Justice-Oriented Citizens

Each year, our eighth grade students embark on a project to better understand and personalize the social justice issues that emerge from their study of post-Civil War US history. This project connects them to individuals and organizations that are making a difference in the community and beyond. Through this process, our eighth graders come to better understand the rewards and challenges of active citizenship and the need for all individuals to choose to participate. One benchmark point on what we hope will be a life-long journey is our annual spring Social Justice Teach-In during which the eighth graders plan and run a set of workshops and assemblies for the rest of the middle school.

This year-long journey begins in the summer as students read the novel Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, which chronicles the experiences of the Little Rock Nine and the efforts of many others to desegregate Little Rock’s public schools. This reading serves as frame for our students’ critical examination of our nation’s history from the Civil War through the Civil Rights era.

Inspired buy the Little Rock Nine and the Civil Rights Movement and their investigation of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, each eighth grader created an action art project and a supporting artist’s statement about their work as it related to a current civil or human rights issue. Their art work and writing ask us to stop, think and, ultimately, to act. The following are a view representative excerpts from their work:

• The biggest thing that threatens world peace is a mental war because it is a mental conflict within that causes controversy and the disagreement over ideas and beliefs.
• The message of my artwork is that people need to speak up against the loss of freedom. When people lose their freedom holes are created within our society and this allows other people to fall into them and do or suffer bad things.
• In my art piece the bold words are direct and confront the viewer with the shocking realities of torture practices around the world. By being faced with these truths, I hope people will think about what is happening globally and do their part in making change.
• I imagine a world where all kids are guaranteed a full education from grades K-12 (boys and girls).
• The right to vote is one of the most important civil rights. If you do not have the right to vote for your leaders, you cannot truly be a free person. People struggle for the right to vote all over the world. Democracy, with voting rights for all adults, is the form of government that is most fair because it gives everyone a say in how they are governed.
• I chose to make my art work the way I did because I felt that by showing the silhouette of a displaced person rather than a straight forward picture would make the viewer have to decide what the face or gender of the person will be, making it different for each observer and more personal. I chose to use paint for the color of the flags and plain black paper and pencil for the figure in order to contrast between a vibrant community and flat isolation.

Click here to view some of the projects. This work is on display outside of the eighth grade classrooms. Please stop by for a look and read.