Practicing the principles of social justice

We can influence positive change

It is a pretty safe bet that everyone would agree no human should experience discrimination based on gender, religion, race, age, physical or mental capability, orientation, religion, nationality,  or education.

And yet, it seeps into many aspects of society. Sometimes blatantly and other times with insidious persistence. As educators we have a responsibility to the children in our care ensuring that they neither experience nor practice discrimination while growing a profound awareness of social justice.

We also recognize that discrimination is a learned behaviour. No one on earth was ever born with innate antipathy to other humans. It is something that arises in us as we model the behaviours and approaches to interaction that we observe in others. 

“Ideas matter. The world matters. Our lives matter, and the choices we make as we navigate our lives perhaps matter most of all.”
- Lauren Myracle

At our school we begin to introduce the concepts and realities of social justice as soon as a child enters our community. We introduce and model the requirement to pursue fair and equal relations between individuals including concepts of the distribution of wealth, social privileges, and opportunities. As a child progresses through the school we introduce them to methods and understanding that social justice is about more than collecting toys for kids at Christmas. It is also about understanding the causes of issues such as poverty, homelessness and discrimination and thinking of how we can influence change for good.

Often it is the kids that will lead us. In their fresh and still relatively innocent view of the world they are able to see opportunities that we adults might dismiss as too difficult or too simple or just too obvious! Their ideas, inspired by our guidance, help us make the choices that differentiate between passive acceptance of ‘reality’ and challenging generally accepted ‘rules’. 

When we support activities such as Orange Shirt Day (designed to educate people and promote awareness about the residential school system) and Pink Shirt Day (created to amplify a powerful anti-bullying message) we don’t simply don the shirts and consider the job done. We explore the related history, the causes, the impact, and explore how we collectively and individually can alter course and bring our message of inclusivity to bear.