Every kid can get involved in charitable endeavors. Take 13 year old Julien Leitner. The philanthropist and founder of Archimedes Alliance, the non-profit organization that seeks to “encourage and promote philanthropy on the broadest possible scale,” believes that there are many ways for schoolchildren to help out and that doing so, is a very useful lesson. Leitner explained that engaging in this kind of activity “teaches compassion and empathy. It makes people more aware of the world. It teaches people to care for those less fortunate than themselves, and that knowledge and understanding stays with you your whole life. It’s what inspired me to start the Archimedes Alliance. I was conditioned for it. I was taught to be charitable from my family, and I finally decided I wanted to do something myself. I decided I wanted to change the world. Charity has changed my life, and made me want to change other peoples’ lives.”
Of course, along with parental support of charitable endeavors, the school system has to encourage children to give of themselves altruistically. One way of doing this is perhaps by letting them set up food for homeless people in the school cafeteria at the banquet tables. An important aspect of charity is to make the receiver feel welcome and important, not like some vagabond in the street. So if the school allows the children to really make a nice welcoming dinner and decorate the room beautifully, then this will be really taking the charitable idea to the next level.
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Charities: Education Starts at School
When it comes to getting kids involved in charitable works, there is a lot that charities can do to encourage them. Unfortunately however, a recent report documented in The Guardian found that many youngsters these days are not finding their place in the world of volunteer opportunities. This is a real shame since it is the current generation that actually has a lot to give. Charities are thus significantly missing out on this demographic.
There are some charities trying to counteract this. For example, the Jewish Lads’ & Girls’ Brigade (JlGB) has developed a wide range of national award schemes in an attempt to bring in young volunteers (the main one being the ever-popular Duke of Edinburgh Award). Indeed, a staggering half of young Jewish kids in faith schools are now taking part in this award. Nonetheless, even with this result, the report found that 65 percent of individuals “indicated that they required extra support in finding a suitable volunteering placement.” So work needs to be done to change that.
The truth is, at the end of the day, those who play a key role in the education of our youth should realize that one learns so much more than by simply sitting behind a textbook at a school desk. Learning how to be a moral, upstanding citizen; to be kind to others, to realize that the world exists beyond one’s small enclave is an awareness that should be taught in schools. Thus by providing volunteer opportunities to the children, the school is fulfilling its obligations of turning out moral, well-developed kids.
Still, one has to face reality as well. Unfortunately there are problems with school kids volunteering. First, insurance does not cover the under-16s potential volunteers. Second, in many volunteer opportunities, it would simply take too many resources to train the youth well enough for them to actually be able to offer effective help. But it nonetheless seems the benefits outweigh the problems and thus there should be some way to get around these issues.
It has to thus be up to the parents and guardians who believe volunteer opportunities are essential for the overall development of their children to push charitable work for their kids at school. Further, if enough parents get together and let the school know how important this issue is for them, the school might just sit up and take some interest and actually make this happen.