Middle and High School … from a Montessori Point of View
Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been a brutally destructive force in central Africa since the 1990’s. In the last few years the Army has been decimated and pushed out of Uganda, but it still exists and is still kidnapping children and destroying families.
My former students, Sutton and Sage, brought to my attention this video from the human rights organization, Invisible Children, that is making a final push against Kony and the LRA:
“Very few sports stars, other than Lance Armstrong, actually donate to their own charities,” says a tax adviser. “Most of them say, ‘My fans will donate.’ Their attitude is ‘I’m contributing my celebrity to this cause.’”
— Vanessa Grigoriadis (2011): Our Lady of Malawi in the New York Magazine.
Andrew Sullivan extracts the crucial point in Vanessa Grigoriadis’ article on the failures of many celebrity charities.
As we work on social action this cycle, it’s important to consider why we’re contributing, and what it takes to make a meaningful contribution.
Just as each species in a biological community contributes something that helps sustain the community, people need to contribute to each other in their communities to to keep them stable, productive, and happy.
We’ve been talking about social action this cycle. Students have been finding and reading articles, and thinking about what they could do — themselves right now — to promote social justice. The articles have come from a number of different places: local stories from the Memphis newspaper, the Commercial Appeal; national articles from the New York Times; and even international things from the from BBC. Now, for Personal World, they’re thinking at the really small scale, about what they do for their classroom community.
The objective is twofold. First, I want them to contribute more to each other, and think about what they’re contributing, to maintain a healthy community. A little self reflection should help them realize if what they think they’re doing for others is actually helping. But, secondly, I also want them to recognize the efforts of their peers for what they are: attempts, even if futile or misguided, to be helpful.
It’s sometimes easier to think about doing charitable things for people far away, because it’s impersonal. There’s little risk of being embarrassed. But even the smallest groups need some altruism to grease the wheels of community.
Shreerang Chhatre is working on a mesh that captures droplets of fog from the air to provide water in places where drinkable water is hard to get.
Chhatre is working on this at MIT which has some interesting programs for people interested in social action. He’s in the Chemical Engineering program but works with their Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship.