Teaching Kids to Change the World: Lessons to Inspire Social Responsibility for Grades 6 12

Through a series of modules, this resource offers educators and youth-group leaders a means of inspiring social consciousness and action among youth and teaches young people how to think, rather than what to think. Without money, power, or the right to vote, how do children and teenagers find a voice in society? How can educators and leaders talk meaningfully with students about such broad concepts? Avoiding partisan politics and moral debates, this resource equips educators with philosophical discussion questions, concrete illustrations, and active examples. Each component sets forth a theme or principle about change; a classroom experiment or activity that illustrates the theme; and an example of a social action or service project in which young people can participate to help create the change they wish to see, showing youth their role in the societal and environmental changes that occur across decades or even centuries.

Jennifer Griffin-Wiesner is a youth-development consultant and the author of Generators: 20 Activities to Recharge Your Intergenerational Group; The Journey of Community Change: A How-To Guide for Healthy Communities, Healthy Youth Initiatives; and Your Family: Using Simple Wisdom in Raising Your Children. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Chris Maser is the coauthor of Evaluating Sustainable Development: Giving People a Voice in Their Destiny as well as the author of more than 250 articles and 20 books, including The Perpetual Consequences of Fear and Violence: Rethinking the Future. He lives in Corvallis, Oregon.