Level: Grades 7 - 12
Overview
| This lesson and all associated documents (handouts, overheads, backgrounders) is available in an easy-print, pdf kit version. To open the lesson kit for printing, click here. To print only this page, use the "printable version" link at the top of the page. |
In this lesson Buy Nothing Day is used as a jumping-off point to look at the role of consumerism in our lives and culture. Students learn the definition of consumerism and consider its benefits and drawbacks; as well as where and how they receive consumerist messages. Students list their own recent purchases and consider how many were needed as opposed to wanted. They are then introduced to Buy Nothing Day and discuss its purpose and merits. Finally, students imagine that Buy Nothing Day is a holiday on par with Christmas and plan either a pageant or television program to celebrate the event.
Note: the Consumerism Diary activity is distributed to students the day before this class.
Learning Outcomes
Students will:
- Define and debate the pros and cons of consumerism
- Survey consumerist messages in their lives
- Analyze their own purchases
- Plan a pageant or television program
Preparation and Materials
Read and photocopy the following handouts:
If you would like more background on Buy Nothing Day, read the backgrounder at http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/?page_id=2.
Procedure
For all students:
The day before, distribute the handout Consumerism Diary and ask students to fill it out for this class.
What is consumerism?
Write the word consumerism on the board and ask students if they know or can guess what it means. If no-one is familiar with it, break it into two parts for them: consumer, someone who purchases and uses a product or service, and ism, an organized way of thinking (compare communism, feminism, pragmatism, etc.) Develop a definition of consumerism with the class that is similar to this one: consumerism is the belief that it is good for society for people to buy things – the more, the better. Ask students if they agree with this idea or not. What are some arguments in its favour? (Example: people work to produce things; they need buyers to keep their jobs) What are some arguments against it? (Example: people may waste their money buying things they don’t need.)
Ask students what things in our society encourage us to believe in consumerism. Try to encourage students to come up with several examples (advertising, hearing or seeing what other people have bought, disposable products, etc.) Ask students if there are any rituals or holidays that encourage consumerism; if no students suggest them, point out that birthdays, Christmas, Hanukkah and Easter all involve buying presents or treats. Ask students to consider their own religious or cultural celebrations. Is there an emphasis on buying presents in any of them?
Consumerism Diary
Take up the Consumerism Diary handout from the previous day with students. What kinds of messages did they receive that encouraged them to spend? Which places and media were most likely to contain consumerist messages? Were there any places or media that had few or no consumerism messages? Discuss why some places and media are better or worse venues for consumerism.
Distribute the What I Buy handout to students. Give them time to answer the questions and encourage them to reflect on the differences between wants and needs.
What is Buy Nothing Day?
Ask students if any of them have heard of Buy Nothing Day. If any have, ask them what they know about it; if not, ask what they think it might be based on the name. Distribute the handout Buy Nothing Day, have students read it and answer the following questions (included on the handout):
- Do you think that we buy more things than we really need each day? Make a list of things which your family would normally spend money on each day, i.e. food, gas, bus fare, clothing etc.
- Look at your spending habits over the course of a month and see where most of your money goes. Do you attempt to budget your money?
- Why do we, as a culture, feel compelled to buy things we don't need for survival?
- Do you think commercials and advertisements make us feel we need things when we really don't?
- Why do you think our culture and media encourage us to buy things constantly? Is this a good, bad or neutral thing? Why?
Take up the questions with the class.
Buy Nothing Day events
Ask students why Buy Nothing Day is held after American Thanksgiving and before Christmas. How does each of these events involve consumerism?
Ask students what events they associate with Christmas or other winter holidays. (Examples could include school Christmas assemblies, TV Christmas specials, Santa Claus parades, Christmas morning, etc.) Make a list of the ways in which a Christmas assembly or TV Christmas special (Peanuts, Rudolf, etc.) celebrates the values associated with Christmas and/or other winter holidays.
Break the class into groups. Ask each group to imagine that Buy Nothing Day is a holiday as important as Christmas. Each group should plan out either a Buy Nothing Day assembly or a Buy Nothing Day TV special. In each case, how would it be different from its Christmas equivalent? How would it celebrate the values associated with Buy Nothing Day?
Have the groups each present and explain what they invented.
Additional component for secondary students:
While students are completing their What I Buy handouts, draw the following mind map on the board:
Discussion:
Back in the 1940s, psychologist Abraham Maslow developed various categories that he believed humans need to achieve in order to reach their highest levels of consciousness and wisdom – a state of being that Maslow refers to as a "self-actualizing person." At the lowest levels are things we physically need – food, water, air, warmth. We also need to feel safe and secure, to belong and be loved, and to feel good about ourselves, in order to achieve our highest potential.
- What kinds of consumer goods would you consider to be essential in any of these categories?
- Look at your list of things you’ve bought. Where would they be?
- Are there any consumer goods that you would associate with Maslow’s highest level of actualization?
Extension activities for all students:
Have your class, or your school, prepare an actual Buy Nothing Day assembly.
Have students script a Buy Nothing Day TV special.
