Rosa Parks’s acts of philanthropy brought a community of people together for the common good and resulted in major social change in her community and in the nation. Young people identify the relationship between individual rights, justice, equality, and community responsibility.
From stories and examples, participants identify attributes, motivation, and impact of philanthropists.
Participants identify the attributes of a hero who is acting for the common good. Mother Teresa is a hero for her philanthropic work and character.
In the book, Miss Tizzy, the repetition and days of the week make this warm neighborhood story predictable. Miss Tizzy is generous with the neighborhood children in so many ways. How do the children take action when Miss Tizzy gets ill?
Through multiple visits to a retirement home, letter writing, or by inviting seniors to an event, children learn effective communication, sensitivity to people of different generations, and shared experiences while learning about the common good and stewardship.
Children listen and respond to a biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They discuss the importance of kind acts and service to others. They reflect on a quotation by Dr. King and apply it to their own lives.
Working in small groups, learners match the classic hero traits to an activist who took social action for the common good.
Learners discover how celebrities demonstrate their caring by giving their time, talent and treasure and taking action for specific causes. It gives the learners an opportunity to begin to think of what they care about.
In a persuasive essay, learners describe the responsibilities of American citizenship and the cost of freedom. They connect how philanthropic action is a part of those costs. “Freedom isn’t free. It passes on an enormous debt to the recipient.”