You can teach INJUSTICE units and still teach support for those who enforce JUSTICE.
You can talk about police brutality and still talk about good police.
We do not live in a black and white world. On that note, we don’t want to teach our students that it’s black or white because in teaching injustice, we try to close the divide, and by telling them it is black or white… we are telling them that it is one or the other… one against the other… one deemed as good and one deemed as bad, and this isn’t closing a divide… it is creating one.
If you are teachers like us, you feel the desire to try and change the world into a better place through literature… and it can be done! Literature can change lives because it lets your students step into someone else's shoes and see things from their perspective. But we get your struggle and worry!
These are some questions we find many teachers ask themselves:
How can we teach injustice without talking about politics?
How can I teach a book with a plot where a police harms an innocent kid but still teach students to support the police?
How can I avoid bias in my teaching?
How do I get students to think about what the root of the REAL problem is?
What am I truly trying to accomplish through teaching a unit with this heavy content?
When sending home permission slips for books, it is important to establish and clearly convey your purpose in teaching this book and what the overall goal is. Something we consistently tell students is that we are reading a book about injustice. Unfortunately, some people associate certain injustices with certain political parties. We make it very clear that NO POLITICS will be discussed. We are simply reading a book written because someone felt there was injustice and we should try to see things from their perspective. By focusing on the human experience, you can avoid the controversy of politics.
Bias is something we try to avoid, and we always allow students to share their thoughts and opinions about what is happening because, even in teaching not controversial books, we are teaching THEM to think not hoping they will regurgitate what we think. For example, in Dear Martin, the introduction scene shows Justyce experiencing police brutality when he was just trying to help his ex-girlfriend get home safely. Here is your chance to open the floor for them to think, avoid bias, and just talk about what happened. What did the police see? They saw someone walking several streets, walk over to a girl on the floor, try to get her into the car, and the girl was fighting back. What does that look like? What were the police thinking? Now, let's look at it from another perspective… How could this situation that Justyce was put in be avoided? What could the police have done differently to find out what was really happening? Was that too much force?
Now for the BIG question… How do we get to the real root of the problem?
The answer is simpler than we think. Stereotypes. I hate to say it, but we all, from an early age, get exposed to them because of our parents, our community, the media, tv, shows, and our experiences.
Ask students deep questions like the following:
What is a stereotype?
Where did we get these ideas from?
Where do we see them reinforced?
How do these stereotypes affect who we are and how we interact with the world?
Where did the idea of stereotypes start? Who started them? Why?
How can we go about changing these stereotypes we have of different people?
Now probably the biggest and most important step you need to take… close that Gap--BRING IN THE POLICE!!!!!
Alright, let's take a step back. Why the police? Bring them to class? Would they even want to?
Yes, we are reading a book about injustice and police brutality, but like we tell our students, there are bad people everywhere. We hate to say it, but there are bad principals, bad teachers, bad politicians, bad nurses, bad delivery drivers, bad lawyers, and bad citizens. If there were a way to ensure ONLY ‘good’ people got jobs of power… well, we would have a lot less problems but there isn’t one. SORRY! So why bring in the police?
Before bringing them in TALK TO YOUR STUDENTS (always important) and let them think and reflect on who the police are. They took an oath to serve and protect the community at, unfortunately, even the cost of their lives sometimes. That is who they are. Then discuss the big ideas by asking questions and just simply talking.
Why do most people get into this field?
What do they deal with on a daily basis in the job?
The police are regular people so who are they outside of work? Moms? Dads? Grandparents? Sisters? Brothers?
Why do people fear the police? What is the root of the problem? Who taught them to fear them?
Why do some people hate the police? Should they?
Why bring them in?
Well, quite simply, some of your students have NEVER interacted with a police officer. They don’t realize how human they are. How just like them they are. Sometimes, they see the police and think they are unapproachable… and THIS is a problem.
What can students ask the police? Here is a list of ideas, but, honestly, let them come up with their own questions and they will surprise you!
What made you go into this field?
What are some thoughts that cross your mind when you are in a dangerous situation?
What is your greatest fear?
Have you ever encountered a ‘bad cop’?
What kind of training do you go through?
Why do you think people hate you all, the police?
How can we change society's perspective of the law?
Have you ever seen injustice happen?
What is your opinion of police brutality?
What is your opinion on the way the media portrays police officers?
We did this and let me tell you how it went and the outcome.
Students LOVED talking to our officers. They asked them hard but honest questions. The officers answered everything they asked with honesty. Yes, they have seen bad officers, but they have seen bad people in all jobs. They talked about cases on the news and gave the students their opinion of them… without bias. In other cases, they could see the officers’ perspective too. They also talked about the media and the media’s influence on social justice issues. For example, the media sometimes likes to show certain video clips that fit and perpetuate a certain narrative. They talked about what goes through their mind on the job and their own experiences. Most importantly, they told kids WHY they joined the force and who they were. This was important in bridging a gap between our community and officers. Now, when our students see them around campus, they say hi to them, greet them, and have respect for what they are doing.
Yes, talking about injustice is IMPORTANT, but we must do so without creating the HATE that is the root cause of so many of the issues in society. So many educators avoid talking about injustice, inequality, hate, discrimination, and violence unless it’s in the past. No one talks about the present or future. If we are not educating our students for the present and future, are we even educating them for the real world? This should be our goal. As educators, we have a duty to create critical thinkers and arm the students in our classrooms with the knowledge of the world around them, so they can go out into society and create the change the world needs.
