Social Justice

If you look up the definition of Social Justice this is what you get from dictionary.com the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within a society. If you take that definition and apply it to a classroom there should be either no or very few disadvantages found in that classroom. Herbert Kohl discusses in the article Teaching for Social Justice that if one is in the teaching profession be at a school where you can express your ideas. If a school system gives a teacher limited freedom to express herself or himself in a classroom then that school system is not for you. No teacher enjoys teaching out of a textbook. That is boring and tedious. Teachers have to teach towards the curriculum but the curriculum should not consume a teacher to explore new ways of engage students. I liked how the author said not to get wrapped into social justice when you are just trying to figure out teaching in general. A good teacher who cares about all students needs to have confidence in what they are teaching before they can move onto other issues like Social Justice. Teachers need to be an activists for not only the students but for the community to want to improve as well. In his final suggestion he wants teachers to enjoy life and not get so wrapped up in there job. This happens to a lot of people in a lot of professions, people need to enjoy their own life if they want to help make other people lives better.
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/15_02/Just152.shtml