Social Justice

After reading through the article, I'm still not sure how to teach social justice. It's not that there is a right or wrong way, but there are many aspects that need to be taught. I am currently taking Public Speaking for Social Justice here at Salem State, and can relate that class to this article. Each week we take into consideration different social justice issues, and sometimes I think my Professor sometimes struggles with how to teach us. At our level the social justice issues are more about race, culture, politics, health, and other things like that, whereas in an elementary school classroom I think you would be more likely to find things like community involvment, acceptance, how to be a good person, things like that.
Social justice overall is a complicated subject, my question is How do you teach it all? I realize that in the article the author said you can't teach it all or do everything, but to me that's sort of disappointing. I know that you can only really try and do your best, but I feel that children need to be able to get everything out of their education. Not every child will get the opportunities and advantages they deserve but I feel it is our job as teachers to make sure they get the most from us possible.
This article was eyeopening to how many things actually need to be touched on in a classroom, and I now have higher hopes for myself once I am a teacher. I want to be the teacher who makes as much available to my students as possible. I want to have the kind of classroom that feels liek a community in itself, so no one is left out. Despite the complexities to the issue of teaching social justice, I believe that with a good teacher and the right amount of effort, students can get what they need.

School Safety picture

This graph shows the acts of violence in schools, and the increases over the past few decades.

School Safety

A current issue today in schools is safety. And it's an issue nationwide. Schools everywhere are trying to increase and maintain security in their schools, anywhere from elementary school to high school. Obviously we can all understand that crime and violence are putting students and teachers at risk. What I think many people don't think about is that this has a huge effect on teacher's ability to teach, and children's ability to learn.
I think if I had gone to high school, or middle school where there was a lot of violence, or fear of it, I know I wouldn't have gotten the grades I did. When your in a school you need to be able to be comfortable and know that you're there to learn. If there's violence going on all the time, how can you focus on your school work? I would be much more concerned for my safety than my grades.
From the other side of this too, teachers must be struggling. Being a teacher I'm sure can sometimes be stressful enough; grading paper, keeping the attention of your class, you wouldn't need anything else added onto that like crimes and violence. If I were a teacher in a high crime school, I would not only fear for myself, but my students too. I think I would struggle with my teaching if I was constantly in fear.
Last week at the school I work at, someone pulled the fire alarm. Right when I was pulling into the parking lot to park fire trucks and police cars were rushing down the street. Obviously my first reaction was, oh it must be a drill. But as I got out of my car and walked over to the teachers, I got the feeling it wasn't a drill. There was no smoke or anything coming from the school so I assumed it couldn't be that bad. Many of the teachers looked concerned and worried about what might have happened. As it turned out one of the special needs students in the pre-school had pulled the fire alarm. And although this wasn't anything major, I could see how something as simple as that got many of the teachers all worried.
To keep this school safety issue under control, I feel that it is very important for teachers to pay attention to their students. Any drastic changes in behavior, attitude, signs of abuse, could mean the student is headed for trouble. With awareness I think many things can be kept under control. If people are aware that viloence can occur in school, it can easily be prevented.

http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/drugfree/sa200.htm

Priority Schools

In recent months there has been a lot of news about how the public schools are doing well and improving all of the time, what isn't publicized enough, is the schools that need help. Even though there has been improvement in public schools, there are school that are still struggling. There is a gap in the quality of public schools. The public schools that are doing well, are way up there, where as the schools that are doing poorly, are literally hitting rock bottom.
The NEA or National Education Association is trying to step in to close this gap. The public schools that are succeeding and improving are the ones in wealthier areas, with much better resources. The ones that are failing are in poorer areas, with untrained teachers, overcrowded classrooms, and mainly minority groups. Something needs to be done to help these schools get back on their feet.
The NEA has many programs that are trying to help these schools improve. One of the programs is the Minority Community Outreach. This program seeks to help minority groups succeed in school mainly by reducing class sizes, increasing parent involvment, and better courses for English learning students. The NEA also has other programs for these schools such as their School Safety Program, or their Family School Community Partnership Program. All of these in some way seek to improve the schools that are dramatically falling behind.
The NEA is now making these schools, "Priority Schools." Although the NEA is great and will do a signifigant amount to help improve these schools, other people need to become involved. The government needs to step in, and realize where the education system lacks. It's school like these that have the potential to become great, but their students and schools lack the help and money they need to succeed. I know that this is something that can't happen overnight, but this issue is becoming greater and greater. How would you feel if you were growing up in an area with a school system that couldn't give you the education you wanted or deserved?

http://www.nea.org/priorityschools/index.html
http://www.nea.org/mco/about.html