First They Came . . .

The quote from Carl Schurz, in Ms. Somers' last post, reminded me of this poem:



First They Came . . .



When the Nazis came for the communists,

I remained silent;

I was not a communist.


When they locked up the social democrats,

I remained silent;

I was not a social democrat.


When they came for the trade unionists,

I did not speak out;

I was not a trade unionist.



When they came for the Jews,

I remained silent;

I was not a Jew.



When they came for me,

there was no one left to speak out.



Pastor Martin Niemöller



What connections can you make between the two texts that deepen our understanding of being agents of social change?

Equality of Rights

From the equality of rights springs identity of our highest interests; you cannot subvert your neighbor's rights without striking a dangerous blow at your own. Carl Schurz

What does this quote mean and how does it affect the life choices people make individually, as a group and as a society?

The Causes of Inequality

I have enjoyed reading the comments so far. One common idea is that we can be agents of social change through charity (collecting and giving money). I think that this can be true - the school in Sri Lanka that we are helping to build will change the society in the community where it is built.
I think that there is also a deeper form of social change that is built on thinking and talking about the causes of inequality. Inequality is about things not being equal - for example, some people being very poor and others being very rich.

Questions like this are a starting point:

• Why are some people, communities, countries poorer than others?
• How can inequality be reduced?
• Who has the power to change the causes of inequality?
• What can we do about the causes of inequality?
• What does history teach us?

I would be very interested to read your ideas on this.

Agents of Social Change

Welcome Grade 5s!

The central question for Grade 5 is: How does the idea of 'agents of social change' connect to the school subjects and the world?

The purpose of this blog is to explore the central question.

The audience is Grade 5 students, teachers and anyone who finds it on the web (!).


Here are some guidelines for what makes a good post or comment.

A good post or comment :

• is connected to the central question.
• extends the ideas of the post. Maybe it does this by asking a question, making a connection, making an inference or adding new information.
• uses full sentences and correct punctuation and spelling.

For your first post, answer this question. What is an agent of social change? Give an example from your life, including what you have learned about at school.

At the end of your comment use the following codes to show that you have followed the guidelines.

con = My comment is connected to the central question.
ext = I have extended the ideas of the post.
fs = I have used full sentences and correct punctuation and spelling.