How do you teach justice?

To this day, I don't know why I didn't fit in at school. I'm a fairly normal guy; I even excelled in some ways. But by the time I reached seventh grade, I was agonizingly aware that my "rep" (reputation) placed me at a very specific place in the rigid structure of the middle school social order. I wasn't at the bottom, but I was a long way from the top. Not that I wanted to be at the "top" of the pecking order; I would have preferred simply to do away with all the pecking.

So how do we do that? Is it even possible? Well, obviously it's none of the teacher's business how students treat each other outside the classroom. They have to work these things out among themselves. Kids will be kids. We can't legislate morality. What a bunch of bull!

We can, and we should, explicitly teach students not only to treat each other fairly and with respect, but also to interfere when they see others behaving inappropriately--in other words, to act as allies for those who are the targets of bullying or bigotry.

In her article "Acting for Justice," teacher Linda Christensen outlines a unit she developed for exactly this purpose. Her students read accounts of non-violent resistance from the civil rights movement and act out the part of the protesters. They analyze historic or literary situations by dividing the characters involved into four categories: ally (or intervener), victim (or target), witness (or bystander), and perpetrator. In this way, students learn to recognize consciously the roles, both active and passive, that they and their peers play in incidents of injustice.

Further, Christensen asks her students to write about their own experiences, sometimes with startling results.

I was astounded at how many students confessed to being perpetrators, victims, and witnesses, and how few acted as allies. One student offered that he was a "jackass" in middle school and regularly tormented other students. Many talked about making fun of younger, weaker students. Sometimes their abuse was physical. Few students had stories of acting as an ally. In our discussion, it was clear that students didn't feel good about their participation or their lack of intervention, but they didn't feel powerful enough to stop the racist, homophobic, or belittling behavior and comments.

By bringing these normally hidden power relationships into conscious light, and having students actively practice the role of ally, we can help them develop the compassion to treat each other well and the strength of character to intervene when they witness injustice in their everyday lives. Not only will this improve the lives of victims, it can make school a safer and happier place, and thus a better learning environment, for all students.

I encourage you to read Christensen's article. The link is:
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/15_02/Act152.shtml