These "LEAGUE Learning Links” provide ten quick and easy 5-minute mini-lessons to help promote The LEAGUE’s vision and scheduled events in your classroom. You can choose from among these mini-lessons and use as many of them as you would like 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 ones, time, talents, and treasures for the common good) and to promote those philanthropic acts that have been identified as supporting The LEAGUE events. These mini-lessons will also help ensure a deeper understanding of character traits, civic engagement, and promote student leadership. It is recommended that students be encouraged to play as much of a role as possible and appropriate in presenting these lessons to their classmates.

1. Read: In the game of cricket there is a rule on the books (part 10 of Law 42) that reads: Any form of time wasting is unfair. Fortunately most rules are more specific than this one and less open to individual interpretation. But on the other hand there are rules that are written so specifically that only lawyers and courts can read and interpret them. Like laws, rules are meant to be interpreted in both letter and spirit. One rule that governs Major League Baseball pitchers is: A pitcher shall not deliver what is called a “shine” ball, “spit” ball, or “emery” ball. This is the letter of the rule! The spirit of the rule is: A pitcher shall not deface the ball in any manner.
   
   Discuss: Someone once said, the simple reasons why we have rules is to help us stay safe, to learn, to play fair, and to get along. As we anticipate our King Day event, how might we enter into it in the spirit of the rules for this day as well as letter of rules for this day? How can we truly involve ourselves in what this day is intended to represent beyond the specifics of what we intend to do?
    
2. Read: Early studies of the human brain concluded that the brain is divided into two hemispheres, the right and the left. Scientists think that there are distinct differences between these two hemispheres. While more recent studies have concluded that things are a little more complex than were originally thought to be, each half does have responsibility for different functions. The right hemisphere is typically associated with our emotions, our social inclinations, and our intuition. It is more creative, subjective, musical, more “big picture” and less detail-oriented. Our left hemisphere is more apt to be logical, objective, rational, analytical, and task oriented. We live in a society where 2/3 of the population is left brain dominant. Our schools, workplaces, government and military are typically all left-brain inclined and reward left brain activity. But researchers have shown that to function at ones optimum best, one needs to blend the functions of the right and left hemispheres. One researcher summed it up this way “To be effective human beings, we need to be as well as do.”
   
   Discuss: When encountering a problem situation, our natural tendency is to want to fix it; to do things to make the problem situation go away. Often we act before we really understand the problem. Why is it important during our King Day event to actually know what the situation is that we are trying to improve before we go to work on improving it? How can we be as well as do and still accomplish our event’s objectives? Friendship is an extremely important part of our quest for higher consciousness; of our being-ness. What role will developing and nurturing friendship play during our King Day event? What are some ways we can be a friend to others in addition to doing things with a friend?
    
3. Read: The name César Chávez is known among immigrant farm workers in much the same way that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s name is known among African-Americans. In fact, he is hailed by many as one of the greatest American civil rights leaders alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. Growing up, Mr. Chávez experienced the pangs and pains racism. He did not like school as a youth. He remembered being punished with a ruler to his knuckles for speaking Spanish. Some schools were segregated, and he frequently encountered unkind remarks. He and his brother Richard attended thirty-seven schools over the course of their Kindergarten through eighth grade education. Unable to attend high school due to an accident involving his father that required him to work in the fields to support the family, Mr. Chávez didn’t complain. Eventually, he left the fields to enlist in the Navy. He served two years during WWII. Upon his return he found himself meeting and being influenced by Father Donald McDonnell. They talked about farm workers and strikes. Mr. Chávez read about St. Francis of Assisi, Gandhi and nonviolence protests. He decided that improvements in labor were needed. He went to work doing just that. Today, he is considered a hero of farm workers, due to his non-violent approach to helping keep wages higher and improve work safety rules for all farm workers.
   
   Discuss: As we approach our King Day event, what other figures might stand next to Dr. King and Mr. Chávez in their effort to promote fairness and justice in a non-violent manner? What do you think might motivate people like Dr. King and Mr. Chávez to involve themselves in such peace projects? What do you think would motivate someone to enlist in the military in support of a country that had treated him/her unfairly? What are some ways our King Day event is a non-violent attempt to promote fairness, justice, and kindness?
    
4. Read: There is a world-wide project underway celebrating diversity, encouraging tolerance and promoting compassionate communities. It is called The Thread Project: One World of Cloth. Seven amazing cloth panels have been woven from threads gathered from thousands of people of all faiths, cultures and ideologies from 70 countries covering seven continents. Just as the seven continents create one world, and the seven colors of the color spectrum create one light, these seven cloths create one world cloth. The threads for these seven panels represent the very fabric of everyday life. They come from everywhere and including clothing, fishing rods, shoes, blankets, guitars and hundreds of other sources. Some threads reflect tragic events such as those gathered on the Killing Fields of Cambodia, from 9/11 families and a Holocaust survivor. Other threads are spun with the joy of birth, marriage and celebration. Terry Helwig, Founder of the project says, “Some say the world is hanging on by a tread. I say- a thread is all we need.” The cloth panels, which took nearly five years to complete, are now being exhibited to remind people that we are ultimately a global family of one, united by a common thread
   
   Discuss: In what ways do you see our world “hanging by a thread”? Our King Day event is intended to be recognition and a celebration of diversity, tolerance and compassion. In what ways can our King Day event be likened to The Thread Project? What “thread” runs through our event that we hope will serve as a reminder to people that we are ultimately a global family?
    
5. Read: The game of bowling has been around forever it seems. One historian says that the game can be traced to the “most ancient of times”. Through all those years, however, the game of bowling has seen many changes. One of the more recent changes was the elimination of a pinsetter, or pin spotter. Originally this was a person (usually a teenage boy, also known as a pin boy) who would manually reset bowling pins in their correct position, clear fallen pins, and return bowling balls to the players. It was a low paying job that soon fell out of favor with most boys who could gain better employment wages elsewhere. It was Gottfried Schmidt who invented the mechanical pinsetter, which largely did away with pin setting as a manual profession. Today, many mechanical pinsetters are integrated with electronic scoring systems. While the entire process of the mechanical pinsetter is quite complicated, there is a very interesting button that connects with it located within reach of each bowler. This button is called the reset button. It is intended to be pushed in the event that things are not going right and need to be corrected. The button may also be pushed when the bowler would like a “do-over” although this usage is frowned upon by the management of most bowling allies in many instances.
   
   Discuss: Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a reset button available to us when things in our lives are not going right and need to be corrected? If you were in charge of the reset button for our world what would be some of the things you would want to re-set? How can our involvement in our King Day event be like having a reset button available to us? Is there a greater potential for "do-overs” in our lives or a greater potential for “do different-lys”? In what ways might our King Day be a “do differently” day?
    
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 King 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 King Day 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 King Day event? How is involving ourselves in our King Day 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 King Day 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.

Discuss: How difficult do you think it might be for some U.S .Citizen to “pass” this ‘good moral character’ test? Do you think these requirements are too strict for those making application for U.S. Citizenship? Why or why not? How is our King Day helping to promote good moral character in our school, home, community, and/or nation?
www.ptla.org/immigrants/english/citizenship.htm