Student Reflections: 6th Grade Life Skills
Environmental Justice: 6th graders explore the impact of race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status on access to the resources that make the world a safer place, and on environmentally sound living arrangements.
In Life Skills over the last couple of weeks, we have maintained our course digging into topics related to the theme of social justice.
The kids continue to inspire me with hope as they ask pointed questions in ways that remind me that humanity does not need to be complicated. When you view life from their perspective, ignoring the political rhetoric, and appreciate each human for the individual that they are, everything seems far more manageable.
Over the last couple of weeks, we covered what "equity" means as compared to "equality" and why they are actually not equal in and of themselves. Each carries a very different meaning. More recently, we identified the roles of aggressor, ally, target, and bystander. We asked ourselves what these terms signify and when we remember being at least one of the four in our own lives. Finally, we wrapped up this past week with conversations about the George Floyd ruling and what this verdict may mean for the future of race relations in the United States.
It has been an eventful spring here in 6th grade Life Skills. We look forward to more engaging conversations about making the world a more just society via even the smallest deeds of actions. I recently asked students to reflect on the work we’ve done so far this year in life skills. Here are some of their responses:
What do you think is the most important thing you have learned thus far this year?
“I learned that black people have a lot more disadvantages than I thought.”
“Diversity, Equity, Social Justice & Inclusion.”
“The most important thing is probably talking about social justice and learning about that.”
“I have learned more about racism and equal rights.”
“I think that the most important thing that I have learned in life skills this year is what has happened in the world.”
“I learned a lot more about social justice, women's rights, BLM, and the problems we are facing in the world.”
How are you more socially conscious now than you were at the start of the year?
“I think at the beginning I didn't want to speak up in case something sounded different than I intended.”
“I realize that social justice is not just in the past it is happening still.”
“I am more socially conscious now because I have paid more attention to the small details.”
“Talking about the issues that we have in America has really opened my eyes to the problems in our society.”
“I know more about how unfairly people of color or LGBTQ people are treated.”
“I often think about our conversations in life skills, such as what it means to be anti-racist, and have equal rights.”
“I think everything about racism and equality I look at differently and with a different perspective.”
“I am more socially conscious about how I look at people now knowing what I learned above.”
If you struggled to answer the question above, what has challenged you to become more socially conscious?
Not wanting to hear or not wanting to accept what’s going on.
That I did not know a lot about the things that everyone was talking about, because I don't watch the news.
I think the most challenging thing about these topics is being able to actually talk about them because the topics can get kind of awkward.
I struggled a little bit because I was worried that people might get the wrong idea.
Do you have ideas for areas you want to investigate before the end of the year that pertain to our social justice topic?
How you can make a difference and help.
To do things. Like take action on social justice, and actually do things instead of sitting and talk about things but not actually doing them.
I want to learn more and talk about more current events more in detail.