One of the causes for indifference towards others is cultural indifference, or the inability to realize that different cultures may look at the same action in different ways. Have students talk with other students who come from a different culture and make a list of actions that they may misinterpret due to cultural backgrounds. Alternatively, assign students to penpals from a different culture and have them work together to do this project. (See Resources 1 and 2 for methods of obtaining penpals for kids.) This can be done by making a list of slightly rude actions in each culture and discussing them to see whether any of them do not apply in both cultures.
Read the following quote, said by Reverend Martin Niemöller, who was in a concentration camp for seven years:
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out
because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out
because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the labor leaders, and I did not speak out
because I was not a labor leader.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one
left to speak out for me.
Ask students to discuss this dangerous side of indifference. Let them talk about how they see it, on a lesser level, in their own lives. This may include people who do not stand up to a bully who is picking on someone else, or how they do not feel the pain of someone else's illness until it strikes someone close to them.
Students may also enjoy looking up and analyzing various quotes on the topic of indifference. They can each choose a quote that speaks to them and then write a paragraph or design a presentation about that quote. For example, they might choose the quote by Soren Kierkegaard, "At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference" and discuss how it applies to new neighbors or to people that you don't know yet. They may discuss J.K. Rowling's quote that "indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike," and give examples of where they have seen it to be true. There are also many quotes by Eli Wiesel about indifference, most of which tie in well to the previous section since they were also inspired by the indifference of the Holocaust.
When children become aware of the horrors going on in the world around them, they are often idealistic about their ability to change things. However, as they hear more and more, they begin to become more indifferent. Encourage students to choose one cause that speaks to them -- whether it's hunger in a different country, animal cruelty or child labor -- and instruct them to make a plan for how to support the cause in a small way. Students can write a short report when they are finished about what they did and why.