Running Head: Indivisible, Liberty, and Justice for All
Indivisible, Liberty, and Justice for All
October 26, 2012
Indivisible, Liberty, and Justice for All 2
Abstract
This paper discusses Jane Elliot’s experiment with her third grade class and Olivia Murray’s document A Mindfulness To Transcend Pre-Service Lip-Service A Call for K-12 Schools To Invest in Social Justice Education. The document gives a brief overview of each author’s work and their approach to help understand the impact of a social justice education. Finally, the essay provides the importance of combining both author’s approach to achieve equality in America.
Indivisible, Liberty, and Justice for All 3 Every morning, diverse groups of American students- rich and poor, black and white, rural and urban- begin the school day rising, facing the flag, and pledging allegiance to a country that claims to be indivisible, ensuring liberty and justice for all. Students learn about the value of equality, as Americans we have the right of equal treatment regardless of our background, belief, race or religion. They learn about justice, that society offers the same benefits and has the same obligation to all citizens. Both of these values teach students that no one is favored over any other one, yet by reading A Mindfulness To Transcend Pre-Service Lip-Service A Call for K-12 Schools To Invest in Social Justice Education (Olivia Murray) and watched A Class Divided I recognized that disparate inequalities not only exist, but may continue to be perpetrated, if we do not take the initiative to change. Lisa Delpit wrote “we all interpret behaviors, information, and situations through our own cultural lenses; these lenses operate involuntarily below the level of conscious awareness making it seem that our own view is simply the way it is” (Olivia Murray, pg. 48-49). Not until we are impacted by someone else’s perception of us as being different do we realize that our cultural awareness is bias. Society has faced this debacle for
October 26, 2012
Indivisible, Liberty, and Justice for All 2
Abstract
This paper discusses Jane Elliot’s experiment with her third grade class and Olivia Murray’s document A Mindfulness To Transcend Pre-Service Lip-Service A Call for K-12 Schools To Invest in Social Justice Education. The document gives a brief overview of each author’s work and their approach to help understand the impact of a social justice education. Finally, the essay provides the importance of combining both author’s approach to achieve equality in America.
Indivisible, Liberty, and Justice for All 3 Every morning, diverse groups of American students- rich and poor, black and white, rural and urban- begin the school day rising, facing the flag, and pledging allegiance to a country that claims to be indivisible, ensuring liberty and justice for all. Students learn about the value of equality, as Americans we have the right of equal treatment regardless of our background, belief, race or religion. They learn about justice, that society offers the same benefits and has the same obligation to all citizens. Both of these values teach students that no one is favored over any other one, yet by reading A Mindfulness To Transcend Pre-Service Lip-Service A Call for K-12 Schools To Invest in Social Justice Education (Olivia Murray) and watched A Class Divided I recognized that disparate inequalities not only exist, but may continue to be perpetrated, if we do not take the initiative to change. Lisa Delpit wrote “we all interpret behaviors, information, and situations through our own cultural lenses; these lenses operate involuntarily below the level of conscious awareness making it seem that our own view is simply the way it is” (Olivia Murray, pg. 48-49). Not until we are impacted by someone else’s perception of us as being different do we realize that our cultural awareness is bias. Society has faced this debacle for
References: Murray, Olivia. A Mindfulness To Transcend Pre-Service Lip-Service A Call for K-12 Schools To Invest in Social Justice Education Elliot, Jane. (1968) A Class Divided