Resources for Teachers and Students
Prepare: The White House maintains a website that,
among other things, contains an official biography of every
past president of the United States of America. The biography
of the 39th U.S. president, Jimmy
Carter, is found on this website. Carter received the
Nobel Peace Prize in 2002; please visit their website to
view his Nobel
biography.
Read:
Jimmy Carter wrote an
original essay for the Architects of Peace project.
In it, he notes the increase in armed conflict worldwide
since the end of the Cold War, and traces the roots of much
of this conflict to poverty.
Explore: The Carter
Center, in partnership with Emory University, works
to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering. By
trying to eliminate the worldwide chasm between poverty
and wealth, the center engages in a process they call "waging
peace." To date, the Carter Center has been involved
in breaking the cycles of poverty and war in 65 nations.
Write: In his Architects of Peace essay, Jimmy Carter
claims that there can be no "true and lasting peace"
unless the global community meets the challenge of providing
for the basic human needs of the poor. Is this true? Why
should true and lasting peace be unobtainable as long as
there is poverty? If we eliminate poverty worldwide, does
it follow that peace will be a consequence? Write a three-to-five
page persuasive essay investigating these questions.
Extend: Every year going back to 1984, Jimmy and
Rosalynn Carter give a week of their time to the Habitat
for Humanity program to build affordable shelter for families
in need. Thousands of volunteers join them in what is now
called the Jimmy Carter Work Project, which alternates between
international building sites and projects within the United
States. To find out more about this program, and how to
become a project volunteer, check the Habitat
for Humanity International website.
Additional Resource: The Jimmy
Carter Presidential Library is located in Atlanta, Georgia.
At present, one-third of its manuscripts are open for research
while the rest are being catalogued and archived. While
much of the research pertaining to library documents must
be conducted on site, some can be accessed online.
Biography of Jimmy
Carter
