Social Justice in the Homeschool
My daughter and I reading On Our Street: Our First Talk about Poverty by Jaime Casap and Jillian Roberts.
Social justice is the view that everyone deserves equal opportunities for financial success, wellbeing, and personal rights. It’s a far-reaching concept that touches on many issues that affect people. This is important to my family for a lot of reasons and it’s a key-value I try to bring to my homeschool and the resources I make here for NorthStar.
My children and I have a great deal of privilege in this life - we are white and middle-income. Despite this privilege, during the recession in 2008, my husband and I experienced a prolonged time of unemployment. Without a solid network living in a new city, we could not get steady work that paid enough for basic living expenses for several years. Traveling in the developing world as a child, I’d seen a lot of poverty…but for the first time in my life, I got a first-hand glimpse of what it FELT like to be poor. I was too ashamed to ask for help, so we were on SNAP and WIC, and got emergency help with our utility bills. I know the embarrassment of a long line forming behind you at the grocery store when some problem happens with your benefits and you have to send food back. The privilege I was born with due to my class and race, is why this was just a season in my life. My parents and siblings had the means to help us, even though I didn’t ask at first. But with time, help, and good fortune, I was able to get back on my feet. I finished my graduate degree, paid off the debt we accrued from bills and necessities, and purchased my first home, a fixer-upper.
This experience changed me - I went into community development work, hoping to give back. In my time in nonprofits, some of the most rewarding work was partnering to provide resources for an emergency rest shelter that was run by people experiencing homelessness. My final project, before I left, was the beginning of a collaborative equity planning process for the nonprofit. I know I have my own biases that I continue to work on breaking down. I can’t speak directly for other people’s experiences, but I’ve put a lot of energy into learning about equity, diversity, and inclusion.
When I became a homeschool parent, I began to realize what a huge role values play in educational choices. Every book you read, fiction or nonfiction, expresses a viewpoint. The topics you chose to include or omit in your studies reflect a viewpoint. As a secular homeschooler, I struggled to use much of the Christian curriculum that was out there. I mean no disrespect to Christian homeschoolers, but it didn’t reflect my worldview and the values I wished to instill. I was also disappointed when I had to edit secular resources heavily because the “classics” chosen, such as Little House on the Prairie, were full of blatant stereotyping and racism. I’m comfortable having conversations about racism with my kids. I’m not comfortable with literature that encourages the children to empathize with a racist point of view. Yes you can have a conversation about negative stereotyping and racist attitudes but there is evidence that younger children, especially, are prone to internalizing problematic representations in stories and not able to maintain enough distance to grasp the problems, even with a well-informed parent leading the conversation. I'm trying to find the studies I read about this to share here.
So, how DO I incorporate social justice into my homeschool? It’s an ever-evolving effort and I doubt this one post will be comprehensive enough to touch on our whole “strategy” but I’ll outline some key ideas.
1) Educate Yourself & Seek Experts
Modeling is powerful, as many parents quickly learn - kids do what we do. If you do the work of learning about social justice, you will be better able to model these values for your children, through how you are showing up in this world. This article provides a great list of current research on children and anti-racism education. It’s not the role of marginalized people to educate others on their experience, but when individuals from marginalized communities have shared educational resources, I highly prioritize those as better sources of information, because it’s very hard to accurately speak to another person’s experience. For example, if someone from a marginalized community says something is offensive then it IS. Be mindful that marginalized communities aren’t monolithic, people think as INDIVIDUALS, not as a group, so there isn’t always agreement on preferred terms and things of that nature. For example, I have ADHD and generally, that phrasing is how I prefer to label myself. In contrast, many in the autistic community prefer to identify AS autistic, so they would call themselves autistics, as opposed to “a person with autism.” When in doubt, respect the wishes of the individual you are speaking with.
2) Identify Your Privileges and Bias
Some resources have suggested seeing more diverse faces represented positively in toys and media can make a difference in reducing bias in children.
From early childhood on, we take in the cultural messages around us. NOBODY is immune to bias. And the opportunities we receive, the advantages we may have, are often invisible to us. This doesn’t mean that a person with privileges doesn’t also have hardship, it just means that it’s hard for us to see the ways we benefit from our privileges. As an example, homeschooling can be hard sometimes and I wish there were more supports for it, because for certain children, I believe it’s the best option. Kids like mine who don’t fit well into the public school system can end up with poor self-esteem, difficulty achieving their potential, and a negative daily experience five days out of a week for 12 years straight. ALL THAT SAID, I know that it is because of EXTREME privilege that I am able to homeschool my children. I am so fortunate that the financial cost of my lost income is something we can support, even just barely. We can afford to purchase books even though we always want more! We own a vehicle that can take us to the library and we can take occasional field trips to the zoo and other places like that. We can buy materials for art and science and we benefit from a community of other families that share learning resources when they are done with them. These are just a few of the privileges that make homeschooling possible for us. Breaking things down like this is an ongoing process. I do my best to identify and try and unpack our biases and to learn about the experiences of people different from us, with the hope that my family will be aware and informed enough to SEE and stand up for injustice.
