reduce the problem? We can conduct research about what other people are doing and join their efforts. What can young people do to stand up for the rights of slaves who have no voice or choice?

4. Read: Have you ever heard the phrase, “Do to others what you would have them do to you”? This is one version of the golden rule. The golden rule is an expression of basic human rights, and it has been around for thousands of years and across world cultures and world religions. The oldest written version of this common ethic is from Ancient Egypt (around 1700 BCE): “Do for one who may do for you, that you may cause him thus to do.” The Jewish Talmud states, “What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. This is the law: all the rest is commentary.” Black Elk, a Native American, said, “All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.” A Sikh guru named Arjan Dev ji wrote, “Don’t create enmity with anyone as God is within everyone.” From Buddism, the saying is “A state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another?” In all versions, the golden rule essentially states that you treat all people, not just your own kind, with respect and consideration.
   Discuss: Could conflicts and world issues be solved if everyone followed the golden rule? Why or why not? How could we express this concept in the language of our school? Do you think raising awareness about our version of the golden rule will improve the climate at our school? Why or why not?

5. Read: I watched Rodney walk into my fourth hour class the first day of ninth grade. I thought, “Uh, oh. This guy is going to cause trouble.” He walked like he didn’t care if he bumped into someone next to him. His face was tight and his lips were thin, and his eyes looked around slowly like he was looking for someone to say something he could fight about. I looked down at my desk so he didn’t know I was a little scared of him. He sat right behind me. I pulled in my legs and put my arms on my lap. All through class I could hear Rodney breathing deeply. He didn’t say anything, but I thought he probably had his arms crossed. I barely listened to the teacher, all the time thinking Rodney was going to clobber me. It’s funny to remember that day because now Rodney is my friend. Rodney is smart and funny, and he always stands up for his friends. He told me later how scared he was that first day. He said he sat behind me because he saw something in my face that said I was safe.
   Discuss: First impressions are based on appearance and guesses. We all make judgments about people based on first impressions. Have you ever had a first impression of someone that turned out to be wrong? Does anybody judge you too quickly because you are blond or smart or tall or good at sports? What harm can come from first impressions? Does anything good come from first impressions? What acts of kindness can we practice to replace judgment?

6. Read: The St. Louis Post- Dispatch recently carried an article about 13 year old Josh Pillman from St. Charles, Missouri. This year Josh was serving as the junior co-chairman for “A Tasteful Affair”, a fundraiser for Food Outreach, which provides meals for low income people living with HIV, AIDS, and cancer. He has been traveling around the country talking to groups about HIV and AIDS since he was ten years old. In the summer he attends Camp Heartland, a program specifically designed for children affected by HIV and AIDS. Josh was born HIV positive as a result of his mother having received a tainted blood transfusion. When asked why he thought people sometimes discriminate against people with HIV-AIDS, he responded, “They don’t understand, and they discriminate against people because they are afraid."
   Discuss: Do you agree or disagree with Josh’s response to the question asking why some people discriminate against people with HIV-AIDS? Why? Do you think that all discrimination is the result of fear? Why or why not? How might what we do for our Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event help reduce discrimination in our homes, school, and/or community.

7. Read: Do you know of anyone who reads using Braille? In the early 1800s, a three year old boy named Louis Braille was helping his father in his father’s workshop. Louis accidentally injured his eye, resulting in his becoming blind. But young Louis did not allow his blindness to keep him from doing what he wanted to do. He became a talented musician, playing both the cello and the organ. Receiving a scholarship at the age of 10, he attended school and was introduced to a system of embossed paper with typical roman type to help blind students read by moving their fingers across the printed word. It was a very time consuming process. Meanwhile, a French army captain, Charles Barbier, had invented a system called “night writing” to enable messages to be written and read on battle fields at night. It used variations on a basic pattern of 12 raised dots on paper that translate into words. This allowed people to read in the dark by moving their fingers across the dots. Having been introduced to this process, Louis Braille later reduced the 12-dot code to six dots and worked out a basic alphabet and a series of contractions to help speed up the rate of reading. Today, using the Braille method, a blind person is able to read almost as quickly and easily as someone who isn’t blind.
   Discuss: What can we learn from Louis Braille’s not letting his handicap keep him from being and doing what he wanted to be and do? It could be said that because of the combined efforts of three different individuals, the Braille reading process is better able to provide for the needs of the blind. What could be some of the benefits for our service event if we combined our efforts and all worked together?

