A concept known in Hebrew as tikkun olam practices the idea that everyone must play a role in perfecting the world. Modeling the concept of tikkun olam as a collaborative effort helps youth understand that they can shape their surroundings.
This lesson highlights the importance of monitoring speech. The children identify positive and negative effects of the words they use and are encouraged to use speech only for good.
This lesson will introduce the concept of tikkun olam and teach of its importance. It will show youth that everyone has the ability to do tikkun olam, and that it can be accomplished in a variety of ways.
From books and research, young people read about the Aztec Empire practice of human sacrifice, which was seen as a gift to help the community. Discuss the concept of sacrifice for the common good and debate individual rights and community responsibility when taking action for the common good.
The classroom is matched up with another classroom (or any group of people) in the country or the world. The students communicate by letter or e-mail and compare characteristics of place such as methods of transportation, weather, resources, and culture. Students will eventually work with their pen pal classroom to design and implement a service project.
In this lesson, a picture books raises awareness of the importance of memories to the people of all ages that make up a community. The children learn the definition of philanthropy and identify an act of philanthropy in the literature book Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge.
By reading about her life and her work, students will understand how Mary Eliza Church Terrell’s writing and activism brought about change for African Americans and women.
Students will recognize the linguistic strategies that Alice Walker uses in her introduction to Anything You Love Can Be Saved that persuade readers to believe in her causes, and thus begin to think about techniques that they can use in their own activist writing, which they will do in the final lesson of the unit.
Madam C. J. Walker, successful African American business woman, supported many causes with the profits of her business. We become aware of the many ways people give.
A youth from a Community Foundation Youth Advisory Committee speaks to the group about the program, their duties, and the process of applying for a grant to do service work.