Teaching Empathy: School Supply Care Packages for Katrina's Victims
The cost of a variety of school supplies, including notebooks, scissors, and pencils, and packing materials is $546, including shipping and <a target="new" href="http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm" onclick="g_openWindow('http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm', 300, 800, 'fulfillwindow');return false;">fulfillment</a>.
I am a Teach for America corps member teaching seventh grade Social Studies at MS 325 in the South Bronx. My students encounter their share of challenges. They live in the poorest Congressional district in America and 99% of them qualify for the free lunch program. Many come from broken homes, have incarcerated loved ones, and they face prejudice from the rest of society because of their culture, ethnicity, and age. They also face challenges--ones that I see as a social studies teacher—that do not show up in newspapers or government statistics, but which are equally malignant. I am thinking of materialism and apathy. Many of them seem unconcerned with the well-being of their neighbors. This plays itself out in many fights, in bullying and gang violence, name calling, as well as theft and littering. Although the vast-majority of my students are good people who could grow up to be great citizens, I fear that many of them need to be educated in helping others in need. Otherwise, their youthful lack of concern for others could turn into something more destructive.
We all know about the desperate plight of the victims of Hurricane Katrina and if children along the Gulf Coast have a prayer of returning to “normal life” they will need school supplies. I also feel that my students would benefit from taking part in a service-learning activity that teaches them why giving to others is both important, and mutually rewarding. With your help, my middle-schoolers can send school supply care-packages to student victims of the hurricane and begin correspondences with them. This opportunity would help homeless students in Louisiana prepare for school and it would also improve my students writing abilities along with their senses of empathy.
These school supply care-packages would contain all the materials for a three ring binder (the binder, dividers and loose paper), composition books, pencils, pens, highlighters, pencil boxes and various other types of art supplies. I also asked for butcher paper so that my students can decorate their own wrapping paper for wrapping the individual care packages. I hope that this extra touch brings a smile to their faces!
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