Read the video introduction below and then silently jot down responses to the two prompting questions.
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT is a half-hour documentary about a renegade Jerry's Kid named Mike Ervin. Mike was a Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) poster child in the 1960s. Today he is a disability rights activist who challenges the MDA's use of pity to raise money in its annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon. THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT follows Mike as he organizes Jerry's Orphans, a group that protests against the telethon each year. The film offers a critique of the "pity approach" to fundraising by contrasting the telethon's outdated attitudes (personified by Jerry Lewis) with a view into the real life of a disability civil rights activist today.
1. Do you have a memory of watching the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon or another fundraising campaign? What is (or was) your impression of that program?
2. Have you ever made a donation to a charity? What charity and why?
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT is a half-hour documentary about a renegade Jerry's Kid named Mike Ervin. Mike was a Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) poster child in the 1960s. Today he is a disability rights activist who challenges the MDA's use of pity to raise money in its annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon. THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT follows Mike as he organizes Jerry's Orphans, a group that protests against the telethon each year. The film offers a critique of the "pity approach" to fundraising by contrasting the telethon's outdated attitudes (personified by Jerry Lewis) with a view into the real life of a disability civil rights activist today.
1. Do you have a memory of watching the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon or another fundraising campaign? What is (or was) your impression of that program?
2. Have you ever made a donation to a charity? What charity and why?
Community Building through Difference
Directions:
1. Choose a recorder, who should draw a large circle on the paper.
2. Talk about what you have in common but that cannot be seen by looking at you; the recorder writes these inside the circle (examples: number of siblings, religion).
3. Identify differences - characteristics or experiences that only one person in the group possesses - write them outside the circle.
1. Choose a recorder, who should draw a large circle on the paper.
2. Talk about what you have in common but that cannot be seen by looking at you; the recorder writes these inside the circle (examples: number of siblings, religion).
3. Identify differences - characteristics or experiences that only one person in the group possesses - write them outside the circle.