8. Read: The television series, Cold Case, is a drama about Lilly Rush a female detective on the Philadelphia homicide squad, who finds her passion when she is assigned to cold cases. These are the unsolved cases where crimes were committed many years ago and have been all but forgotten. Using all of the new science and technology to find new clues, she solves these old cases and brings justice and resolution for the victims of those crimes.
   Discuss: Why do you think this series has become so popular? How does the justice that Lilly Rush seeks for her clients speak to the ideal of fairness, equality, and a sense of rightness? How might these ideals be reflected in our service event? How is involving ourselves in our service event a way to help solve some of the unresolved situations in our world that might have occurred years and years ago?

9. Read: In 1921, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson was banned from baseball due to his alleged involvement in the Black Sox scandal of 1919. He, along with some of his Chicago White Sox teammates, supposedly participated in a conspiracy to fix the World Series. Though never convicted, he was banned and would not ever play the game of baseball at a professional level again.
   According to Jackson, he got his nickname during a game with the Brandon Mill team. Jackson suffered from a blister on his foot from a new pair of baseball shoes. They hurt so much that he had to take his shoes off before going up to bat. From then on he was known as “Shoeless Joe”.
   In January, 2008, IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis) basketball coach, Ron Hunter went “shoeless” during a basketball game with the University of Oklahoma. While he too was allegedly suffering from a sore foot, his “shoeless-ness” was intended for a greater purpose. He was hoping to raise awareness of the fact that many children throughout the world do not have shoes to wear. His efforts were rewarded. His goal was to get 40,000 pairs of shoes donated to be sent to Africa in honor of the 40th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Working with Samaritan Feet, Soles4souls, and other profit and non-profit businesses and organizations, prior to the start of the IUPUI, University of Oklahoma game, 100,000 pairs of shoes had already been donated. One thing is for sure, there will be fewer “shoeless” children in Africa!
   Discuss: Sometimes we can do silly things and have great results. What do you think might motivate someone like Ron Hunter, an esteemed college basketball coach, to become a “Shoeless Ron”? Would you say that his silliness had a motivational impact? What could we do to draw attention to our service event that might have a motivational impact and increase participation?
   www.topix.com/forum/sports/T33SERT389VVF07T4
   http://www.soles4souls.org/
   http://www.samaritansfeet.org/

10. Read: Most of the requirements for someone to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, have to do with residency requirements. One, however, does deal with character. To be considered for citizenship in the United States, one must also be of "good moral character." This is a legal term, and is not necessarily the same as being a "good person," as opposed to being a "bad person." A person whom you might think of as a "good person," Immigration might think is a person who does not have "good moral character" and therefore should not be granted U.S. citizenship. The following are just some of the situations where Immigration would say a person does not have "good moral character" and deny them citizenship: 

    • the person has worked but has not always filed income taxes when he should have.

    • a man has lived in the United States at some point during the ages of 18 and 25, but did not register for "Selective Service".

    • the person has a drinking problem (especially if arrested for driving while drunk).

    • the person has ever had children with a person to whom he was not married.

    • the person has children but does not live with them, and is not paying child support for the children.

    • the person got public benefits such as food stamps, but did not tell his benefits caseworker right away when he began working again or when he took a brief trip outside of the U.S.

    • the person has ever lied to Immigration, for example, on earlier applications for permanent residency.

    • the person has been arrested by the police for any reason.

    • the person has been convicted of any crimes. This includes nonviolent crimes such as shoplifting.