Social Justice-Is it worth teaching?

What does social justice really mean? Dictionary.com states that its definition is "the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within a society". Social Justice does mean that, the advantages and disadvantages in a classroom as well as society. Classrooms, I never really thought had social justice, but reading these articles, I changed my perspective. I would love to teach social justice in my classroom. It truly is the best way to teach our students. It is a way for us to nurture our children in education.

It states the schools are, "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". This is so true, students are bored to death when they have to learn from a text book. I know it because I hated it. I was always bored with textbooks, they made me fall asleep. Students should be freer in what they learn and how they learn it. A lot of the textbooks are hard to read or analyze and students become irritated and just don't care anymore and they give up. Some teachers like to teach from the text but others prefer not too. I know I am one those of, when becoming a teacher I will not want to teach from the textbooks, but from what I know, and maybe look at the text and elaborate more on it.

In the article, "Teaching for social justice", Kohl stated

"So what are social justice teachers - those who care about nurturing all children and who are enraged at the prospect of students dying young, going hungry, or living meaningless and despairing lives - to do? How can they go against the grain and use their classrooms to work in the service of their students"?

Growing up I never really what it meant. After reading this I somewhat understood. It says classrooms are a way for hope and I believe that. It also says in a classroom is where respect comes into play. This is very true. When a student and a teacher respect one another, the teacher nurtures the student in becoming someone better. Respect is key to have in a classroom, especially between the student and the teacher. I really like how Kohl stated this, "Protect and nurture yourself. Have some fun in your life; learn new things that only obliquely relate to issues of social justice. Walk, play ball or chess, swim, fall in love. Don't forget how to laugh or feel good about the world. Have fun so that you can work hard; and work hard so that you and your students and their parents can have fun without looking over their shoulders. This is not a question of selfishness but one of survival. Don't turn teaching for social justice into a grim responsibility, but take it for the moral and social necessity that it is". He is absolutely right, we need to have fun, but we need to nurture ourselves before we nurture others. He's right in telling us to laugh and work hard.

Teachers need to realize that teaching social justice is a good cause in a classroom. The one question I had is, "Is social justice going to work, is it worth it"? Researching this, I found that although it's tough it can be done. It's a good way for a child to grow up and it's also good for the teacher. It helps to earn respect as well a relationship between the teacher and student.