Learning Objectives
In this unit:
- Students will reflect on their own values and “rules for living”. They will also reflect on the role of values and rules at school, at home, among their peers, in sports activities and in the larger community.
- Students will understand that “rules”, values and moral principles grow out of a need to develop responsible and cooperative relationships within any given community, culture, or society.
- Students will understand that “rules” are necessary to the functioning of a given community, that is to say, necessary for the achievement of the common good and of freedom for all.
- Students will understand that not all the rules in their lives are created by others but that they, as young people, also create rules to which they adhere on a daily basis.
- Students will participate in a decision-making experience in which they determine the rules or guidelines for living in a given community context.
- Students will reflect on the concept of the circle and the place of circles in their lives.
- Students will understand that qualities associated with the circle such as unity, equality, community, interconnectedness, and reciprocity can have significance in terms of the students’ relationships from the local to the global level.
- Students will study the biographies of historical persons – ordinary and extraordinary individuals – who were courageous in terms of adhering to their values, principles and “rules for living”. Students will examine their own values and principles in light of the lifestyles of these historical figures.
- Students will understand that throughout history, there have been some common principles and moral values shared by the many diverse peoples, ethnic groups, cultures, religions and philosophies of the world.
- Students will learn that one of the most historically prevalent of these shared values is a universal, moral principle known as the Golden Rule (known also as the ethic of reciprocity).
- Students will be exposed to a visual depiction of this ethic of reciprocity in the form of the Scarboro Missions Golden Rule Poster which features the Golden Rule as expressed in 13 religions.
- Students will examine their own values, principles and “rules for living” in light of the written, visual, and symbolic content of the Golden Rule Poster.
- Students will reflect on their application of the Golden Rule at home, at school, among their peers, and in the larger community.
- Students will reflect on how they can live the Golden Rule as global citizens, as members of an international community.