My Philosophy
I remember the High School transition from Elementary School as if it was yesterday, it’s crazy to think that we will be going through to the transition to college in a couple of months. When I made the decision of coming to Social Justice High School, my idea of what the school was like was really different from what it really is. I thought that the school’s curriculum focused on things like criminal justice, in specific. But when I started school I was surprised about how social justice was embedded into everything, and to this day I am still surprised! Not only was social justice talked about in our English and Social Sciences classes, but it was also talked about in classes like math and biology/chemistry. It was then that I started to realize that social justice is not just justice with the law, but with everything. To me, social justice is equality in absolutely everything, from education to jobs, from access to water to lack of healthy groceries. There is not supposed to be any type of discrimination among gender, race, ethnicity, age, class, etc. and that is a way that social justice can be achieved.
Social justice is something that we all strive for, which is why it is so ironic that we still have not been able to achieve something that we all want. Some reasons that I can come up with to try to explain why we don’t have social justice could be simply because social justice should be applied to everything, and because of that, then it’s somewhat difficult to be able to have it everywhere. Also, everybody has a different definition to what social justice is to them. So, for example, although someone may believe that they have social justice in something like education right now, there might be another person that does not believe that. If not everyone has the same definition to social justice than it can be hard to work towards something that is different for all of us.
I am very lucky to have been able to attend a school in which they showed us how important it is to work towards the type of social justice that we want. We have to be outspoken about it because a lot of things do not change themselves. If it wasn’t for me attending a school like this, then I myself would have not even thought it was possible to make a change all by myself or with a small group of people. Last year, in the beginning of the school, we got our AP classes taken away. None of the students that were taking the AP classes thought that it was okay so a sit-in was organized. Eventually we got our classes back. Sometimes to achieve social justice the actions don’t have to be so drastic. It can possibly be talked out and social justice could be achieved. An issue of the Chicago tribune says “Back then, the strikers weren't very popular with school district officials, but all that has changed.” referring to how it was before hunger strikers united to form what is now Little Village Lawndale High School. Other times, drastic times call for drastic measures and something big is needed to make others aware and have the process of social justice begin.
My role in this struggle is to provide hope and speak out. Like I said earlier, it’s important to speak out because social justice is not going to develop itself. Right now with this project I plan to contribute to social justice by making others aware. My future plans involve me becoming a teacher, and I hope to do something like Ms. Nelson did for me, make my students aware of the injustices going on. Although there might not always be a solution the first step is to become aware. My fire is my education and knowledge, therefore in the future I hope that I am able to make my students aware through the education I help provide them with.
My issue is a prime example of injustice. So although we are supposed to connect it to social justice I would say that it is almost the opposite of it. We are in the 21st century and exploitation is not something that should be happening now or ever. Like I mentioned earlier, the first step would be to become aware of the exploitation of people for medical research and therefore we can strive to the social justice that is needed.
Social justice is something that we all strive for, which is why it is so ironic that we still have not been able to achieve something that we all want. Some reasons that I can come up with to try to explain why we don’t have social justice could be simply because social justice should be applied to everything, and because of that, then it’s somewhat difficult to be able to have it everywhere. Also, everybody has a different definition to what social justice is to them. So, for example, although someone may believe that they have social justice in something like education right now, there might be another person that does not believe that. If not everyone has the same definition to social justice than it can be hard to work towards something that is different for all of us.
I am very lucky to have been able to attend a school in which they showed us how important it is to work towards the type of social justice that we want. We have to be outspoken about it because a lot of things do not change themselves. If it wasn’t for me attending a school like this, then I myself would have not even thought it was possible to make a change all by myself or with a small group of people. Last year, in the beginning of the school, we got our AP classes taken away. None of the students that were taking the AP classes thought that it was okay so a sit-in was organized. Eventually we got our classes back. Sometimes to achieve social justice the actions don’t have to be so drastic. It can possibly be talked out and social justice could be achieved. An issue of the Chicago tribune says “Back then, the strikers weren't very popular with school district officials, but all that has changed.” referring to how it was before hunger strikers united to form what is now Little Village Lawndale High School. Other times, drastic times call for drastic measures and something big is needed to make others aware and have the process of social justice begin.
My role in this struggle is to provide hope and speak out. Like I said earlier, it’s important to speak out because social justice is not going to develop itself. Right now with this project I plan to contribute to social justice by making others aware. My future plans involve me becoming a teacher, and I hope to do something like Ms. Nelson did for me, make my students aware of the injustices going on. Although there might not always be a solution the first step is to become aware. My fire is my education and knowledge, therefore in the future I hope that I am able to make my students aware through the education I help provide them with.
My issue is a prime example of injustice. So although we are supposed to connect it to social justice I would say that it is almost the opposite of it. We are in the 21st century and exploitation is not something that should be happening now or ever. Like I mentioned earlier, the first step would be to become aware of the exploitation of people for medical research and therefore we can strive to the social justice that is needed.