Resources that are New and Recommended…
…for Lifespan Faith Development

Fall/Winter 2006

Readers' Guide:

Sections in this listing include:

• Resources about Racism & Classism
• Social Action & Service Learning
• Curricular Resources
• Family Resources

Resources about Racism and Classism

For Congregations...

• Long Challenge: The Empowerment Controversy (1967-1977) by Victor H. Carpenter
  A look back at the conflict between African American and white UUs that exposed deep tensions that remain with us today. Chicago: Meadville Lombard, 2003. Available from the UUA Bookstore.
• Empowerment: One Denomination's Quest for Racial Justice (1967-1982)  – A Study of the Unitarian Universalist Association by the Commission on Appraisal.
  This report is of our denomination's response to the black empowerment issue.
• Wilderness Journey: The Struggle for Black Empowerment and Racial Justice within the UUA (1967-1970).
  This is an "oral history" of the first-hand participants in the so-called Black Empowerment Controversy within the UUA of the 1960s and 1970s, thus preserving this important witness for future generations. DVD produced by Ron Cordes. Available from District libraries.

For Religious Educators… 

• Whiteness and Anti-Racism: New Resources!
  In the fall, 2006 The Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance Site offered excellent resources about Whiteness and Anti-Racism. We recommend them all.
• Whiteness and Anti-Racism in the Early Grades
  For young white students, explorations of fair and unfair, just and unjust, can go a long way in advancing anti-racist white identity. Lives of white anti-racists are part of these suggested programs.
• Whiteness and Anti-Racism in the Middle/Upper Grades
  Often, white youth must come to understand that society attaches meaning to their whiteness and that they have a choice about how to be white in a multicultural society. This program explores supportive paths for youth exploration of these issues.
• Whiteness and Anti-Racism in Teaching/Leading
  How can adults who work with children and youth grow as anti-racist activists? This section offers resources for adults.
• Talk with Kids about White Privilege
  Parenting columnist Elizabeth Bauchners reflects on explaining the concept of white privilege to children in this July 2006 article from Tolerance.org.

To Guide Anti-Racist Religious Education & Practices…

• Considerations for Cultural Borrowing: Questions to Ask (and Answer) prepared by the 2003 UUA Cultural (Mis) Appropriations Ad Hoc Committee, Judith Frediani, Chair.
  This document offers a comprehensive set of questions to consider when potentially integrating culture specific practices into Unitarian Universalist worship and teaching.
• Reckless Borrowing or Appropriate Cultural Sharing? By Jacqui James.
  The author writes, "It is important that we learn to differentiate between drawing from the wisdom and appropriating rituals, artifacts, and other elements of the spiritual traditions of other religions."
• Cornrows, Kwanzaa and Confusion: The Dilemma of Cultural Racism and Misappropriation , by Rev. Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley.
  This article opens a dialogue on the complex issue of cultural racism. Is it possible to honor the need and the right of each culture to affirm and celebrate its own heritage and traditions, while inviting others to join in?
• Lessons from the Kwanzaa Candles, by Gail Forsyth-Vail.
  How can a white Anglo-American Unitarian Universalist respectfully address Kwanzaa? This award-winning worship service addresses this question as well as the history and meaning of Kwanzaa. The author writes, "The Kwanzaa candles encourage me to learn what it means to be white in the United States , learn what my forebears exchanged for a place in the American melting pot. I must search for and claim the red, the past, my past, before I can truly envision a fair world, a world of justice, equity, and compassion in human relations."

Social Action & Service Learning 

Service Learning: New and Recommended Resources!

We know that children and youth grow in faith by putting their faith into action. And we see how most children and youth have the impulse to help and serve others in the communities around them. But we also know that some social action or service learning projects work better than others. Sometimes these endeavors reinforce our inter-connectedness with the people and communities we are supporting; at other times the work seems to reinforce division, despite shared and heartfelt compassion. In October 2006, Teaching Tolerance produced a series of reflections and resources that name these struggles and guide future work. We recommend the entire set (see link above) and are highlighting only a few sections below.

• What is service learning?
• Elements of multi-cultural service learning
• Service-Learning Resources: Early Grades
• Service-Learning Resources: Middle and Upper Grades
• Make a Difference Day, reflection by Parenting Columnist, Dana Williams
  “Finding opportunities to contribute can be valuable not just for children, but for the entire family. When we find ways to partner with those we aim to help, we can bridge gaps between people and communities often separated by distance, socioeconomics and access.”

