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Connection to Texts
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Use these questions to make connections among the texts in this chapter, and consider
what insights the texts provide into the issue of Changing the World. As you respond,
be sure to make specific references to two or more texts you read in this chapter.
1. In her piece “What if We’re All Coming Back,” Michelle Alexander (p. 29) proposes
that one way to help people to consider the effects of climate change is to
encourage them to imagine that they will be reincarnated after death. Use her same
Changing the World
thought experiment with the topic of another chapter text and explain how the idea
of reincarnation might or might not help create the proposed change. To what extent
do you think Alexander’s method is an effective approach to creating change?
2. Some of the authors in this chapter focus on how power (or the lack of power)
affects how change can be created. How do they view power similarly or differently?
How do their views compare to your own sense of how power and change are
related?
3. Write a dialogue between two of the authors in this chapter. What topics related to
creating change would they discuss, and how would they respond to each other?

Connection to the World

Think back on the texts you have read, responses you have written, discussions you
have participated in, and ideas you have considered during your work with this chapter.
Use these questions to help explore how the issues raised in this chapter play out in the
world at large.
1. Identify political, cultural, or social leaders who are currently trying to create
meaningful change. How effective are their approaches to creating change? What
suggestions would you offer them?
2. What prevents meaningful change in the world from happening easily? Why are
some people, institutions, and organizations reluctant to change?
3. What is the most important change that we need in the world? What are the best
approaches to try to achieve that change?

Evidence-Based Argument

Write an argument in response to one of the prompts below in which you support your
claim with examples from at least three of the texts in this chapter.

Prompt 1: Write about a time that you created some kind of change. It could be
something at school, in your home, in your community, or elsewhere, and it does

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