3) Vet Resources
I read through books and resources I’m thinking of using before showing them to my kids. I’m on the lookout for bias, falsehoods, outdated ideas, stereotyping, racism, sexism, etc. I love used books, but I’ve been burned by older resources, especially pre-2005. Curriculum and books about world cultures, in particular, have been challenging. The sad thing is the adult buying that book or curriculum is hoping to expose their child to learn about the world, but instead can be perpetuating horrible stereotypes, cultural appropriation, and normalizing a colonial worldview. Pro-tip: reading user reviews of books can sometimes reveal these problems. I also appreciate resources like the website Social Justice Books for providing comprehensive reviews.
4) Understand the People Behind Science and History
Who is telling this version of history? Who developed this scientific theory? History is the story of the past as told through the lens of the dominant culture. History is a direct reflection of the bias of the people who are telling the story. Often history is taught as a single narrative of events. There is not a single correct telling of any event, memory is imperfect and every version of historical events is prone to interpretation. Learning about sources of historical record and delving more deeply than a single resource is very important. In studying science, the people behind the theory matter too. For example, Darwin was known for his sexist views, which influenced aspects of his theory of evolution. My family is very pro-science, we believe in evolution, but even so, I also feel it’s important to understand the bias that it comes from. I have yet to see a children’s book which brings in the stories of women who spoke up about this. So, I researched this, and my family and I talked about Antoinette Brown Blackwell. Also, I have dreams of writing a children’s book about her, because she’s fascinating. If books are lacking, conversations will suffice. Oral story-telling can also be an incredible tool because stories are how humans are hard-wired to learn.
5) Highlight Diverse Stories and Voices
A few amazing true stories about female activists.
It is very easy to unmindfully end up studying mostly the tales of exceptional white men. Because they have held power for so long, they are far over-represented in literature, history, and science. Yet, most amazing scientific discoveries, engineering feats, and historical moments are not the result of a single person and they certainly aren’t limited to white people of European descent. Take a critical look through your home library or your curriculum book list. I have a very direct goal of combatting the stereotype of scientists as being only white and male. I seek out biographies about women and people of color, especially when I can find inspiring stories related to a topic we are learning about. I find tales from people all over the world, emphasizing modern stories written by people of that culture so that my children will get a more true representation of that culture and its lens on the world. We are inspired by global poetry, art, food, handcraft, and music too, and we tread carefully in our appreciation to avoid appropriating traditions we may not understand. I don’t do the usual “kid-craft” projects in our home, we prefer fine art and handicraft such as woodworking or knitting. This helps avoid a lot of blunders, as “crafts” often cheapen the understanding of something that requires great skill and care.
6) Study Social Issues with Intention
Some recent topics we studied.
Since we emphasize child-led learning in my homeschool, I bring social justice into every topic we learn about. It’s not as common for children to seek out learning about topics like poverty and racism on their own. That said, there is definitely a place for DIRECT instruction about social issues. The boxes from Little Justice Leaders, who we collaborated with recently, are really helpful tools because they put together resources about an important topic and they help guide the conversation. As a homeschool parent, I feel my role is to expose my children to many topics. I pay attention to what they are noticing and what they are asking about. Sometimes, these things qualify as “interests” but it doesn’t have to be a huge passion, to be worth studying a little. My son notices the temporary camps around Portland and has asked me about people experiencing homelessness and what that must be like. We talk about homelessness, I found some reading to guide the conversation, and now we are looking into volunteering options for families like us to help.
7) Encourage Empathy and Community
Empathy is the key value that teaches kids why social justice matters. Kids need to care about other people if they are going to stand up for them. Helping them see the perspective of other people to understand their experiences and emotions is critical. You can’t solve problems if you don’t understand why they occur. How do you teach kids empathy? By modeling empathy in how you treat your kids, your partner, and other people in your world. Home education is full of opportunities to sit with your children’s emotions, to understand their challenges and experiences. Emotional resiliency too helps us to be present for others in a deep and meaningful way. I remember well, in the nonprofit, how emotional burnout was an issue for many people doing challenging work in social justice, advocacy, social work, and community development. It is my hope that with emotional resiliency my kids and I can best serve others in whatever way we are meant to. Being connected to a community takes this further because when others need and rely on us, we can rely on them too. The broader reaching our community is, the more of a positive force we can be in the world. As a home educator, being part of a community also means more voices and perspectives teaching my kids and that’s key to creating a balanced education. It’s been harder to build community with COVID, I know, but we found ways to meet safely outdoors and over the internet. And hopefully soon, as it starts to wane, more indoor activities will be available and safe.
8) Activism and Giving Back
Speaking of community, getting out into your community is perhaps the best thing you can do to raise a social justice warrior. What injustices do you see around you? What organizations are working to combat them? What grassroots efforts can you support? Are there campaigns, protests, or other advocacy opportunities in your community? Start small, and start local, but start today. There is no better way to raise kids who care than by being an adult who stands up and takes action on what matters.
