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Student
Action on the Economic Crisis By
Alan Shapiro
To the Teacher:
"Social
responsibility--that is, a personal investment in the well-being of others and
of the planet--doesn't just happen. It takes intention, attention, and time." --Sheldon
Berman, "Educating for Social Responsibility," Educational Leadership,
11/1990
The
greatest economic crisis since the depression of the 1930s grips America. This
teachable moment suggests two challenging questions: 1) How can teachers help
their students understand what is happening? 2) How might teachers work with their
students to create a community of socially responsible citizens who act on the
crisis to make a difference in their school or community?
Before
beginning a class project on this issue, teachers may want to read these pieces
on TeachableMoment.Org: "Teaching on Controversial
Issues" and "Teaching Social
Responsibility." You
might begin your work with students by having the class read about and discuss
the current economic crisis facing our country and the world. Consider using any
of the materials on this topic recently posted on TeachableMoment.Org. These lessons
provide background information and student activities on the economic crisis,
including discussion questions, inquiry possibilities, writing assignments and
citizenship suggestions. Beginning with the most recent posting, they include:
A.
Make a start Consider
using a group activity called "Concert" to focus the class on group
cooperation and problem-solving. (See "Concert on TeachableMoment.Org at:
) The exercise demonstrates dramatically the roles students play, the problem-solving
and decision-making strategies they employ, and the behaviors they exhibit that
may help or hinder them when they are presented with a problem. B.
Identify school/community problems and their effects Schools,
towns and cities are cutting staffs and programs as tax revenues and government
funding fall. Divide
students into groups of four to six to 1) identify the problems they are aware
of in their school and in the wider community because of the severe economic downturn
and 2) comment on how these problems have affected them. Ask
each group to appoint a note-taker. Then call on one student in each group to
speak briefly in their group, without interruption, about a problem they are aware
of in their school or community as a result of the economic crisis. Then give
time for other members of each group to identify a problem. Next, ask each group
to conduct a second go-around. This time, each student will briefly discuss how
each problem has affected them. After everyone has had an opportunity to speak
on each issue, ask the recorders to report to the class. List on the chalkboard,
without comment, the problems identified and the effects felt for later reference. Continue
the discussion by posing additional questions such as: What major problems have
their school and community officials identified? What are they doing about them?
What don't students know? What might they know about a school issue that officials
don't? What problem or issue seems to interest students most? C.
Discuss experiences with acting on a public issue Talk
to students about your experience in taking action on a public issue or making
a difference in the lives of others. Describe how that felt and why it made a
difference in your life. Take your time. Provide detail. Answer questions. Have
any students tried to make a difference on a school or community problem? What
was the problem? What did the student do? What obstacles were there? What did
the student do about them? How did working on the problem make the student feel? D.
Consider a class project Use
the words of Martin Luther King Jr. to begin a discussion of different attitudes
toward social activism: "It
is interesting to notice that the extreme pessimist and the extreme optimist agree
on at least one point. They both feel that we must sit down and do nothing in
the area of race relations. The extreme optimist says do nothing because integration
is inevitable. The extreme pessimist says do nothing because integration is impossible." Can
students see themselves as social activists-or do they already? Are they extreme
pessimists? Extreme optimists? Why? What would an effective social activist be
like? Can they name any? What qualities must such a person have or develop? How
would such a person behave? How
might acting together on a problem of common interest help students not only to
make a contribution on a public issue but also reduce the stress and fear they
may be living with as a result of the economic crisis? Ask
students to explore the possibility of working as a group to learn about and do
something about a school or community problem they have identified. Invite suggestions
about what that problem might be. E.
Launch a discovery process Discuss
with students how they might select and carefully define a problem to work on
as a class project. The session might begin with a period of brainstorming. The
class might then carefully consider proposals that are limited, focused and doable.
Ideally the project will be a productive response to a school problem created
by the budget crisis that students are already familiar with. If,
as is likely, the problem students want to address results from a cut in the school
or community budget, students need to consider some questions: -
Why did officials cut this but not that? What priorities did they have in mind?
-
Might money for the program be found elsewhere in the budget? Specifically, where?
-
Is there some other possibility of funding the desired program? Some new source
of revenue?
-
If not, might there be another way of keeping it going? Students need to be realistic,
as well as creative.
The
project idea must be clear. What does the group want to accomplish? Based on what
students know about challenges facing their school and community, how likely are
they to succeed? How much class time can be allotted to the project? Before
students launch their action project, they should research the problem further.
This might include conducting interviews with school and public officials, PTA
and civic group leaders. What
specific questions need answers? Devote time for brainstorming interview questions,
analyzing them, and rewriting them if necessary. See "Thinking
Is Questioning" on TeachableMoment.Org for suggestions on formulating
and analyzing questions. Role plays may be useful with, perhaps, the teacher as
the official or community member to be interviewed. Assess the effectiveness of
the student in the role play. Students
might also need to gather information from local newspaper, radio and TV reports.
Establish deadlines and methods for students to report to the class on their research.
Once the
research has been completed, have a class discussion. What have students learned?
Does the action project still seem feasible? If so, the teacher needs to clear
it with a department chairperson and the principal. Inform parents about what
students are doing and why. F.
Plan the project Key
to any success for the project is careful planning. Consider
with students: - What
additional information, if any, needs to be gathered? By whom?
-
What tasks and actions does the project require? Who will perform them?
-
How will the project be coordinated? By an executive committee? A project leader?
-
How much student control of the project is possible? Students should feel the
project is theirs. Define clearly what teacher control there must be and why.
-
How much class time can be allotted to the project?
Media
attention to the project might be desirable. If so, include in the organizational
plan a media group to seek meetings with a local newspaper, radio station, or
TV channel to explain what students are doing and why. Would establishing a website
be desirable? Develop
with students a written plan for the project that includes everyone. The plan
should detail the project's goal and proposed actions (such as additional research,
meeting with school or town officials, speaking at their public sessions, finding
and working with allies in the PTA or a public citizens' group, generating publicity
for the campaign), potential obstacles to success and how they might be overcome.
G.
Assess the project experience Consider
having students keep a journal during the project period that might include a
daily report on learning experiences, obstacles encountered and how they were
dealt with, successes, and connections between the project and what students may
have studied in class. Devote
a class session to assessing the project experience. Did students make a good
project choice? Why or why not? How effective was the organizational plan? What
do they think they learned? How? What was successful? Unsuccessful? Why? What
would they do differently next time? Why? How did they experience the project
personally? Was it fun, scary, boring, exciting? Did working on the project affect
their thinking or their feelings about the economic crisis? Did the project affect
their thinking about being a citizen activist?
This
lesson was written for TeachableMoment.Org, a project of Morningside Center for
Teaching Social Responsibility. We welcome
your comments. Please email author Alan Shapiro at: ashapiro7@comcast.net.
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