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SOCIAL
JUSTICE & LANGUAGE ARTS High school can be a time of extreme complexity and anxiety for students. It is a time of tremendous academic, social, physical and emotional change. It is also the time when young people are developing a moral compass and falling in love with new ideas. At this point in their lives, teens are truly starting to think for themselves and to expand their radius of inquiry beyond home and school to social and environmental issues in the wider world. Problems with clean water and air, human rights, animal protection, world hunger, racism, sexism, and homophobia will not find resolution unless our youth are educated and empowered toward that end. If we avoid examining and investigating these topics in high school in the belief that our students will be introduced to them in college or later in life, we are being naive and irresponsible. In the new issue of Green Teacher magazine, Christopher Greenslate explains that the language arts curriculum offers unlimited opportunities -- in fiction, poetry, and expository writing -- for teachers and students to make connections with current social and global issues. A work of literature can validate a part of us we never knew existed, and a powerful speech can motivate us to make change. Poetry can bring new realities into being, and reading a well-developed research paper can change the way we eat or where we shop. If you teach English and choose to stay focused on the surface level of forms, themes, and historical context, you are robbing your students of a chance to make their own education more meaningful. |
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Social
studies educators teach students the content knowledge, intellectual
skills, and civic values necessary for fulfilling the duties of citizenship
in a participatory democracy. The mission of National Council for
the Social Studies is to provide leadership, service, and support
for all social studies educators. http://www.ncss.org/ http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/curriculum/?print-friendly=true |