Fundraiser, Solidarity and a Misallocated Grant
A Transition Year class of 26 in a Catholic school runs a '20K Challenge': each group gets €20 seed money and must raise funds for a charity. One group raises €640 selling sweets and plans to donate to a local homeless shelter. Another group raises €410 and wants to give it to a martial arts club for 'self-defence classes for young men' after a stabbing in the area. A third group proposes a public protest outside a Direct Provision centre, arguing Catholic social teaching demands action. The principal will allow only activities consistent with the school's Catholic ethos and child protection policy. The class has one week before the showcase. Two students are asylum seekers and have not spoken publicly about their status.
1. Using Catholic social teaching, recommend what the teacher should approve, modify or reject among the three proposals.
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Apply four tests: human dignity, the common good, solidarity with the vulnerable, and subsidiarity. The homeless shelter grant passes all four: it meets basic needs, strengthens the common good, expresses solidarity and respects the charity's own expertise. Approve it. The self-defence proposal starts from a real concern about safety, but it is not a charity, it risks stigmatising young men, and it could be read as endorsing retaliation. Modify it: redirect the €410 to a recognised conflict-resolution or restorative justice workshop, and require the group to explain the difference between legitimate self-defence and vengeance. The protest proposal raises a genuine CST issue: advocacy for asylum seekers is legitimate. But a protest outside a Direct Provision centre can target residents rather than policy, and it may expose the two asylum-seeking students. Reject the location; modify to a meeting with a public representative, a letter campaign, or an awareness event that does not identify residents. In every case, protect the two students from being made spokespeople without consent.
2. How should the teacher handle the two asylum-seeking students' silence and the class's assumption that they should speak?
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Begin from dignity and non-tokenism. The two students are not a resource for the class's learning, and their silence is not a teachable deficit. Speak to them privately: explain the showcase options, ask whether they want any role, and make clear that no role is required. Offer alternatives such as research, design or logistics. Tell the class, without identifying anyone, that no student is required to disclose personal or immigration status, and that solidarity means accompaniment rather than spectacle. If the students do choose to speak, help them set boundaries in advance and agree what questions will not be taken. This also gives the class a more accurate lesson in Catholic social teaching: the option for the poor is not the option to use the poor as an illustration.