- 50 minutes
- Grades 2-5
Class Session #4: Glocal Philosophical Generosity
OVERVIEW
01. Glocal Philosophical Generosity - 20 MIN
- Highlight: Awareness of glocal connections inspires generosity.
- Engage–Ask: What does generosity mean to you? [Invite student responses and discuss briefly.]
- Explain: Generosity is a concept rooted in ancient cultures across world regions, languages, and generations. Place key words from different cultures and languages that mean “generosity” on the world map in the region where it is from.
- Explore–Record: Invite students to record the word for “generosity” across languages, cultures, and regions in Class #3 Handout below.
- Generosity in Ancient Greek Culture
Generosus: Generous
Agathos: Good, uprightAristotle (Greece, 300 BC): “The generous person…seeks to give…to the right people, in the right amounts, at the right time, with pleasure, and without looking out for oneself.” - Generosity in African Culture:
Ubuntu – Generosity, Humanity (Kinyarwanda language in Rwanda, Africa)“I am a person through other people. My humanity is tied to yours. I am because we are” – “umuntu ngumentu ngabantu” (Zulu proverb)Desmond Tutu on Ubuntu: “You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality—Ubuntu—you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another; you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity. I am what I am because of who we all are.”Barack Obama on Ubuntu: “We are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others.” - Generosity in Confucian Culture (Asia):
- Shu (恕) – Generosity, Reciprocity
- Shu(恕) means generosity that is reciprocal; 心 (xin) means heart
What is reciprocity? [showing generosity after having received it] How can receiving be generous?
- Ren (仁) – Benevolence (Kindness), Humanity, Generosity
- 人(ren) means person; 二 (er) means two.
- 仁 (ren) means: to be a person is to be a person with others.
Confucius was a philosopher-teacher who lived around 500 BC and traveled around the 7 warring regions of ancient China before it was one nation. He advocated for仁 (ren) among leaders and regions, rather than a continual vying for power.
- Generosity in Middle Eastern Culture:
- Humām: Arabic word, meaning gallant, magnanimous.
- Islam: Practice generosity in welcoming a stranger with best food or drink (600 AD).
- Generosity in Ancient Greek Culture
02. Evaluate: Musical Generosity - 30 MIN
- Highlight: Music can express emotions or ideas in ways that words cannot.
- Engage–Reflect: Invite the class to listen for sounds of generosity in the following song on Ubuntu in Rwanda (Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village): (Video Link)
- Explain–Discuss: How did the music sound like generosity?
- Explore–Practice: Allow students to experiment creating sounds of generosity. Allow students in small groups of 3–4 to venture outdoors on the playground. Ask students to experiment with different kinds of percussion sounds (e.g., clapping, snapping, stomping, singing, etc.), but encourage students to only focus on sounds, not on words. If weather does not allow, students can spread out in a large room, like a gymnasium or cafeteria. If easier, give each student a percussion instrument of some kind. Variations of this could be that students need to create sound in a creative way using their feet or hands as they move to different areas of the room, ideally in a large indoor space, or outdoors.
- Evaluate–Perform: Invite the students to perform for the class their “song.”
- Homework: Observe generosity in the cultures around you. Look for examples at school, in your neighborhood, at home, etc.