Customer Reviews

Teaching for Social Justice: A Democracy and Education Reader

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I know, I know--trust me I know: it's unpopular to support anything with the name 'Ayers' on it, or within proxy. If you disagree with Ayers and the Weather Underground, ask yourself this: Were they wrong to rebel against a war that used a staged attack (Gulf of Tonkin) for propaganda purposes? Who killed more innocent people, the Weather Underground, or American forces? Sorry, but this has to be said because I know what others are going to say...

This is a fantastic book. It is really challenging. The great thing about this book is it's a collection of tons of different teachers. And this fits in with the motif of expanding students' worldview.

Conservatives will argue that this book is for leftists and "bleeding heart liberals," but the only conservatives I could imagine reading this would be education majors. Perhaps Glenn Beck or his "researchers" might "read" this book to cite--never out of context, of course! Perhaps, even, fans of Beck might read this to try to find something "incriminating" or something tangible to connect to some sort of progressive agenda hell-bent on destroying America and indoctrinating/dumbing-down children; and they will be sadly disappointed.

But, this book's not that easy to pin down. As I said, it's challenging. The whole point of the book is to talk about how to teach Social justice properly. Never does the book advocate indoctrination. In fact, the book details the PEA and George Counts; Counts had a consequentialist viewpoint, and thought it was a good thing to indoctrinate in order to reach the desired effect. But the book doesn't advocate that. And surprisingly, this book talks about being as objective as possible, because let's face it, one side of the political spectrum in America is almost totally unconcerned about social issues. And the book repeatedly discusses how Social Justice cannot be forced. It has to be voluntary.

I like every article in here, but among my favorites are "The Human Lives Behind the Labels--The Global Sweatshop, Nike, and the Race to the Bottom," "History of My Subversive Teaching," "Teaching for Change," and the articles by both Bill and Rick Ayers (I wish I could meet them). I must admit that I am biased towards certain beliefs. But I must also state that I am honest, and there is nothing above the truth in my heart. Buy this book, I'm sure you won't be disappointed if you're concerned with Social Justice.

--Ohso