Social justice

I am in the midst of a deep reading of "Teacher as Stranger," Maxine Greene's 1973 volume of educational philosophy for the "contemporary age." In reading it one can't help but to imagine the world of 1973 when issues of social justice were raw and writ large in protests and rallies and riots. In the 2001 bio-documentary, "Exclusions & Awakenings," Greene speaks directly to the excitement that the 1960s brought to higher education. She applauds the protests happening in the hallways of Teachers College at the time (lots of guitar playing) and across 120th Street on the Columbia campus. She wishes she was younger and could join the students.

Reading "Teacher as Stranger" in 2010 has a certain surreal aspect to it. It is surreal in that I both remember very fervently the times in which it was written (though I was quite young, but as a middle-class, suburban family we sometimes ventured to the University District in Seattle to "see the hippies") and I can approach the time from a vantage point of forty years in the future. This propels me to ask what has changed in the intervening years? What have we learned? What does social justice mean to us today?

In many circles there is a discomfort associated with the term, "social justice." There are dozens of websites that disdain the practice and more specifically, the practitioners. William Ayers is a common target. Ayers is the former Weatherman who is now a retired education professor from the University of Illinois. Because he and Barack Obama served on a couple of nonprofit boards together in Chicago, his name exploded in the press during the 2008 presidential election. And because he studied with Maxine Greene and has edited a book of essays about her, Greene is commonly targeted as well for her progressive, liberal, social justice-laden work.

And yet, the "philosophy" behind No Child Left Behind can be interpreted as an action for social justice. The accountability measures are in place, supposedly, to ensure that no child is denied an adequate education due to socio-economic and developmental issues. To me, these efforts speak loudly to the definition of social justice. But I don't think this is the spin or branding that was sought after by the policy makers. I imagine that policy makers would want to distance themselves from such a liberal ideal.

Another thought entered my mind while reading and that is the idea of progress. To consider the progress that our society has made towards social justice in the past 40 years. The election of President Barack Obama is certainly an aspect of progress. But then there are questions regarding his birth, his faith, and other conspiracies. I am heartened and amazed by the greater acceptance that homosexuals experience in the public sphere but then I read about the horrible murders in the Bronx a week ago. Trend spotters report that women will soon become the primary earners in their households but the pay gap between the genders still persists.

Yes, there is progress in evidence but the action of vanquish is still a long ways off. I sometimes fear that our fear of terms, like "social justice," "progressive," "liberal," can make the work more difficult. Too much effort is devoted to cloaking the task at hand.  So much energy is spent on spin. Call it what it is and get on with the work.