Chapter 20: Teaching Young Children Social Justice Basics: The Public, Equality, and the Common Good

We live in a society of metastasizing inequality, where the degree of wealth owned by the One Percent is well beyond the comprehension of most of us. Conceptions of equity and the common good are peripheral to or absent from the school curricula that shape students’ visions of possible and desirable futures; what is taught in schools, for the most part, insures that injustices will be reproduced in the next generations.

In the Spring of 2012, I, a recently retired teacher educator whose life work had been advocating that children be taught to think about social justice beginning in elementary schools, was wondering how to contribute to the burgeoning social movements that were springing up across the globe under the banner of “Occupy.” Following Myles Horton’s dictum “Dig where you stand” (Adams, 1975), I arranged to teach what I now call “social justice basics” to first, fourth, and fifth grade students at Lakeview, a public elementary school in Oakland, California. I taught in each classroom one hour a week from the end of April until the close of the school year. This chapter presents several sketches of my adventures in those classes. I hope each sketch will demonstrate the possibility and value of making critical thinking, social justice, and empowerment “basic” in elementary schools. Such “basics” are essential for the survival of democracy and of the planet.