Charity and Justice: What’s the Difference?

Professional Development
Read an explanation of the Difference Between Charity and Justice [1]. 

Middle Grades [2] (5-8)

High School [3] (9-12)

Political Cartoon 

Artist: Jeff Parker. Reprinted with Permission. Teachers may purchase individual cartoons for other lesson plans at PoliticalCartoons.com [4].

In this lesson, you have explored the differences between charity and justice. Apply what you’ve learned to this cartoon. Use these questions to guide you:

• What is the societal problem that this cartoon addresses?
• What in the cartoon represents a charitable response to the problem?
• What in the cartoon gets in the way of the charitable response?
• How would you address the problem in a justice-oriented way?

Standards [5]
Activities and embedded assessments address the following standards (McREL 4th  edition)

Behavioral Studies

Standard 4. [6] Understands conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among individuals, groups, and institutions

Civics

Standard 10. [7] Understands the roles of voluntarism and organized groups in American social and political life

Standard 13. [8] Understands the character of American political and social conflict and factors that tend to prevent or lower its intensity  

Standard 14. [9] Understands issues concerning the disparities between ideals and reality in American political and social life

Standard 28. [10] Understands how participation in civic and political life can help citizens attain individual and public goals

Language Arts

Standard 1. [11] Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process  

Standard 2. [12] Uses the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing  

Standard 3. [13] Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions  

Standard 4. [14] Gathers and uses information for research purposes