Teaching For Social Justice

I do want to teach for social justice because i believe that it is the best approach to use. In the article Creating Classrooms for Equity and Social Justice, it says "Unfortunately,too many schools are training grounds for boredom, alienation, and pessimism. Too many schools fail to confront the racial, class, and gender inequities woven into our social fabric." I totally agree with this statement. I feel that many students tend to drift off when learning strictly by the text. Also many of the students do not understand the material or can not relate it. When teaching by strict guidelines, many teachers become non enthusiastic and may not agree with what they are teaching. This just makes for a more worse of a time in the classroom. It also states that schools focus way too much on tests and good grades, rather than what the student has learned. School is not just about learning academic disciplines, but also learning about the realities of the world. This encourages them to think and form their own ideas and opinions about matters that are taking place. If teachers begin to use social justice, students will be learning about issues outside of the strict text material which is great in preparing them for the outside world. They will be able to ask questions and relate it to their own lives, which is very important. It also equips students to "talk back to the world." It will expand their horizons.

I enjoyed reading the article by Herbert Kohl. I think that he did a great job offering social justice teaching strategies for new teachers. My favorite one that Kohl stated was "First, don't teach against your conscience. Don't align yourself with texts, people, or rules that hurt children; resist them as creatively and effectively as you can, whether through humor or by developing alternative curricula." I totally agree with this statement. Your conscious is who you are, and you're not apt to change it. If you feel something is wrong, then you shouldn't be forced to say or teach it. Using this approach will bring out the good, not the bad to your students.

The only question I had for social justice was What does power have to do with fairness and justice? After research, I learned that When power comes into play, people begin to get power hungry, which causes the justice and fairness that people try to provide to become distorted and causes problems for others. However, this only seems to happen when the power controls you. People of power usually have the final say in things, and others listen/follow them. They usually don't speak out or share ideas if they do not have power.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice

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