Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: What impacts how we give?

20 minutes

Find Out: Why do we favour some people over others?

25 minutes

Take Action: Why should we give to people we don’t know?

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: What impacts how we give?

Step 1

Read the following prompt to your class:

Imagine there are two 10-year-old children who both need donations to help them rise out of poverty. What factors would you look at to determine who you would give to?

Students might suggest looking at who needs the donations the most, but really, there is no difference between the 2 children.

If you are interested in delving deeper into what people need for a fulfilled life, consider discussing Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs with your students. This theory breaks down human needs into different levels, from basics like food and shelter to higher needs like social connections and self-esteem, and suggests that more basic needs need to be met before moving on to higher-level aspirations. This can offer insights into what contributes to wellbeing and help your students think about how to prioritise and address the needs of the two 10-year-old children in need.

Step 2

Ask your class to imagine one of the children is an Australian citizen and the other child lives in India. Would this change their decision on who to help?

It shouldn’t, but students might have some self-awareness to realise that they might feel inclined to help the Australian.

Discuss their responses by drawing out their thinking:

Why do they feel this way?
Why might we be more loyal or sympathetic to someone who is a part of a community familiar to us?

Step 3

Pose the last scenario to your class: imagine one of the children is someone in your class, or maybe your own sister, while the other remains a stranger, possibly from a faraway country. Would this change your decision on who to help? Why?

Find Out: Why do we favour some people over others?

Preparation

This lesson and the other lessons in this unit use The Life You Can Save book and organisation to inspire students to develop their ethical thinking capabilities and think critically about what it means to be considerate and giving. To give some context around this lesson and the resources students will use in the following steps, you might like to explain to your students that The Life You Can Save works to eliminate poverty. They look into different non-profits that are running highly impactful programs to help reduce poverty. They figure out which programs work well to solve problems stemming from poverty and then try to tell more people about them to gain support. They also help connect people who want to donate money with these non-profits, so their donations can make a big impact. They aim to create a world where everyone has an opportunity to build a great life and where there’s no suffering or death due to extreme poverty.

Step 1

Ask your students to read the story in their student worksheet about Zell Kravinsky, whom Peter Singer introduces in his book, and prompt your students with the following questions.

Zell was very successful throughout his life. By the time he was middle-aged, he was worth about $45 million. Then, one day, he decided to give it all away. He sold all of the real estate he owned and gave the money to charity. Then he sold his large house and moved to a smaller house, again donating the money. Finally, he contacted the local hospital and donated a kidney to a stranger.

What kind of person do you think Zell is?
Do you think he did the ‘right’ thing?
Could you imagine doing what Zell did?
- Discuss this point in detail, emphasising that Zell transitioned from having substantial wealth and a large residence to a much less affluent state. He even risked his own health by undergoing an operation and giving up a kidney.
What do you think prompted Zell to take these actions?

Step 2

Split your students into groups of four and allocate two students to the FOR side and two students to the AGAINST side in each group. In their ‘for’ and ‘against’ pairs, ask them to consider the scenario on their worksheet and give reasons why Zell's family would think this. Invite students to share with the opposite side in their group once they have come up with their reasons.

FOR	AGAINST
Zell's family was proud of him for donating his kidney to a stranger	Zell's family was unhappy with him for donating his kidney to a stranger
Why would they be proud?	Why would they be unhappy?

Extension opportunity - Assign students to specific roles of people in Zell’s life and get your students to complete the Circle of Viewpoints Visible Thinking Routine whilst exploring the different perspectives. These perspectives could include Zell’s child, his wife, a wealthy neighbour, a less wealthy neighbour, his doctor, his mother, his colleague, the people who benefitted from his giving, etc.

Step 3

Ask your students to stand in a line across the classroom. Assign one side of the room as ‘strongly agree’ and the other side of the room as ‘strongly disagree.’ As you read the questions below, instruct students to move to the side of the room that corresponds with their answer.

Tell your students that in the real story, Zell's wife was angry at him because she was worried the surgery might not go well, or that if one of their children needed a kidney in the future he would not be able to donate it to them.

