Social Justice In Elementary Education Summary

Dr. Wade’s argument for why Social Justice should be taught in elementary school rather than waiting until college is rooted in the idea of creating individuals who are ready to face the real world when they become adults. As a society we cannot shield young children from the aspects of social justice or the jaw-dropping statistics of the world are not going to change. When children are young they have minds that are growing and personal beliefs that are developing. Due to this, as educators we need to influence the children in a way where they learn to care about the wellbeing of humans. Like Wade said, “We must embark upon teaching them the skills and knowledge that will ultimately enable them not only to live productive and empowered lives themselves, but also among like-minded others for the betterment of those who suffer from oppression and other inequities” (p. 2) If educators do not take the step to teach social justice and the importance of it, the statistics of the world are not going to change.

Dr. Wade stated, “ … many children in the United States are no strangers to poverty, hunger, or racism” (p. 2). Children who are in the classroom are the exact children who make up the statistics. Saying this, why wait to teach Social Justice to students? By waiting to teach social justice to students the only thing that is happening is the continuous spiral of poverty, hunger, and racism. If social justice is brought into the elementary classroom students can go from being a statistic, to growing up and living a life outside of poverty, hunger, and rasim. As educators, teaching social justice to young children sets them up for success and isn’t that what we want to do as educators? So let's do it