Up until recently (when I moved to Germany and took a position as a K-12 Support Services teacher), I always taught very young children. I began my teaching career in a Head Start Preschool classroom before I made my way into a public school where I taught first grade for three years.
It wasn't until more recently, that I started to learn what it means to educate for social justice. Truth be told, I learned about educating for social justice and I agreed with the ideas and the principles, yet my practice went unchanged.
I thought six year olds were too young for social justice.
I glossed over figures like Columbus and Martin Luther King, Jr. along with many other teachers, perpetuating historical inaccuracies, all the while justifying that my students were too young and too innocent to hear the truth.
Too young to critically discuss an issue.
Too young to be thinkers.
I will not dwell on what I did as a new teacher, but I can say that I have learned a lot since then.
***
I recently read the book black ants and buddhists by Mary Cowhey and finally got a sense of what teaching for social justice can look like with young learners.
Important issues and heated topics do not have to be avoided simply because some members of the learning community cannot yet tie their shoes. From the very beginning of their educational journeys, students should be encouraged to understand that there are always two (or more) sides to a story and knowing all perspectives is important.
When one student tattles, the student implicated in the incident typically protests that the tattler has got the story wrong. The teacher allows each one a turn to explain what happened and usually the two tales are different.
Multiple perspectives is not that foreign to first graders.
From the outset of their educational careers, students should be encouraged to think. Not to blindly accept what the teacher says, but to ask questions and process in order to make up their own minds.
Young kids are good at asking questions.
Are we there yet?
Do I have to eat my vegetables?
Can we read one more story before bed?
Asking questions and being inquisitive is not beyond first graders.
In the prologue of her book, Cowhey reflects on a particular day in which a few black ants visited her classroom during snack time.
One student freaked out and started swatting the ants, attempting to kill them.
Another student protested, insisting that killing the ants was not okay because it is not right to kill living things.
A discussion ensued.
Points were argued.
The students thoughtfully considered the dilemma and decided they would not kill the ants.
Cowhey concludes her prologue with this:
"The black ants helped us to explore a variety of perspectives and helped us to learn, then compare and contrast, the rules of a variety of spiritual traditions. The ants helped us look at ants and the world and ourselves as Americans through others' eyes. Not bad, for some black ants at snack time."
Not bad.
3 comments:
Very interesting. I hadn't thought about social justice for young learners until I had my own children. My son sang a song he heard in pre-school and it was inaccurate historically and glorifying Columbus. I told him who the real Columbus was and we talked about why it's wrong to judge people who look different and speak a different language.
I always teach "the real Columbus" to my students (generally 5th grade). Giving them understanding from multiple perspectives-- is very important to social justice. The book Encounter by Jane Yolen addresses that subject of the Taino point of view... if you're interested. Kids get passionate about learning and making sense of conflict... especially when it's real and they get to weigh the odds.
This article is very well written, and I needed to read it today. Thank you so much!
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