Investigating Empowerment C HANGING Y OUR W ORLD

W ELCOME TO GRADE 7 SOCIAL STUDIES !  The title of your text this year is Changing your world: Investigating Empowerment. You may think the world is fine the way it is, but things are always changing. Things have always changed.  You may already know that life was different when your parents/grandparents were your age.  But what changes? What does not change?  What power do people have to change the world?

E MPOWERMENT  What do we mean by empowerment? When people are empowered, they can make a change when they feel it’s necessary.  Can you think of an example?  Become empowered!! Think of 3 things you would change in your life or world if you could!

Empowerment Having power Making your own decisions Feeling powerful

A UTHORITY & P OWER  People who are empowered feel that they have a lot of control over their lives.  They can make choices about important things like choosing a career or a place to live.  They have the authority to make these important decisions and the power to carry them out.

A UTHORITY  Authority gives a person the right to make decisions in a particular situation.  When we think about authority in our lives, we often think of people who have the right to make decisions for us.

 Acquisition of Authority  In some cases, people might agree to give it to them. For example, your softball team might agree on who is going to be captain. The team captain will then make decisions that the rest of the team will be expected to follow.  Legal Authority  The government of Canada makes laws that all Canadians must follow. For example, there are laws giving parents the right to make decisions that their children may or may not do. Laws that police can enforce is… Driving & speeding etc.. People can get authority in many ways….

T HINK OF ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE AUTHORITY IN YOUR LIFE. F ILL IN THE CIRCLES WITH THE NAMES OF ATLEAST 10 PEOPLE. Y OUR NAME GOES IN THE MIDDLE. Mme Skead Government PoliceMr. Atkins School district My parentsMy sister My Grand- parents Coach

O UR CONSTITUTION  A constitution is a set of rules that a government must follow. It protects us from abuse of power.  A special part of our constitution is the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The charter sets out our most important rights and freedoms so that eveyone in Canada knows what they are.  The charter says that all government laws have to apply to everyone equally.

T HE C ANADIAN C HATER OF R IGHTS AD F REEDOMS : M AIN I DEAS (6) 1. Look at the main ideas of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on page 6. You are to choose 5 points and thrn copy them into your notebook under the title « The Canadian Charter of Rigths and Freedoms. » 2. Think and choose which rights are most and least important to you. Why?

A UTHORITY AND P OWER IN Y OUR L IFE  As you get older, the law will give you the authority to have more and more power over you own life. The important thing to remember is that having power also means having the responsibility to use it.  What are you able to do now, that you were not able to do 3 years ago?  Stay home alone  Go shopping with your friends  Go see a movie  Babysit

L EGAL MILESTONES IN GROWING UP !  The right to: 1. Work at a minimum-wage job 2. Get a driver’s licence 3. Be eligible to vote

P ERSONAL E MPOWERMENT  Comes from having the ability to do something abour your needs, wants, opinions, beliefs and feelings.  There are a lot of things that people your age can do to start building personal empowerment.  You can find these things on page 8!! Are there any that you are already doing?

T HINGS ARE IMPORTANT THINGS WE ’ VE LEARNED SO FAR … 1. Empowered people can make choices that affect their own lives. 2. Authority gives the right for someone to make decisions. 3. People with authority have power over the others. 4. Our constitition protects us from abuse of power. 5. As we get older, we gain more and more power in our own lives. 6. Personal Empowerment consists of exercing a certain amount of control in our own lives.

1. What does the word Empowerment mean? (3) 2. How can someone acquire authority? (2) 3. What is legal authority? Give an example.. (4) 4. In Canada we have a ____________________ that protects us from the abuse of power. (3) 5. Name 5 ideas from The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (5) 6. As you get older, you have the right to… Name 3 things you can do. (3) Quiz!!!

F UTURE S ELF P ORTRAIT  Make a future self portrait to show your personal goals for empowerment.  Use words and images to show the kind of person you would like to be in 15 years. Use the internet, magazines etc..

T HE LIST OF QUESTIONS YOU MUST ANSWER … 1. What type of job will you have? 2. Where will you live? 3. What are your hobbies? 4. What univerisity, college or course will you have to take in order to obtain your job of choice? 5. Who will be the important people in your life? 6. How will your appearance represent your personality and life style? 7. What sort of things will you have learned or want to learn. (language, instrument, sport etc..)

W HAT TYPE OF JOB WILL YOU HAVE ?  I would like to be a teacher.

F UTURE S ELF -P ORTRAIT M ME S KEAD R UBRIC ExcellentVery GoodAcceptableIncomplete Did you answer all of the questions? or less Do you have pictures/photos that represent your answers ? or less Is your project neat? Did you use your class time efficiently? or less

E MPOWERMENT : A PUZZLE  Understanding empowerment is a bit like fitting together a puzzle. There are 5 main pieces to the puzzle.  You are going to work in groups. Each member of the group will read about one of the kinds of empowerment.  So that each person will be a sort of specialiste in that kind of empowerment. IN your groups you will decide who will the specialist of each kind of empowerment.  Each person must write a brief summary on their kind of empowerment.

 After all of the members are done, all of the specialists of economic empowerment will get together to come up with a class definition of ecnomic empowerment. The others will get together and do the same.  Return to your original groups.

 You will then share your summaries with your group. Make sure that everyone understands each of the different kinds of empowerment.  We will now together create our 5 summaries.  There are 5 types of empowerment: economic, political, cultural, societal and national empowerment.

 Economic Empowerment exists when one posseses enough wealth to satisfy his or her needs.  Political Empowerment consists of having his or her say in how things are organized and how decisions are made.  Cultural Empowerment signifies being free to practise your culture, not matter how large or small your culture is in society.  Societal Empowerment exists when all of the members of society are treated failry and equally.  National Empowerment exists when a nation has the power to make decisions for itself. There are 5 types of empowerment: economic, political, cultural, societal and national empowerment.

D ISEMPOWERMENT  So far in this chapter you have been reading about the importance of empowerment and individuals, group and nations. In this section, you will learn about disempowerment.  People are are disempowered believe that they have little control over their lives. They believe this because they are not able to make choices about things that matter to them.

D ISEMPOWERMENT CONT …  You are in a situation of economic disempowerment if you do not have enough money to buy what is neccesary to live.  You are in a situation of political disempowerment if you cannot vote or have a say in goverment decisions.  You are in a sitution of societal disempowerment if not everyone is treated equally.  You are in a situation of cultural disempowerment if you cannot practice your culture, religion, language etc..  You are in a situaion of national empowerment if another country makes decisions for your own country.

H UMAN R IGHTS IN H ISTORY  Today, many people talk about human rights. These are the rights of every person to be empowered in the ways you hve read about in this chapter.  Canadian ideas about human rights have changed over the years.  In the past, it was legal for people in authority to deprive others of basic rights such as votin, owning land, or the change of getting a good job.  Gradually, the laws were changed to make society fairer.  Things however, are still not perfect!!!

C HILDREN AND D ISEMPOWERMENT  One group in society that can be easily disempowerer is children.  It is especially hard for children to speak up for themselves because adults have the authority in most situations.  In 1990, Canada signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Among other things, this convention says that children have the right to grow up in a welcoming home, the right to play, and the right to get an education.

Pages H OME C HILDREN

T HINK IT THROUGH !! P G. 20  Respond to the following questions: 1. Who had the authority and power in this situation? Was it an individual, an organization, or a national government? 2. Was anyone disempowered by these choices? If so, who and why? 3. If you had been one of the people who had the authority and power in that situation, would have you had one something differently? 4. Write a personal response to the story of the Home Children.