Overview
Many people’s fundamental needs are not being met in the U.S. today. Food, shelter, medical care, and safety from violence elude increasing numbers of people. In a spirit of altruism, individuals, faith-based organizations and secular groups undertake humanitarian efforts to meet these people’s basic needs and — in the process — discover that other, deeper needs are being met for both the server and the served.
In this lesson, students explore the meaning of altruism and the bonds created when people take care of each other. Resources include segments from RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, Web sites, and guest speakers. As a culminating activity, students explore and synthesize the lesson’s themes through a service learning project.
Grade Level:
Grades 5-6
Time Allotment:
This lesson [unit] can carry over anywhere from a few days to several weeks, depending on the level of interest and commitment to the topic.
Subject Matter:
Science; social studies; English/ language arts; religion
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Identify and categorize the basic needs that human beings have
- Arrive at a definition of altruism
- Research and report on altruistic organizations and individuals
- Interview guest speakers about the way they serve those who are in need
- Plan and carry out a community service project
Standards
This lesson was prepared by: Kathleen Cochran, Ed.M.
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Advancements in altruism will benefit all of life. I believe engaging students with the altruistic is to teach love in its most authentic form. Now, as a mother, I know this fully. It is good to plant these seeds in elementary school. Thank you for sharing this lesson plan.
Those who would regard altruism as only expressing love and kind regard for one’s close fellow human beings, are making a serious error. Altruism must also apply to the avoidance of causing harm or damage to the whole world, even a part that is very remote from the person showing the altuism. Thus the avoidance of consuming petroleum fuels is likely to give benefit to a small extent for the whole world, since this action results in a smaller amount of global warming. Less carbon dioxide and other gases are produced which otherwise cause harm to our eco-system.
This idea in the most general form was first expressed by Hillel the Elder (see Ethics of the Fathers or “Avot”) who was able to add to the Golden Rule by a double negative corollary of “don’t do to your neighbor the things that are offense to oneself, this is the basic Torah (law) now go and study it”. This point is in fact more significant than the original rule, since it can be directly applied to a far larger number of the population than those are ones direct neighbours.
it is possible to argue for instance that this double negative rule should be applied to allowing equal opportunity of access to nature and that the confiscation of acces to land is an offense which should be stopped. Such an action, by the taxation of land values (see H. George “Progress and Poverty” 1879) would still allow a house owner to occupy his site with the property providing the advantage that he gains by this confiscation of free opportunity to otherwise use the site is compensated for by his return of the economic rent as a tax on the land value, for use by the government for national benefit.