This lesson is meant for high school students. Warning: it’s explicit and where you work might not receive it well. Also, this is for Jewish high school students, but that's just who I teach. The messages are universal.
Opening: Ask the students whether or not they have heard about the death of the Rutgers’ student.
Review what happened: This LA times story is good, but it’s better if you can use a news clip like this one: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6916357n&tag=related;photovideo
Like the synagogue I work at, you might not have easy access to internet, so here is the link to a print story:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rutgers-suicide-20101001,0,2307696.story
Hand the students the quotes of Jewish “values” text and have them mark which ones were violated in this tragic event. http://www.justaction.org/lessonplans/Section1/Chapter1/Chapter1_Lesson4.pdf
Ask the students how many values on the list were violated in this situation. The number will range, but it will be a significant percentage of the many values listed.
Ask the students if they think the number of values violated correlate to the ultimate tragedy: the death of a human being and why or why not?
Ask the students what, if anything could have been done to prevent the tragedy?
According to the LA times article, one of the alleged perpetrators tweeted:: "Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into Molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."
Read the following from http://www.justaction.org/lessonplans/Section1/Chapter1/Chapter1_Lesson4.pdf
Hakaim Takim Imo – הָקֵם תָּקִים עִמּוֹ – you shall surely lift up with him – A law designed to encourage aid to one in distress, even one’s enemy (Exodus 23:4; T.B. Baba Metzia 32a).
Halbanat Panim – הַלְבָּנַת פָּנִים – avoidance of humiliating someone in public – The loss of personal dignity at the hands of others is considered one of the gravest wrongs in Judaism, akin to murder (T.B. Moed Katan 9b; T.B. Baba Mezia 58bff.; Tractate Kallah, Minor Tractates of the Talmud).
Hochai’ach Tochee’ach – הוֹכֵחַ תּוֹכִיחַ – you shall rebuke – The obligation to be a social critic when you see that society or individuals are making terrible mistakes. Such criticism is viewed as an expression of care for others (Leviticus 19:17; Genesis Rabbah 54).
It is unclear if Molly was in the room, however persons must have seen that Tweet. Had they adhered to the above, perhaps something in motion could have been stopped.
Why is it so hard to stop others from doing evil?
Print this and use some of the questions: http://www.facinghistory.org/resources/facingtoday/what-bystanders-do-when-they and discuss the bystander effect. Print out this story: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/28/california.gang.rape.bystander/index.html
If you have internet access, play this: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114287592
Ask the students when they have been bystanders, for incidents on the net or even for small off line incidents. As the teacher, you should have a story prepared to start the ball rolling. Discuss why it’s so hard to “interfere” with other people’s business. Ask the students what do they you do if they see that:
Janet has wrote on Cindy’s Facebook wall: “You are such a slut for screwing my ex.”
You receive an SMS that includes a picture of someone’s private parts.
Your friend mass texts to everyone “Jamie is a faggot.”
Takeaway: The students who secretly taped the 18 year old of having sex are easily condemnable, whatever their intentions. (I doubt they thought their actions would lead in a loss of life). Less obvious are those who knew what was happening and did nothing to stop it or to prevent the video from being disseminated. Actually, it is obvious: Judaism commands you to not be a bystander. The wisdom of our sages applies especially in the digital age:
May Tyler Clementi’s memory be for a blessing.
Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.- Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5; Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 37a
Showing posts with label lesson plan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lesson plan. Show all posts
Friday, October 1, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Need your help with a lesson plan I'm doing on poverty
New lesson based on everyone's feedback
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the poverty line for a family of four (2009) is $22,250 (http://aspe.hhs.gov). If minimum wage in Illinois is $8/hour, a person could work every single day of the year, seven days a week, eight hours a day, and barely make more than $23,360 which is considered above the poverty line. Do you know anyone who works every day of the year 8 hours a day? Probably not.
Imagine, you are one of two parents in a household or even 1 of 1 parent in a household with three children. How far can $23,360 go?
Let’s use the $23,360 number and even round it up to $24,000. Now YOU are the head of the family. Your family of four has to live on $2,000/month. The average rent in Chicago for a 2 bedroom apartment is $1,000 a month (not in Lakeview or Lincoln Park- it’s about double that) What do you do?
So now you have $1000/month to use for the basics: food, clothes, gas or CTA passes, electric bill, etc.
“The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates about 12.5 percent of the average family's spending goes toward food, while the Department of Agriculture puts the figure at 9.8 percent.
One thing that is for sure: Grocery prices jumped sharply in recent years — up 4.2 percent in 2007 and 6.4 percent in 2008, according to BLS. USDA projects they'll rise as much as 3.5 percent for the year.” Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29681240/ns/business-food_inc/
For our project, you will use the 10 percent figure, which would mean $100/month on groceries to feed your family of four. That is about $3.33 to spend on groceries per day for a family of four. You have $30 to spend, so that would be about 9 days worth of groceries. Please by this family of four 9 days worth of groceries with your $30.
We will be donating this food, so please make sure that it is food that you would actually want to eat, that it has some diversity (don’t buy 100 boxes of Mac & Cheese), and that it’s non perishable.
Good luck!
Follow up questions:
What kinds of food were you able to buy? What foods did you want to buy and couldn’t?
Would this be enough to sustain your family for four days?
This family would probably qualify for food and housing subsidies from the government. Should they use them?
How much money do you spend on food for a week?
What did you learn from this activity?
..................
This is a lesson I am going to do this Sunday with 12 eighth graders. I am asking for your feedback to make sure that my math is correct and if I should add or subtract anything to or from it. For the record, I did not come up with this idea (young people going to a grocery store and buying food with a limited amount of money, seeing how expensive things are), but I did research these statistics and came up with this particular lesson plan. Your feedback is encouraged.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the poverty line for a family of four (2009) is $22,250 (http://aspe.hhs.gov). If minimum wage in Illinois is $8/hour, a person could work every single day of the year, seven days a week, eight hours a day, and barely make more than $23,360 which is considered above the poverty line and therefore qualifying for fewer government aid services.
Do you know anyone who works every day of the year 8 hours a day? Probably not.
Imagine, you are one of two parents in a household or even 1 of 1 parent in a household with three children. How far can $23,360 go?
Not very far.
Let’s use the $23,360 number and even round it up to $24,000. Now YOU are the head of the family. Your family of four has to live on $2,000/month. The average rent in Chicago for a 2 bedroom apartment is $2,000 a month (including water and electricity). What do you do? Live in a 1 Bedroom apartment and have your kids sleep in the living room and pay $1,300/month (including water and electricity).
So now you have $700/month to use for the basics: food, clothes, gas or CTA passes, etc.
“The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates about 12.5 percent of the average family's spending goes toward food, while the Department of Agriculture puts the figure at 9.8 percent.
One thing that is for sure: Grocery prices jumped sharply in recent years — up 4.2 percent in 2007 and 6.4 percent in 2008, according to BLS. USDA projects they'll rise as much as 3.5 percent for the year.” Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29681240/ns/business-food_inc/
For our project, you will use the 10 percent figure, which would mean $70/month on groceries to feed your family of four and you are still not considered poor. There are four weeks in a month, so that means $17.50 to spend on your family of four per week. You and your partner are going to have $30 to spend. With that $30 you are going to need to buy 12 days worth of food for your family of four. You have 30 minutes to do so.
We will be donating this food, so please make sure that it is food that you would actually want to eat, that it has some diversity (don’t buy 100 boxes of Mac & Cheese), that it’s non perishable, and by the way, this family keeps Kosher! So everything has to be kosher with a kosher symbol.
Follow up questions:
What kinds of food were you able to buy?
Would this be enough to sustain your family for four days?
What did you learn from this activity?
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the poverty line for a family of four (2009) is $22,250 (http://aspe.hhs.gov). If minimum wage in Illinois is $8/hour, a person could work every single day of the year, seven days a week, eight hours a day, and barely make more than $23,360 which is considered above the poverty line. Do you know anyone who works every day of the year 8 hours a day? Probably not.
