As a mother and a teacher, I often have pondered on how to make my daughters and students more compassionate toward each other and to people less fortunate than themselves. The area where I teach, is composed of middle class and upper middle class families and then the neighboring town is one of the poorest in the nation, the students see first hand what poverty does to individuals and communities. How to get students to understand and be willing to help others less fortunate then themselves when a natural disasters strikes when they are almost immune to poor communities because of their proximity to one?
When the earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, I was teaching Eighth grade Science and we were studying earthquakes. The destruction was unbelievable as we watched CNN. I had the students immediately start to research the country and what the type of fault line and the type of soil and building structures that were in Port a Prince. The students were amazed at the poor conditions of the buildings, even the better buildings for the government. The ground conditions in the areas worst hit were filled in areas, which the students had just studied were the worst possible building sites. It brought to life the poor conditions that the Haitian people lived in. When just a month latter and Chile was hit with an earthquake that was much stronger, but the damage was minimal because the country was prepared for earthquakes. The economy in Chile is also stronger and there are better living conditions, even for the poorest people. The difference between the two countries was dramatic for the students to realize. At this point, my students wanted to do something to help the people of Haiti. I had them research the different organizations and they had to look at how the organizations spent the money, if they were already in the country before the earthquake and what type of services were they providing. I had to
start the path to caring as a research project, but the natural concern that middle school students have kicked in and the students were willing to do more to help. The student collected money with the student council and decided to donate the money towards the Red Cross.
The Red Cross has a section on their website that gives ideas that youth can do to help others in need. Here is the link: http://redcrossyouth.org/. It was an eye opener to my students about what they could do here to help other in need.
