Toolbox for Change
Due: Friday June 8, 2012
As we finish up our unit on Facing History and Ourselves, we
need to consider how to take the information we have learned about human
behavior, about our identity and how our identity influences our decision-making,
about what power, control and authority will do to our view on our choices, and
try to make better decisions in our own lives. While the choices we make in our lives may be different from
the ones we learned about in class, they are choices that affect not only us
individually but affect the lives of many countless others.
We all have the power to make the right choices, when
it counts.
Samantha Power, author of A Problem from Hell: America
& the Age of Genocide, has suggested
that, in dealing with genocide, governments imagine a toolbox at their
disposal. Each tool in this toolbox would represent a different kind of
intervention (a way to deal with the problem) at the disposal of that
government: economic response, publicly coming out for/against what is
happening, public awareness or education campaigns, military intervention, etc.
The image of a toolbox makes real the choices that governments and people
have in dealing with these seemingly overwhelming crises, and suggests that by
carrying a toolbox, we are required to use the tools at our
disposal.
Every job requires some tools. Tools help make work easier.
They are instruments used to make the impossible possible. A writer needs a pen and paper. A
gardener needs a rake and shovel. A surgeon needs a scalpel and gauze. But,
these workers also need tools that aren’t physical objects. A writer also needs
inspiration, a gardener must also have a vision, and a surgeon must also have a
plan.
Your task: Your
job is to create a REAL, actual Toolbox for Change. This toolbox needs to include the things that you
think are necessary and practical to possess as you leave the middle school and
move on in your life. Whether you are walking the hallways of Wellesley High
School, facing a difficult choice at work or with family, you need to rely on
the tools that you have available to make the right choices. These
tools need to empower you to do the right thing and make the right choice, to
make real change.
Many different things can go in your toolbox, and there are
a number of questions that you need to consider in the creation of your
toolbox.
- Where
do I have the power to make real change?
- Who is
in my universe of obligation currently? How might I expand my circle of
responsibility to include others?
- What
will I need in my toolbox to sustain me (keep me going) when this work
gets hard?
- What
will I have in my toolbox that will help me to remember why this work is
necessary?
- What
do I have in my toolbox as far as a ‘difference alarm,’ to wake me up when
I need to do the work?
These are only a few of many questions that you will need to
consider as you embark on this project. In addition to the actual toolbox,
filled with tools, you must also complete a short writing assignment that
explains each of those tools and how you imagine you will use it. This
writing should be about a page.
Possible toolbox items could include: words, ideas, quotes,
physical objects, pictures. The best toolboxes will have a range of tools, and
not all the same type.
Rubric: Your toolbox should:
- Be a
tangible constructed, creative, 3-dimensional box that is filled with at least 5
items that are your tools.
- Demonstrate
effort, thoughtfulness and insight.
- Be
accompanied by a well-written, thoughtful piece of writing that clearly
explains the tools found in your toolbox, their meaning to you, and how
each will help you in your future work for change.
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I am not considering this toolbox to simply be your final
project for this class. I am considering this toolbox to be one you use for
life. You are now witness to the things that humans can do, both positive and
negative, when faced with difference. You now bear the responsibility to pass
this knowledge on and to help celebrate, not destroy, difference around us.
What is in Ms. Harrigan’s toolbox?
A book – knowledge is power. Reading other
people’s stories allows us to better understand people’s experiences, both good
and bad. With that knowledge and understanding, we can figure out ways to
become more involved, we can find ways of relating and connecting and realizing
our differences maybe aren’t that big. Knowledge also brings responsibility and
by pushing myself to read, I am also not able to rely on being ignorant/unaware.
A flashlight –
sometimes we need help seeing what is really there, in the corner, hidden. We
need to be able to have light uncover what is dark. You also feel safer when
you have a flashlight in your hand.
Rope – Sometimes we
need to be able to tie things/people together and we need help to do it. It can be used in a very practical
sense, tying something together that has come loose. But, it could also be used
in the figurative sense that sometimes we need to tighten our hold on something
we hold dear. I put a figurative rope around my children all the time to keep
them close, and safe.
Hope – In order to
make real change you have to really believe in the possibility of change. Hope
for me is what is necessary to see the world in a positive light, to see that
there is the potential for making things better.
Margaret Mead quote: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever
has.” – This to me speaks volumes. It doesn’t take millions of people to do the
right thing, it takes a handful. When you look at powerful movements they often
started with a core, small group that were willing to take on the majority. I
think of the Green Team here at Wellesley and all the work that this small
group has done. I think of Paul Farmer, a doctor from Boston, who has been
working in Haiti for over 25 years to help reduce TB and AIDS. He worked for
years with Haitian doctors and citizens, without much international publicity,
because he saw an issue and he saw himself as needing to take action.
