Critical Review: Social Justice and the Lanugage Arts

Critical thinking: we all want our students to do it, but sometimes we find ourselves wondering how we can encourage them to stretch their mental muscles. "Social Justice and the Language Arts" by Christopher Greenslate, the idea of using integration to help build bridges in student understanding is explored.

The article consists primarily of suggestions for using the language arts as a means of teaching social justice related issues. The use of poetry, expository articles, and drama are explored. The article is, however, written from the perspective of a language arts teacher, and so most suggestions play off the English curriculum. When I read the lesson suggestions I immediately knew they could be transferable to the realm of social studies.

For example, one example given was to have students read poetry written for a specific purpose, such as political or environmental activism. They would then be asked to write their own poem about an issue that they felt was important. While the issues might be very broad, such as "the environment" or very specific, like homelessness in [city], they can be adapted easily. Then, students could go and chalk their poetry across the school grounds and the streets of the town as a means of raising awareness about their issue.

While the example of public chalk poetry has students up and out of their seats, my one criticism of the ideas in this article is that they generally have students sitting in their desks, reading and writing. There is the potential for some group work, but it comes back to a few traditional ideas about school. If we're going to stretch the minds of kids, why not really stretch them? Additionally, while I agree with the author that we need to teach social justice in the classroom, I wish that more rationale had been presented and that more facets of the argument had been examined before he launched into his lesson ideas: he hardly touched on the potential controversy of teaching these important issues in the classroom. Even when I agree with an author, a well balanced argument is always better to read than a one dimensional story.

Finally, I felt that not enough emphasis was placed upon the need for teachers help students connect their learning about "social justice" into everyday practise. It is one thing to use the integration of other subjects to help students think about important issues, but if the thinking ends in the classroom, then we have failed.

So, if you are looking for a few easily adaptable lesson strategies, "Social Justice and the Language Arts" is a pleasant read. However, if you are looking to stretch your thinking, stick with reading Chomsky instead.