In October, I told the eight-year-olds in the religion class I teach in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, about my plan. “I’d like all of you to do extra jobs around the house to earn some money,” I said. “Then we’ll buy food for a Thanksgiving dinner for someone who might not have a nice dinner otherwise.” I hoped they could experience a sense of their own power to effect change.
Early in Thanksgiving week, they arrived in class with their hand-earned money. And now they couldn’t wait to go shopping. At last we headed toward the checkout, pushing a cart filled with turkey and all the decorations. Then someone spotted a“necessity” that sent them racing a pot of chrysanthemums(菊花).
It was more reasonable to use any extra money to buy food. After all, I pronounced, “You can’t eat flowers”. But the children insisted and placed the purple plant into the cart.
An agency had given us the name and address of a needy grandmother who had lived alone for years. Soon we were arriving at her house. Between the laughing and those purple flowers, I wasn’t sure that any lesson about giving and receiving was getting through.
We finally pulled up in front of a small house in the woods. A woman with a tired face came to the door to welcome us. As my little group carried the boxes of food in, she oohed and aahed - much to her visitors’ pleasure. When Amy put the plant on the counter, the woman seemed surprised. She was wishing it was a bag of flour, I thought. The woman told the children about the animals that lived close by. “I share my food with the birds, ”she said.
We returned to the car. As we fastened our seat belts, we could see the kitchen window The woman inside waved goodbye, then turned and walked across the room, past the turkey, straight to the chrysanthemums. She put her face in the plant. When she raised her head, there was a smile on her lips.The children were quiet. In that one brief moment, they had seen for themselves the power they possessed to make another’s life better.
【小题1】The author gave the students the task in order to _________.| A．help them focus on their family happiness. |
| B．let them experience their ability to help others |
| C．teach them the necessity of doing housework |
| D．get them to know how to be financially independent |
| A．Positive | B．Negative | C．Cautious | D．Enthusiastic. |
| A．They could help improve others’ life. |
| B．They could make a living by working. |
| C．It was necessary to do voluntary work. |
| D．Plants and birds could help lonely people. |
| A．My Teaching Career | B．How to Help Poor People |
| C．The Importance of Giving | D．A Happy Shopping Experience |
