The Tikkun Project
Lesson
7
Kids Making Change
Concept
Meaningful civic advocacy isn't limited to voting and real examples show that students this age already have tools available to them, right now, not only once they're old enough to vote.
Focus Question
What can we do to advocate for change right now, as students — and what additional tools open up once we're old enough to vote?
Knowledge & Understanding Goals
Social Studies, People and Environments Strand B — The Role of Government and Responsible Citizenship, Grade 5: Describe ways in which individuals and groups can affect political decisions at different levels of government, and evaluate the effectiveness of civic actions.
Language, Strand D (Composition: Expressing Ideas and Creating Texts), Grade 5: Write a persuasive text (letter or petition) for a real or intended audience, using appropriate form and voice.
Thinking & Learning Skills
ATL — Thinking Skills: Distinguishing advocacy tools available now from those that require voting age, and evaluating real examples against criteria for effectiveness.
ATL — Communication: Drafting a persuasive civic text for a real audience.
Learner Profile: Principled, Risk-Takers.
Context
A quick note on sourcing: there are two distinct organizations sharing this name Millennium Kids Inc. in Western Australia (environmental focus) and Millennium Kids Canada (millenniumkids.ca, based in Toronto/Ottawa/Kitchener-Waterloo). This lesson uses the Canadian organization, since its work is specifically built around young people meeting directly with Members of Parliament a closer match to "kids making a powerful difference through contact with government officials." Worth flagging in case a different organization was intended. This lesson follows directly from the government-structure knowledge built in Lessons 3 and 5 now the question turns from "who is responsible" to "what can an individual, including a student, actually do about it." It's also the unit's strongest touchpoint for the Hillel Check outside Lesson 1: the routine's third question personal action, advocacy, collaboration, or civic engagement maps directly onto this lesson's own now/future tool taxonomy.
Lesson Outline
WHAT TOOLS DOES AN INDIVIDUAL HAVE?
Brainstorm as a class: what are the different ways one person can try to influence government decisions? Likely answers: voting, signing or starting a petition, writing to an elected official, attending a public meeting or town hall, organizing a public campaign (protest, lawn signs, social media), volunteering for a campaign, running for office themselves one day.
Sort these onto a two-column chart: Available to us now, as students and Available once we can vote. Voting itself goes in the second column — but note that even before voting age, students can encourage eligible family members to vote and help them find reliable information, which goes in the first column.
LEARNING FROM MILLENNIUM KIDS CANADA
Examine three real, documented actions: nine Millennium Kids meeting with Members of Parliament at an Alternative Committee Meeting on Parliament Hill (2015) to urge Canada to keep its international development promises; a Canada-wide lawn-sign campaign calling on the 42nd Parliament to act on poverty and climate; and 1,600+ handmade welcome cards delivered to the Minister of Immigration for newcomer youth arriving from Syria (2015–16).
For each action, evaluate using a fishbone diagram — the same tool used elsewhere in the Tikkun curriculum for weighing an action against multiple criteria at once — with bones for Impact (did it reach the actual decision-maker?), Feasibility (could students realistically organize this?), and Voice (did it involve students speaking or writing in their own words, or only a symbolic gesture?).
APPLYING THE HILLEL CHECK TO OUR OWN ISSUE
Before drafting, students individually answer the Hillel Check for the issue their research has been narrowing toward: (1) In what way does this problem impact me, or people I know? (2) Beyond my own stake, what are the most important reasons this deserves action — for others, not just me? (3) Given the now/future tool chart built earlier in this lesson, what's the best way to effect real change on this specific issue right now — personal action, advocacy, collaboration, or civic engagement? Question 3 should point directly to the form the draft will take.
DRAFTING OUR OWN
In small groups or individually, students draft a short letter or petition addressed to an appropriate official (identified using Lesson 3's roles chart) about the issue their research has been narrowing toward, using their answer to the Hillel Check's third question to justify why this is the right form of action. This is a first draft, not a final product — it will be revisited once the class's action plan is finalized in Lesson 11.
ELECTION WATCH CHECK-IN
Briefly return to the Election Watch log. Ask: does anything happening in the Toronto or Israeli elections right now involve individuals — not just candidates — advocating for change? Add any relevant entries.
Notes for Teaching and Evaluation
Now / Future two-column sort: explicitly separating what's available now from what requires voting age counters a common and discouraging misconception among students this age — that meaningful civic action is something that only becomes possible once they're adults.
Fishbone diagram (reused from elsewhere in the curriculum): reusing an already-established multi-criteria tool, rather than introducing a new one, keeps the cognitive load on the content (evaluating real civic actions) rather than on learning new mechanics.
Drafting a real, addressed letter or petition — rather than a generic persuasive-writing exercise — matters because the audience is a specific real official identified through the class's own research, which raises the stakes of getting the reasoning and evidence right.
The Hillel Check: applying all three questions to a student's own chosen issue, right before drafting, keeps the writing personally motivated rather than a generic school assignment — a student who can articulate a real answer to "why does this matter to me" tends to write a more specific, less boilerplate letter than one who can't.