The Tikkun Project
About this unit
When students from diverse cultural or religious backgrounds work together, they develop the awareness and mindset required to create more inclusive and resilient communities. In today's interconnected world, it is crucial to learn about different cultures, socioeconomic conditions, and religious and political backgrounds, and to understand how to challenge stereotypes and recognize potential biases. This unit begins with students defining diversity and identifying similarities and differences among people in their school, home, and social communities. They then choose an essential cultural or religious practice to explore and share with people from a different community. The process of learning from another and finding common ground while working toward a shared goal teaches vital skills in understanding similarity and difference.
critical challenge
Collaborate to design and present an arts-based experience focused on the question: "What are the most important ways that diversity can contribute to the strength and resilience of a community?"
Implementation Variants: Three implementation variants exist for this Critical Challenge — the unit author will decide which (if any) to develop further: (1) Full cross-school partnership — students from two or more schools conduct interviews independently, then meet in person or virtually to curate and present a shared experience. (2) Parallel-classroom model — each school works through the unit on its own timeline and exchanges recorded interviews or written pieces asynchronously; the culminating curating lesson works with the exchanged material rather than requiring a live joint session. (3) Single guest-expert model — rather than partnering with a full class elsewhere, invite one guest from a different cultural or religious background to be interviewed by the whole class as a shared 'text,' with individual pieces built around that one shared story.
critical challenge Criteria
- • all students make a meaningful contribution to the design and presentation of the experience
• it reflects a good understanding of and respect for the anticipated audience
• it leads to strengthened relationships and understanding among participants
• illustrates, reveals, or explores important similarities and/or differences among individuals and how these impact the strength and resilience of a community
Unit Goals
Curriculum Connections
- To what extent does diversity contribute to the strength and resilience of a community?
Students build and test criteria for when diversity strengthens a group versus when it creates friction, using their own identity mapping, a live collaborative task, and legal and textual frameworks as evidence.
What are the most important attributes that we learn through cultural or religious wisdom handed down from generation to generation?
Students conduct a real interview with an Elder, family member, or community guest, using carefully crafted questions designed to surface values and life lessons rather than mere facts.
How can we best teach others about the most important ways that diversity can create stronger and more resilient communities?
Students collaborate to curate and present individual contributions as a single, coherent collaborative educational experience for an authentic audience.