Imagine, you are one of two parents in a household or even 1 of 1 parent in a household with three children. How far can $23,360 go?
Let’s use the $23,360 number and even round it up to $24,000. Now YOU are the head of the family. Your family of four has to live on $2,000/month. The average rent in Chicago for a 2 bedroom apartment is $1,000 a month (not in Lakeview or Lincoln Park- it’s about double that) What do you do?
So now you have $1000/month to use for the basics: food, clothes, gas or CTA passes, electric bill, etc.
“The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates about 12.5 percent of the average family's spending goes toward food, while the Department of Agriculture puts the figure at 9.8 percent.
One thing that is for sure: Grocery prices jumped sharply in recent years — up 4.2 percent in 2007 and 6.4 percent in 2008, according to BLS. USDA projects they'll rise as much as 3.5 percent for the year.” Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29681240/ns/business-food_inc/
For our project, you will use the 10 percent figure, which would mean $100/month on groceries to feed your family of four. That is about $3.33 to spend on groceries per day for a family of four. You have $30 to spend, so that would be about 9 days worth of groceries. Please by this family of four 9 days worth of groceries with your $30.
We will be donating this food, so please make sure that it is food that you would actually want to eat, that it has some diversity (don’t buy 100 boxes of Mac & Cheese), and that it’s non perishable.
Good luck!
Follow up questions:
What kinds of food were you able to buy? What foods did you want to buy and couldn’t?
Would this be enough to sustain your family for four days?
This family would probably qualify for food and housing subsidies from the government. Should they use them?
How much money do you spend on food for a week?
What did you learn from this activity?
..................
This is a lesson I am going to do this Sunday with 12 eighth graders. I am asking for your feedback to make sure that my math is correct and if I should add or subtract anything to or from it. For the record, I did not come up with this idea (young people going to a grocery store and buying food with a limited amount of money, seeing how expensive things are), but I did research these statistics and came up with this particular lesson plan. Your feedback is encouraged.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the poverty line for a family of four (2009) is $22,250 (http://aspe.hhs.gov). If minimum wage in Illinois is $8/hour, a person could work every single day of the year, seven days a week, eight hours a day, and barely make more than $23,360 which is considered above the poverty line and therefore qualifying for fewer government aid services.
Do you know anyone who works every day of the year 8 hours a day? Probably not.
Imagine, you are one of two parents in a household or even 1 of 1 parent in a household with three children. How far can $23,360 go?
Not very far.
Let’s use the $23,360 number and even round it up to $24,000. Now YOU are the head of the family. Your family of four has to live on $2,000/month. The average rent in Chicago for a 2 bedroom apartment is $2,000 a month (including water and electricity). What do you do? Live in a 1 Bedroom apartment and have your kids sleep in the living room and pay $1,300/month (including water and electricity).
So now you have $700/month to use for the basics: food, clothes, gas or CTA passes, etc.
“The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates about 12.5 percent of the average family's spending goes toward food, while the Department of Agriculture puts the figure at 9.8 percent.
One thing that is for sure: Grocery prices jumped sharply in recent years — up 4.2 percent in 2007 and 6.4 percent in 2008, according to BLS. USDA projects they'll rise as much as 3.5 percent for the year.” Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29681240/ns/business-food_inc/
For our project, you will use the 10 percent figure, which would mean $70/month on groceries to feed your family of four and you are still not considered poor. There are four weeks in a month, so that means $17.50 to spend on your family of four per week. You and your partner are going to have $30 to spend. With that $30 you are going to need to buy 12 days worth of food for your family of four. You have 30 minutes to do so.
We will be donating this food, so please make sure that it is food that you would actually want to eat, that it has some diversity (don’t buy 100 boxes of Mac & Cheese), that it’s non perishable, and by the way, this family keeps Kosher! So everything has to be kosher with a kosher symbol.
Follow up questions:
What kinds of food were you able to buy?
Would this be enough to sustain your family for four days?
What did you learn from this activity?
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