Social Justice: Here! There! Now! Then!
What is a world citizen's responsibility to promote and advocate for justice and kindness?
Photo Credit: March to End NYPD’s Stop-and-Frisk by J-No is licensed under CC by 2.0
Learners gain a historical perspective of social injustices (such as racial intolerance) and social needs. They create an authentic argument for change in a current social justice issue, develop an action plan, and conduct a group service project.
This lesson will provide the learners with a global look at racial injustice, specifically as it relates to Apartheid in South Africa. It will also show how an individual can use his or her own power to effect positive change in society.
This lesson will explore the events and circumstances (the Jim Crow Laws) that led up to the Civil Rights Movement. The lesson is designed to provide the learners with an historical understanding of circumstances of African - Americans prior to the Civil Rights movement as well as motivate them to assess some of the contemporary social injustices of their day.
The learner will discover and explain how people in society have worked to promote the common good. They will research famous historical figures in the Civil Rights and Anti-Apartheid Movements, and illustrate how these people focused their efforts on making life better for all.
This lesson will explain how effective writers and orators manage language in order to move others to action for the common good. By exploring principles of rhetoric and effective communication, the learners will see that they too can marshal words to effect change on contemporary issues they care about.
Prior to this lesson, the learners will have studied racial intolerance from a historical perspective and have researched and reported on contemporary examples of social injustice/needs. In this lesson, the learners will put their knowledge and understanding into action by planning and completing a service project to right a social injustice/social need that promotes the common good . They will do this by helping to plan as well as participate in one of three projects identified in Lesson Four. They will then be expected to complete a journal reflecting on their service project experience.