Kids and Social Action: Idealist Site!

Check this out! What a wonderful site with very good links to help make social action visioning and planning move forward. Appropriate for adults, youth or kids, we recommend it.

• Organizations started by Kids
  This section offers an inspiring list of kid-run or kid-initiated efforts
• Take the Lead
  This section provides step-by-step guidance for going from having a good idea to working for social change. It also has excellent links to additional resources.
• Actions without Borders
  This section provides a truly incredible resource of links to some of the best sites. Take a look at those under the category of the environment!

Curricular Resources

New Sexuality Education Resource for Young Children

• It's Not the Stork! A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families, and Friends. Available through the UUA Bookstore.
  From author Robie Harris and illustrator Michael Emberley, the award-winning team behind It's Perfectly Normal and It's So Amazing! comes a book for younger children about where babies come from and what makes them a girl or a boy. It's Not the Stork! answers young children's straightforward, simple, and, at the same time, often profound questions about their bodies, gender, and how they were made. Even their simplest questions such as “Where did I come from?" are complicated and can be difficult to answer. It's Not the Stork! answers these questions with honest, clear, and reassuring language that is comfortable for young children and adults alike.

New Disability Awareness Resource

• Disability Awareness -- Do It Right! A Handbook. Edited by Mary Johnson.
  Simulation exercises -- activities in which participants get into wheelchairs, tie on blindfolds or stuff earplugs into their ears to "simulate" having a disability -- have become a popular "Awareness Day" event. But they've also come under fire from disability activists and educators, who criticize them as demeaning and inaccurate.
  
  Disability Awareness -- Do It Right! A Handbook recommended by UUA's accessibilities specialist, Rev. Dr. Devorah Greenstein, offers you an all-in-one how-to guide from the Ragged Edge Online community, with tips, techniques and handouts for a successful Awareness Day. Short background articles and planning lists help you organize fun and effective Awareness Day activities that disability rights activists support. Concise, easy-to-read chapters show you how to carry out 6 specific types of activities, how to handle follow-up discussion and even how to spur social change.

Peace Corps Curricular Resources 

Peace Corps offers sessions plans, lovely narratives written by Peace Corps volunteers and other resources from its “Worldwise Schools,” section. It is an excellent site for child-appropriate, internationally focused stories and programs.

• Session Plan: “Enough to make your head spin:” Nonverbal communication (grades 3-5 and 6-8) As with most sessions it includes a central story written as a peace corps volunteer's reflection online and ready for use.
• Session Plan: “How Two Cultures Differ: Two Different Perspectives on the Same Event”: Running (grades 6-8) Participants explore how the same event can have different meanings depending on who engages in the event and the cultural context of interpretation.

Science Resources & Experiments from Exploratorium

The Exploratorium  offers excellent science experiments, resources and activities that can offer some good curricular additions or alternatives.

Wisdom Stories Resources 

There's nothing like a good story. But finding stories can take a lot of time. While we have yet to find the perfect story site, the following sites offer stories organized in manners that make them searchable.

• Story-telling site with some good wisdom tales
• Aesops Tales
• Generosity of Spirit, Myths and Folktales: Stories Organized by Character Traits
• Folklink: Folk and Fairy Tale Site offers many other email sites for classic folk stories

Noteworthy Adult Faith Development Resources

Unitarian Univeralist Programs available in full online!

• Principled Commitment (Beta Version)
  This program for Unitarian Universalist couples is currently available for use during this testing and feedback gathering phase of the program's development.
• Owning Your Religious Past 
  This 25th Anniversary Edition is an updated, online version of this classic curriculum.

Family Resources

• Tufts University Child and Family Web Guide 
  This site is an excellent resource for a large spectrum of information about children and families. The site provides information and also offers assessments by renowned child development experts of other child and family-related sites.
• Tips for Parenting in a Commercial Culture 
  Produced by the New American Dream, this is an excellent, parent-friendly booklet addressing how parents can navigate family life in a commercial culture. It is downloadable.
• Mavin Foundation 
  The nation's leading organization that builds healthy communities that celebrate and advocate for mixed heritage people and families.
• Project a Maze 
  A non-profit organization of parents, educators and other caring adults working to create safe and respectful communities by promoting the knowledge and skills needed to work together across our differences.
• UU Taking It Home: Families and Faith
  Six downloadable booklets written for Unitarian Universalist congregations and families addressing the topics: Respect, Time/money Balance, Marriage & Committed Relationship, Divorce & Family change, Loss, and Interfaith Families.

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