"Someone Else's Problem"

In an integrated American Studies class team-planned among five teachers in Fremont, California, the teachers wanted to create an experience for our students that would not only challenge their perception of the world but also challenge their perceived inability to make a difference in it. The juniors in the classes had been studying the development of the welfare state from the Great Depression through the 1980s. With support from community members and local activists, the teachers designed the Hunger at Home project as the unit's culminating event. Through the project, students began to see issues of hunger and poverty not simply as national problems but as challenges that were affecting their community and their school. Finally, they were pushed to take action, designing and implementing programs that would meet real community needs and, in some small ways, change the world. (author)