Voices from the Middle - Teaching for Social Justice, May 1999

Describes a 10-week unit in an eighth-grade English class focusing on social-action writing. Describes how the process involved convincing students of their ability to make a difference, studying persuasive writing, reading and discussing to wake up their social consciences, using various strategies to choose topics, and finally culminating in brochures written, designed and produced by small groups of students.

Describes how, after studying the Holocaust and other human-rights issues in their eighth-grade language-arts classes, students felt compelled to create a permanent memorial and reminder. Discusses how the project unfolded from finding and shaping an idea, collecting stories from around the nation, crafting the mosaic and the flower garden, and finding words for the experience in their writing.

Describes the author’s experience when the director and teacher-trainers of a writing program persuaded him that the oral interpretation he wished them to perform was too troubling and explosive to use. Outlines his questions and anguish about the incident, and the urgency of dealing with the dilemmas of multiculturalism, racial intolerance, and the teaching of writing.

All learning - all education - is about becoming good human beings and making the world a better place. In this themed issue, “Teaching for Social Justice,” the teachers and students written about in each article are already making a difference. We hope that their stories inspire you to examine problems and injustices in your lives, your community, and your world, and ask yourselves: “What can my students and I do about it?”

In her poem, Johnson shuns the myth of the Southern Belle, in favor of more realistic versions: the women in her family.

Martin’s poem paints a serene picture of nature, youth, and the power of reading.