How teachers can help kids find their political voices | Sydney Chaffee

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2018

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Social justice belongs in our schools, says educator Sydney Chaffee. In a bold talk, she shows how teaching students to engage in activism helps them build important academic and life skills -- and asks us to rethink how we can use education to help kids find their voices. "Teaching will always be a political act," Chaffee says. "We can't be afraid of our students' power. Their power will help them make tomorrow better."

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This TED Talk features educator Sidney Chaffee, recorded live at TEDx Beacon Street, 2017.
0:08.6	To me, social justice is a simple concept. It's the notion that all people in a society deserve fair and equitable rights, opportunities, and access to resources.
0:20.5	But it's become controversial and nebulous,
0:23.6	because we've stopped talking about what working for social justice actually looks like.
0:29.3	Working for social justice can look like this.
0:32.4	Or this.
0:34.1	It can look like this.
0:36.4	Or it can look like this. Or my favorite, it can look like this, or it can look like this,
0:38.3	or my favorite, it can look like that.
0:42.3	Those are my students.
0:44.3	And whenever I'm asked to articulate my work
0:46.3	or my priorities as a teacher,
0:48.3	I explain that I believe education can be a tool for social justice.
0:57.7	But a few months ago, I logged on to Twitter, as I do,
1:02.0	and I saw that a fellow teacher had taken issue with that belief.
1:06.7	Teachers, he said, should not be social justice warriors,
1:10.0	because the purpose of education is to educate.
1:13.0	And he ended his argument by saying,
1:15.0	I teach my subject.
1:18.2	But I reject that simplification,
1:21.4	because teachers don't just teach subjects.
1:23.1	We teach people.
	...

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