“Great Teachers are Equal Opportunists” Chapter 10: Schmidt

Reading the chapter about social justice, Laurel highlighted great outcomes and opportunities for students that are introduced and taught about social justice. I believe that teaching students about social justice is important for students to experience both social skills and life skills that are developed when learning and working on social justice assignments.   These skills are very important for students to learn early on to become critical thinkers, understanding and application to current issues, and also being aware of community needs.

As a health education teacher, I would be able to apply social justice assignments into my lessons. I can have students become more aware of issues such as pollution, malnutrition, and gang violence by encouraging students to become actively involved in the community such as the park district or a soup kitchen. Students would develop an understanding for real life issues within their own community as well as mature in the sense that they form their own experiences and realistic thought and opinions about social injustice and taking steps towards justice.

As a Christian teacher and a child of god it is a duty to create experiences and opportunities for students that serve God. Regardless of the setting of a school (public/private) a Christian teacher can still create opportunities that show and guide students in a way that God intended. Any issue concerning social justice allows students to take a negative issue and begin to work towards making the issue better in some way, shape, or form. Students will in the end have a new out look on themselves and the people around them when they begin to work and become passionate about making a change for what is good and right for the community and people. They will learn in this process that being a servant of God is acting as he would in helping others with love and care. Educating students about social justice will more than likely inspire students to take action in a positive way about any injustice that they come across.