Social Justice Education

I have to admit, when first reading this article, I was a little bit confused. I mean really, how much can you relate social justice to teaching? I thought what the author of the article had to say was smart and sounds like some good advice to both live by and teach by. Still; I guess you can call me ignorant or lacking of common sense (which I actually get a lot!) but I decided to Google "social justice definition" to see if something a little bit more explainable would come up. I got this definition from Wikipedia, not the most trustworthy source, but I liked the way it explained the term to me.

"Social justice, sometimes called civil justice, refers to the concept of a society in which justice is achieved in every aspect of society, rather than merely the administration of law. It is generally thought of as a world which affords individuals and groups fair treatment and an impartial share of the benefits of society."

So now that I have a decent understanding of what the point of social justice in education is, I want to know of something that is being done about it around the country. I guess I ask this just to prove to myself that it is possible. In Kohl's article, it kind of seems like the idea of it is super stressful, and that as a teacher promoting this you are going to have to face a lot of opposition which may even threaten your job status. In this economy, though making social justice relevant in education is important to me, keeping my job would most likely be first priority, even if it meant taking the back seat on the communal good and following the rules. Obviously, if I were teaching in a school where the policies were just completely unethical and expected me to take away from the students learning abilities, I would stand up for the rights of the students. It is really important for students to believe in social justice. The world as a whole should want to fight for it, instead of just accepting that their surroundings are not just.

So when it came to my question of what exactly has been done for social justice in education, I found an articlet that really brightened my day. In Chicago, in a little neighborhood of mostly hispanic low income families, all of the children had to travel between 4 different cities to attend highschool. The parents got together and fought for the right to open up a high school basically in their own backyards. Initially the city approved the plans for the school but they kept holding off on construction because they claimed the funds were needed for other reasons. Eventually, fed up, the citizens performed an impressive nineteen day hunger-strike at the site where the school would be opened. Their strong efforts over SIX YEARS finally worked and the Little Village Lawndale High School was opened in 2005. The school focused it's teachings on peace and struggle, which was an easy base considering what they had to do in order to have the building created. The students are engaged in real life issues of race, gender, and economic equity. They are taught about self- awareness and encouraged to self- discovery. The students are actually excited to go to school and learn about what they can do to become aware of their community and how they can help to improve it.

The LVLHS is an inspiring story that made me think alot about social justice education. The ideas of social justice in education are spreading throughout the country, but unfortunately they have not made it into the mainstream problems and concerns of the overall education system. Hopefully by the time that I become a teacher, it will be acceptable to use a socially just way of teaching and I won't have to fight so much for the right to have a just and fair classroom.


I liked how Kohl gave a list of things to do to take steps toward social justice in education. Making a blend of a bunch of different teaching methods that you come across to create your own stew of teaching seems logical and very unique. I hope to do this when I'm a teacher. The final paragraph was not only something that teachers should live by, but I feel that everyone should live by. He is telling the reader to enjoy life the way it is. It is useless to get completely stressed over the issues of social justice. If that is the case, it will become more of a obligatory duty than a charity. You need to have fun in order to work, and work in order to have fun. This has always been one of my main motto's in life. Work hard, Play Harder. I see so many of my friends who either do really well in school but really have no social life. Or those who base their life socially, and really struggle with academics and their futures. The key is to balance the two so that in the long run, you are happy and well off. I hope that social justice education really takes a kick start over the next four years so that I can join the efforts to have it be a necessity instead of just a dream.

Kohl Article
LVLHS Article
Wikipedia Definition
Google

Inclusion and the Deaf

After reading this chapter about inclusion, I got to thinking... How far is too far when it comes to including kids with disabilities into general education classrooms? Should all children of all possibly disabilities be allowed in with the normal kids? Should blind children, deaf, and dumb children be expected to learn within the same class as both normal kids and those with learning problems like downs syndrome and autism? How much is too much? When I was in high school, for some reason I was always in the home room with all of the deaf children and their aid, who spoke to them and translated everything the teacher said in sign language. Now, it wasn't too much of a distraction, since it was homeroom. It was actually pretty interesting and I learned a few things. Yet, if those children had been in my other classes, I have to say that I probably would be distracted and have trouble concentrating.

In the article that I read on this subject the author stated "Inclusion entails, students receiving all support services within the classroom". Now to me, this isn't totally appropriate for deaf children. They need to have their own room and time with their aids where they can totally concentrate on learning in sign language. This way, the deaf children get a quality lesson, while the normal and other disabled children also are not totally distracted by all the sign language going on. Parents may argue that it is not fair that some disabled students are allowed to learn solely in the classroom while their deaf or even blind child is not allowed. Yet, I don't really have sympathy for these parents. They need to realize that some students with disabilities are already easily distracted, and to place a deaf child with an aid constantly translating in sign language in the same environment, they are both going to have difficulties learning. The percentage of deaf children is exceptionally lower than that of other learning disabilities.

So to answer my primary question- I would say that placing deaf children solely in the general education classroom would be pushing inclusion too far. It would be fine and acceptable for these children to be involved in some aspects of the general education classroom, for certain parts of the day- but certainly not all day every day. This question is one of many that are brought up when learning about and discussing the issue of inclusion. I think inclusion is a great idea that should be implemented throughout the school system, but only to certain limits.

Article!!