Letters

We recently had the honor of addressing the breakfast meeting of the Southampton Democratic Club, headed by Barbara Weber-Floyd. Our focus was on our latest book, published by Routledge, “Education for Social Justice: The Meaning of Justice and Current Research.” The publisher found the book so important that an electronic copy is available to anyone for free.

We wrote the book with support from Michelli’s doctoral students from Johns Hopkins University and City University of New York who had written dissertations on one of the elements of social justice.

In this election year, social justice is such a critical issue, and it is an “essentially contested concept,” which is a complex idea that means different things to different people. We focus on creating a shared vision among those working together on important contested concepts (others include democracy, freedom, education, critical thinking and knowledge).

We argue several important issues:

First, in our educational system we need to focus on being a member of a democracy. What is a democracy? — there are many meanings we explore.

Second, we must have students understand and support social justice. Working to provide for nondiscrimination and nonrepression for all is so important. This is an idea first promoted by Amy Guttman, who served as president of the University of Pennsylvania and then ambassador to Germany.

Then there is civic education — being certain our schools prepare all students to participate in a democracy and understand that their freedom ends when another person’s freedom is impacted.

Next, civic education is critical to promote democratic behavior. Classrooms should be organized to promote behaviors expected as the norm in democratic societies. These include the following:

• Treating other students with respect. Of course, it goes without saying that this can happen only when the teacher treats students with respect.

• Listening carefully to other points of view. Careful listening is often a goal in elementary schools, but it is a skill that needs to be developed throughout one’s education. Listening carefully is related to treating others with respect; it suggests that we take what others say seriously.

• Enhancing and encouraging the imagination of students. Maxine Greene, a great educator, argued that “we cannot become what we cannot imagine.” Think about how important imagination is for education and life.

This is such a critical election for our society. Of course, given that we spoke at the Democratic Club, you can guess who we support for president.

Please, attend to civic education in our schools, and please don’t forget to vote.

Nicholas M. Michelli, Ed.D.

Tina J. Jacobowitz, Ph.D.

Water Mill