5/22 Teaching for Social Justice

In a previous class I read about how classrooms were being considered a school-to-prison pipeline. School was where teachers and students alike were told what to do and when to do it. Rethinking what the classroom looks and feels like is something from the future, which is now. After reading Introduction: Creating Classrooms for Equity and Social Justice, I see that change is coming. Change is here—change for the better in classrooms universally. 

1.      "A social justice curriculum must strive to include the lives of all those in our society, especially the marginalized and dominated." This quote resonates with me because I have worked with school-age youth and see the disparity in their treatment, most likely due to implicit bias (unconsciousbias) amongst employees. I believe training is needed to see ALL the youth equally.

2.      “Curriculum should be rooted in children’s needs and experiences.” I work in a role caring for youth. The youth I served were always upset, crying, and sad, but after we built relationships with them and learned their wants and needs, the classroom became a safe space and a soft place to land when they were feeling down, unregulated, or angry.

3.      “The ways we organize classroom life should seek to make children feel significant and cared about.” We, as educators and youth workers, don’t know what happens in a youth's home life, so we should do whatever we can to make them feel significant and cared for in our presence.  We should bring kindness, softness, and our hearts to work each day to brighten up someone’s day who might not be having a good one.

 Argument Statement: Educators and youth workers can encourage growth in young people.