Disadvantage and Homelessness Teaching Session Activities
1.
Warm Up: What disadvantage looks like, feels like and sounds like
Divide students into three groups based on their eye colour. Don’t tell them what each group
represents yet.
Group One: Brown Eyes (The Haves, plenty of money, job security, safe place to live)
Group Two: Blue Eyes (The Have-Nots, homeless, mental health issues, broken relationships,
unemployed, single, families, young, aged, etc)
Group Three: Green or Hazel Eyes (On the poverty line)
(Take a range of simple food items e.g. fresh fruit, sandwich, Tim Tams, rice, stale bread, can of
beans, etc and display at the front of the class. It’s up to you whether you let them eat them or
not. I usually ask the teacher.)
 Group One selects as many items as they wish.
 Group Two chooses.
 Group 3 takes what remains.
Use the Y chart to discuss, what this looked like, sounded like, felt like.
2.
Human needs, opportunity and disadvantage
 Distribute a copy of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs and the Consequences Chart.
 Discuss where most people aspire to be.
 Have students place where someone who is homeless might fit on Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Human Needs.
3.
The Facts
 Give your Presentation Information
4.
Show a short section from the film The Pursuit of Happyness (Will Smith and his child are
homeless when he loses his job. Readily available at any video store also available at any
community library.)
 Have students identify the social, emotional, financial, physical and social effects of
homelessness in the film.
 Discuss the barriers to change for our clients and our service response.
5.
Discuss how they can make a difference
 Distribute planning and activity sheets for them to keep as a stimulus to take on advocacy
and fundraising activities after the visit to support UCW.
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THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
SUBJECTS — U.S. 1991 - present and Biography;
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING — Father/Son; Parenting; Surviving, Work/Career; with the student
handout "Episodes in the Life of Chris Gardner (What's Not in the Movie)" add: Alcohol & Drug Abuse;
Breaking Out; Spousal Abuse; Child Abuse; Education; Male Role Model; Ambition;
MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS — Responsibility; Caring.
Age: 12+; MPAA Rating -- PG-13 for some language; Drama; 2006; 117 minutes; Color.
In this movie, an African-American man, abandoned by his
father as an infant, vows that he will always be present in the
life of his child. Caught in a perfect storm of bad luck, he
becomes homeless. However, he manages to take care of his
son while pursuing a highly competitive unpaid internship as a
stockbroker. The film was "inspired by" events in the life of
Christopher Gardner, who was once homeless but who is now a
wealthy stockbroker, as well as a proud father.
This movie shows an example of a black man being committed
to his child. The other important lesson from the life of Chris
Gardner is not shown in the movie but is clearly brought out in
the student handout that accompanies the Learning Guide. The
life of Chris Gardner shows that a child who has been physically abused is not doomed to abuse his
own children and that a boy who sees his mother repeatedly beaten by her husband can decide not to
treat the women in his life in the same way. Chris Gardner, having been repeatedly beaten by his
step-father and having seen his mother beaten as well, decided to "go the other way." He learned
what not to do by this step-father's example. The TeachWithMovies.com Learning Guide to this
film will show teachers how to bring out this important lesson.
In addition, the Learning Guide to the movie will assist in teaching children about:
1) the liberties with the facts that can be taken by filmmakers in movies "inspired by a true story";
2) how the filmmakers, in search of a dramatic story line, ignored Mr. Gardner's most important
achievement;
3) the victimization of the homeless by criminals;
4) how movies can gloss over troubling ethical questions raised by the "true story"; and
5) how "feel good" movies often feature Cinderella stories of extraordinary good fortune which,
given the economic structure of our society, are unrealistic for all but one in a million.
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