Social Justice

I recently listened to To Kill A Mockingbird on tape and I believe that it would be a perfect book to use in a classroom when teaching about social justice/injustice. This book unpacks the injustice that a black man living in the rural south faced while participating in the criminal justice system. This man was wrongly accused because of the color of his skin and was prosecuted and was deemed guilty because his skin color. To Kill A Mockingbird was originally published in 1960, but it is very much relevant today.

This book would allow us to begin a conversation about social injustice in the classroom. To Kill A Mockingbird would be a difficult book for students to read because of how upsetting the book is and because students are likely to feel a mixture of emotions - they might personally relate to this book through Tom, Scout, the Yules, or Boo Radley. All of those characters are seeking to overcome trials and when a student relates with them, they might be experiencing those similar emotions. I believe that by introducing this text, as the first introduction a class would have to the topic of race in the classroom, would allow for students to be able to have a discussion about race in a way that would be enabling students to critically think about their views on race. Every student will come from a different background, so this whole unit would walk the line of possibly having a heated discussion -- but it is 100% necessary for there to be conversations about race in the classroom. Reading and studying To Kill A Mockingbird would allow for that kind of discussion.