Learning to Give: Indiana

Teaching the Importance of Voluntary Action
for the Common Good in a Democratic Society 

How do we engage children in civic life? How do we harness youthful idealism and combat growing cynicism? How do we teach caring about others, particularly those less fortunate? What is missing from our courses in government, history, economics, sociology, psychology, and philosophy that results in young adults without understanding or passion of their society?

There has never been a formal curriculum for teaching the facts or the values of the independent sector. We have relied in the past on churches, families, friends and neighborhoods to teach children the value and significance of service and giving. The very skills and community cohesion necessary to offset forces of social disintegration, especially in an increasingly diverse culture, are skills and experiences found in the third sector. Yet an understanding of this sector remains a mystery to many American children. The Learning to Give program offers K-12 teachers the plans and materials to easily include this into their already-existing curriculum.

The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University (COP) is collaborating with the Council of Michigan Foundations to offer the Learning to Give program in Indiana. Beginning in 1977, staff from the Council of Michigan Foundations along with teachers wrote and tested K-12 curriculum lessons, units, and materials on philanthropy. These lesson plans and materials are shared on the website. Visit the COP website, and view Partnership Programs. The COP is pleased bring this program to Indiana, making it one of the first states outside Michigan to participate in making Learning to Give available nationally.

The long-term goal of the project is to develop and share curriculum lessons, units, and materials for perpetuating a civil society through the education of children about the independent sector, and to achieve their commitment to private citizen action for the common good. The curriculum contains both academic content about philanthropy and skill development activities which involve students in giving and serving their communities.

The basic approach of the project is a grassroots teacher-led effort to infuse into the curriculum academic content about philanthropy utilizing a service learning process. Over 200 teachers in school systems serving a variety of communities in rural, suburban, and urban settings are developing lessons, units, and materials, piloting, field-testing, and building authentic evaluation processes. The teachers are in kindergarten through senior high school classrooms, in public and private schools from throughout the state of Michigan and, most recently, Kansas City and Cleveland. June, 2003 teachers in Indiana were trained, and the Indiana program is being implemented in the school year 2003-2004.

The project has several strategies in each phase: development, assessment, piloting and field testing, content development, teaching process, evaluation, and dissemination. The major components are:

• A teacher based and grassroots effort which increases authenticity
• Quality curriculum infused into the core academic content courses
• Teaching both about philanthropy (academic content) and philanthropy (personal commitment) as character development
• Utilization of computer technology for communication on many levels
• Access to all material by all educators without copyright concerns
• Local advisors with ties to state and national networks
• Colleges of education involvement
• Multiple dimensions, networks, and strategies for dissemination
• Multiple evaluation strategies and assessment
• Bias toward collaboration

Teachers who have participated in the program say:

"For a child to feel a sense of worth, he or she must feel that he belongs and that his existence is meaningful. And just as family provides the framework from which that sense of worth develops, the child's formal education should include an understanding of the rights and responsibilities of individuals to the greater whole of society."
~ Fourth Grade Teacher

"What greater purpose does a middle school have than to help a child in transition find himself…have that powerful realization: someone needs me to help. We have a responsibility to provide opportunities that allow students to feel needed in the larger community so they don't develop a sense of self in a vacuum."
~ Middle School Teacher

"We're living in a society where money has more power than God; where human life is worth less than someone's jacket. We must teach our children about tolerance, unselfishness, and about giving. We need to teach them that sometimes we need to compromise or give up something that would be good for us as an individual so that what we're choosing instead is good for all."
~ High School Teacher

For further information contact Eileen Ryan, Learning to Give: Indiana Project Manager, at ecryan@iupui.edu.