Zell's wife was right to be angry with him.
There is a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ response to this scenario.
All human lives are of equal importance.
All people should consider doing what Zell did, even if they are not rich.
- Zell didn’t send himself into poverty, but he certainly had less of a ‘good’ life than he had originally enjoyed when he was a millionaire with 2 healthy kidneys. Should we all do the same? Should we be allowed to enjoy the money and things in life we have worked hard for and not be expected to give things away to others?
You should value the needs of people in Australia over people in another country.
You should value the needs of people in your state over Australia.
You should value the needs of people in your suburb over your state.
You should value the needs of your neighbours over your suburb.
You should value the needs of your family over your neighbours.
You should value the life of yourself over the life of your family.
You should value your family's lives over a stranger's.
- You might like to discuss this progression with your students. If their attitudes changed, where did they change? Why?

Even though Peter Singer is advocating for giving, and the story of Zell Kravinsky demonstrates some quite generous giving behaviours, don’t force students to agree with this line of thinking. It is natural for us to want to look after ourselves and people we know (our family, our friends, people from our local community) rather than complete strangers, but encourage your students to see that all humans have the same inherent worth and are deserving of our giving.

Step 4

Ask your students where they think these attitudes come from. Why do we feel more inclined to look after our own before others?

Step 5

Peter Singer encourages all people to be a bit more like Zell.

While there is still a long way to go, more people than ever before have enough food to eat, shelter, health care, and can get an education. Even more than that, compared to some people around the world, we may enjoy a lot of luxuries. Computers and the Internet. Toys to play with. We might not be as wealthy as Zell, but many of us are, more or less, comfortable. Peter Singer suggests that we should take a little bit of that wealth and give it to others, even if we don’t know them personally and even if we might not see any personal benefit from such gifts.

Take Action: Why should we give to people we don’t know?

Step 1

Watch the following video (runs for 8 minutes) with your students. This video features a popular YouTuber called MrBeast orchestrating the provision of surgery to people affected with curable blindness. The key idea is to see how people benefit from compassionate giving and how the giver also benefits. Only watch as many examples as you feel is necessary.

1,000 Blind People See For The First Time - MrBeast (www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ2ifmkGGus)

It should be noted that although many people benefitted from the charitable giving of MrBeast, this event and others like it are considered controversial by some. This article from BuzzFeed sheds a little light on both sides of the argument (not appropriate for students). This controversy is because the people in need who are featured are considered by some as being used by content creators to generate views and subscribers that ultimately benefit themselves. You may wish to unpack this idea with your students using the Compass Points Visible Thinking Routine to think about if it is ethical to use the people who receive these gifts in content that is consumed as entertainment.

Step 2

Ask your students to draw representations of the people MrBeast helped and their communities (e.g families, friends) before and after they received the surgery. You might also like to include MrBeast and his team in these drawings for students to think about how helping these people also makes the giver feel. Students could think about:

the patient's/giver's quality of life before and after,
the lives of the patient's family before and after,
the emotions the patient/giver and their family feel.

Before surgery	After surgery

You may like your students to share their drawings with the people next to them or the rest of the class. After sharing, invite your students to reflect on their drawings by answering the following questions on their worksheets.

How does giving positively impact others?
How does giving positively impact yourself?
Do you need to be a millionaire to engage in giving?
What are some other ways people can give?
What is the impact of making this into a video?
1. The giver in this video did not know any of the people he helped. By showing their stories, he can build empathy for these people and maybe encourage others to give as well.

Reflection

There are a lot of people in need around the world for various reasons, such as people suffering from illnesses such as those who were helped by MrBeast in the video you saw today, as well as suffering from rare diseases, common diseases, experiencing homelessness and living in poverty. Extreme poverty is defined as people living on less than $2.15 per day.

Reflect on today's lesson with your students by asking:

If you only had $50 to give, how would you decide where or who to give to? Explain your thinking.

The Impact of Compassionate Giving

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