Social Justice in the Suburbs.

PRIVILEGE (Social sciences); SUBURBAN life; SUBURBAN schools; SUFFERING; STUDY & teaching of poverty; JUSTICE; SOCIAL responsibility; QUALITY of life; ETHICS

The article focuses on raising privileged students' awareness of social inequities and on ways to encourage their work on social justice issues. It cites a study of students in suburban Boston, Massachusetts who were largely isolated from poverty. Students were exposed to information about malaria in Tanzania and became overwhelmed by the scope of the problem and therefore unable to visualize solutions. Learning about life in U.S. poor urban neighborhoods resulted in fear of becoming impoverished, thus increasing protective attitudes about their own privilege. It suggests having students visualize growing up in a homeless shelter and imagining what kinds of support they might need, then introducing the work of visionary educators such as Deborah Meier and Geoffrey Canada of New York City.