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Essence
of Acceptance
Essence of Acceptance is a project-based, service-learning curriculum for secondary
schools that uses the power of the human voice and sharing of personal experiences
to communicate important lessons of human rights. The program also provides students
with an opportunity to gain deeper understanding of other cultures, perspectives, and
histories. Through the process of taking oral histories from community members who
have lost human and/or civil rights, students participate in a unique combination of
academic and real life experiences that encourage them to develop empathy for people
different from themselves. This process helps young people understand the real and
present consequences of human rights violations through direct interaction with those
who have personally experienced them. By extension, students draw connections between
these experiences and seemingly unrelated examples of intolerance in their own daily
lives (e.g., students labeling one another "gay" as an insult)—leading them to be more
vigilant about and engaged in their own attitudes and those of their peers.
The Essence of Acceptance curriculum brings history alive through engaged learning,
project-based lesson plans, and community involvement in the classroom. It enables
students to apply lessons of the past to today's emerging and challenging issues.
Essence of Acceptance also bridges generation gaps by bringing together high school
students and (often older) survivors of human rights abuses. In addition to social
science, the curriculum enhances the language arts education through the development
of critical listening and communication skills.
Benefits of the program extend to the interview subjects, who, in sharing their stories
with subsequent generations, witness the invaluable lessons that they pass on making a
positive impact and encouraging younger generations to be vigilant in speaking up against
current and future human rights abuses around the world.
The Essence of Acceptance program provides Social Studies and Language Arts teachers with
a comprehensive, standards-based curriculum that is easily integrated into their regular
teaching. Due to the complexity of the subject matter, the Listening for a Change staff
seek to provide training to help teachers implement the curriculum in the classroom.
The Essence of Acceptance curriculum, which meets California state standards for Social
Studies and Language Arts, is divided into four sections: Human Rights, Oral History,
Interview, and Community:
Human Rights - Students study the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the human rights
protections in the constitutions of multiple countries, which provide the academic framework
for student exploration of the meaning of human rights. Students develop their own set of
inviolable basic human rights which form the basis for their analysis and understanding of
the subsequent oral histories they conduct.
Oral History - Students learn "empathic listening" skills to interview community members who
have suffered human rights violations. These listening and interviewing skills translate into
not only a very practical skill set often missing in traditional school settings, but also
invite the critical thinking process. Students learn to ask open-ended and follow-up questions,
to pursue their curiosity, and to form opinions of their own.
Interview - Program organizers invite community members from diverse cultural and ethnic groups
who have suffered a loss of human and/or civil rights into to the classroom to share their personal
stories of discrimination and loss. Students learn to respectfully and formally take oral histories,
and they honor interviewees by allowing them to share their story in a way that turns loss and
tragedy into a powerful learning experience.
Students gain first-hand cultural, geographic, and historical knowledge by interviewing people
from around the world. Students at participating schools have interviewed community residents
from countries such as China, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Eritrea, Guatemala,
Iran, Iraq, Israel, Mexico, and Pakistan, as well as African Americans, Japanese Americans, Native
Americans, and survivors of the Shoah/Holocaust.
Community - Students respond to their oral history experience through social action as well as through
various art forms, such as fine art, video, and creative writing. Students, teachers, and Listening
for a Change each maintain a network of community groups who welcome student support. Students also
share responsive art projects with the community at large in venues such as museums, libraries, schools,
shopping centers, community events, and other public places. This gives young people the opportunity
to contribute their own creative work and activism to the communities in which they live, something
often missing in traditional school settings.
Contact us to learn how
to Participate as a School
See Sample Lesson below
See Samples of Student Work below
How to Participate
as an Interviewee
Acrobat
Reader is required to view the pdf files above. Click below
for a free download.
~ Click here to Purchase Essence of Acceptance Curriculum or
Individual Lessons Online! ~
Testimonials
"The Essence of Acceptance curriculum increased their
awareness of, and appreciation for, basic qualities of life that we usually
take for granted. They listened intently; they asked thoughtful, appropriate,
respectful questions; in short, they were engaged in their own learning!"
~Robert Hermann, Principal of Sonoma Mountain High School
and Carpe Diem High School
Click here to view the complete letter
"Essence of Acceptance is a great tool for a teacher. To talk about
the prejudice and differences from an individual to a school to
a global context can be a unifying theme for the entire year."
~Linda Ward, Sonoma County Court, Community and Alternative Schools,
Adera Teen Parent Program
Teacher Testimonials
"[You]
helped me understand how truly awful hate is and what can happen.
I learned that in order to keep this from happening again, myself
and others should learn to be more accepting and never be afraid
to stand up for someone else and put a stop to hate."
~Brendan Trosper
Student Testimonials
Acrobat
Reader is required to view the pdf files above. Click below
for a free download.
Sample
Lesson from Essence of Acceptance
Lesson
Plan
Viewing the Sonoma
County Survivor Project Exhibit – This lesson plan is used
to prepare students to view the Sonoma County Survivor Project Exhibit.
It is an introduction to the oral histories section of the Essence
of Acceptance curriculum. A two part lesson, it includes a list
of materials needed, key vocabulary, the lesson sequence, and homework
assignments.
Student Exercise
Who Am I – A questionnaire
about the survivors featured in the Sonoma County Survivor Project.
Students will use it compare and contrast first-hand accounts of
dramatic losses of human rights while they view the exhibit.
Transparencies for teachers to use in the classroom
Human Rights Oral
Histories – A transparency of an assignment that accompanies
the lesson to establish for students what they already know and
what they would like to learn about oral histories.
Shiro and Mei Nakano
– An excerpt from the Sonoma County Survivor Project exhibit
of Shiro and Mei Nakano, Japanese-American Internment Camp survivors.
It is used as an in-class assignment for students to share their
thoughts, reactions and questions to this excerpt of an oral history.
Homework
Assignment
Excerpt from an Interview
with Lynda Wright – Students are requested to read and
respond to this excerpt from a Studs Terkel interview. It is a homework
assignment in critical thinking about an oral history, particularly
as it applies to human rights.
Acrobat
Reader is required to view the pdf files above. Click below
for a free download.
~ Click here to Purchase Essence of Acceptance Curriculum or
Individual Lessons Online! ~
Samples of Student Work
•Maria
Carillo High School Collages, 01-02
•Maria Carillo
High School, Photos and Student Responses, 00-01
•Adera Cal-SAFE Program
Bill of Rights
•Letter and Artwork
by Simone Wilson, Healdsburg Middle School Student
•Rio Lindo Adventist
Academy photo, 01-02
•What Students and
Teachers
say about Essence of Acceptance.
•
"An
Observer Reports…" by Miriam Silver. Press Democrat
writer observes a class interviewing Nancy Wang.
Please contact us
if you would like to add your class project to this page.
Acrobat
Reader is required to view the pdf files above. Click below
for a free download.
~ Click here to Purchase Essence of Acceptance Curriculum or
Individual Lessons Online! ~
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