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A Roadmap for Young Changemakers

Provided by: TED |Published on: April 27, 2021

Videos Grades 6-8, 9-12, ap-college

Synopsis

This insightful video features youth climate activist Melati Wijsen reflecting on lessons that she has learned over her previous ten years fighting plastic pollution in Bali, Indonesia.
The speaker's intended audience is young people, and her objective is to motivate youth to take action while helping them avoid some of the pitfalls that she encountered.

Subjects: Civics

Authors: Melati Wijsen

Region: Asia, Global

Languages: English

Positives

The speaker is specifically addressing youth.
The mentioning of how frustration can lead to burnout, along with some strategies to move past that can be applied to many situations in life.
The parallel drawn between greenwashing and youthwashing can be a launching point for various discussions/activities pertaining to public image versus actions taken by organizations and companies.

Prerequisites

If teachers are interested in providing deeper context beforehand, some knowledge about efforts to ban plastic bags, greenwashing, and/or youth activism would be excellent topics.
The transcript is available in 9 languages.

Differentiation & Implementation

Begin with a question for students, such as "What do you think you would encounter if you were to embark on ten years of activism toward an issue that you care deeply about?" Then, challenge them to create a mural or comic that encapsulates the challenges they may face. Finish with a gallery walk of the completed work or have students examine the similarities and differences between their anticipations and what Melati Wijsen faced in Bali.
Melati offered three lessons that she learned in her ten years of activism. Ask students to apply those lessons more broadly to other areas of their lives and write a reflection paper about it.
At the start of her journey, Melati repeatedly encountered a polite but patronizing audience due to her young age and gender. Ask students to reflect and share about an instance where they were patronized because of being young or when they perhaps were patronizing towards a younger person in their own lives.

Scientist Notes

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Resource Type and Format

All resources can be used for your educational purposes with proper attribution to the content provider.