Equality 101

Bad things happen in our world.  Sometimes, we look the other way.  Sometimes we confront them head on.  Sometimes we stand by and watch.  But what do we remember?  How do we remember?  And why do we remember?  These questions really get my students thinking.

We start by breaking up into small groups to tackle the following questions:

1.    What is the difference between a memorial, a monument and a museum?  Explain.
2.    Explain the purpose of memorializing events.  Why do we do it?
3.    In your opinion, what is the most effective way of ensuring that people will not forget an event?  Why is it effective?
4.    Why is memorializing so controversial?  Consider 9/11.  How do you feel it would best be memorialized?  Should it be memorialized?  Why/why not?
Read the rest of this entry →

In a speech he made in 2000, Tony Blair used the term “irreducible core” as in, what is your irreducible core?  As in what makes you you?  When you get right down to it, human beings have principles they will fight for.  It’s been proven and proven throughout history.  Look at The Revolutionary War for example.  The fact that the colonists won was based on pure heart alone.  Without that irreducible core belief in democratic ideals, those dudes would’ve crumbled under the sheer might of the British forces.

I attended a talk yesterday given by Liz Walker, who is a force herself, having traveled back and forth to The Sudan many times times over the last 9 years.  She stated that her irreducible core, her reason for being on this planet, was humanitarian work.  Specifically, to build the girls of Southern Sudan a school.  To even the playing field as much as she can.  To bring them literacy, to broaden their world view, to show them that life doesn’t have to be all about death.  She said that she looks around at kids in her Boston neighborhood and they’re all about money and the best sneakers, the newest iPhone, the flashiest jewelry.  But money is not an irreducible core.  The girls in The Sudan, she said, aspire to be doctors and pilots.  Doctors, because they bring people back from the dead.  Pilots, because they drop food from the sky.
Read the rest of this entry →

This is the fifth post in a series about the social contexts of education specifically addressing approaches to teaching social justice to white, middle-class children. These are my thoughts, opinions, and research from a class that I took on the very subject (my class has finished, but I’ll continue to write this series).

Previous posts in the series are here: Teaching Brown V. Board of Education; Funds of Knowledge; Gender, Math & Equity Research; Race in the Classroom

There is a ton of research literature surrounding “social justice education,” particularly studies that teach social justice to children from marginalized communities. However, in preparing for my final paper on “The Purpose and Effectiveness of Teaching Social Justice in Secondary Schools,” I also wanted to research how social justice education would play out when taught to a classroom of privileged children. I found that there was little research literature on this–but I knew that that didn’t mean that teaching social justice to children from the dominant culture is not necessary. Moreover, it should be the opposite.

Because children come from privileged backgrounds are the ones who need to know the most about power, privilege, and access; in other words, it is a necessity for these children to understand the foundations of social justice education.
Read the rest of this entry →

The following post can also be found at Feminist Teacher in honor of International Women’s Day, March 8, 2010.

The Astraea Foundation funds LGBTI social justice activism both in the US and globally. (photo courtesy of Astraea)

Do you know who is funding the fight for queer social justice in Africa?

Do you know who is funding the fight for queer social justice in Latin America?

Do you know who is funding the fight for queer social justice right here in the US?

The answer to all of these questions is Astraea. No other public foundation is working harder for sweet justice than the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, the world’s only foundation solely dedicated to funding LGBTI organizations in both the United States and internationally.

For more than 30 years, Astraea has been a major leader in the social justice feminist movement. Astraea began in 1977 in New York when a small group of women created a multi-racial, multi-class, feminist foundation in order to address the lack of funding for women—specifically lesbians and women of color. According to Executive Director Katherine Acey, the founding mothers—including Stella Alvo, Audrey Barnes, Nancy Dean, Barbara Grant, Joyce Hunter, Roberta Kosse, Cynthia Long, Achebe Powell, Joan Watts and Leslie Kanes Weisman—“believed that even the smallest of gestures, when combined, could create, nurture and strengthen significant social change. And they were right.” Read the rest of this entry →