1.1 Social Justice | Can't Think of a Punny Blog Name

I have really enjoyed the last few Values lectures on Race, Ethnicity and Gender. Its had me thinking in ways that I hadn’t considered before and has also just genuinely had me interested. Apart from the 9am starts and the 2 hour seating periods of course.

“”All human beings belong to a single species and are descended from a common stock. They are born equal in dignity and rights and all form an integral part of humanity”” (Giddens, Sutton 2013)

The term “Race”, scientifically, has been abandoned as a concept. It has been shut down. Isn’t that incredible? An age of racism and discriminative arguments has been thrown out as if it was a mouldy apple. Now, views are based on ethnicity and the social aspects of people’s lives and how they themselves identify. It’s great.

Really? Me?

I have been so hung up on a certain Mr. Derek Robertson’s statement that we are all racist, sexist and homophobic. We have been shaped by our society to feel certain ways about people. It hit like a bus. Does it make me a bad person however? No. How you act and behave makes us who we are. Although we’ve been shaped like this and moulded into this hunk of beef with thoughts and feeling that generally reflect that of our surroundings, in the words of Ke$ha, “We are who we are”. I’m sorry but it’s a quote that related.

We can establish ourselves, although we have been shaped this way, we can become who we want to be! This has honestly blown my mind. I’m an incredibly laid back person, I’m used to just going about my business and “meh”. I’ve already established myself in this life as a “weirdo” but an accepting “weirdo”.

What?

With all the political madness in America at the minute, the materials the Values module is teaching is really useful. It has helped me to understand (further) that certain candidates – not naming names, this isn’t a political rant – are broadcasting views from back in the “olden days” albeit ten times worse.

To finish my spiel

I have really enjoyed these lectures and think it’s like totally super important that we are all accepting and act as agents of kindness as teachers.

I wouldn’t want to teach a child and have them grow up to be a hateful person. Let us all spread joy?

Magic

Wee reference: Giddens. A ,Sutton. P. (2013) Polity Publishing. Seventh edition. 139780745652931

I was in the first workshop for the “Values” Module yesterday. I was bold and started seating at an empty table, trying to start my own empire! I thought the workshop was a great way to get across the points of fairness and exclusion. The workshop brought to light that; in group work, all groups should be provided with the same resources to handle any task given to them. I did however, also show that groups could be provided with varying resources but marking the results must be done in a way that looks at groups individually. It was Albert Einstein who said, “Everybody is a genius. But If you judge a fish by Its ability to climb a tree, It will live Its whole life believing that It is stupid”, and I believe it is quite relevant to what the workshop taught.

From what I witnessed, all the groups worked really well together to create some great work – especially my group! Group 1 (with the most resources) created some amazing accessories out of paper, including a bag! I found it great to see MA1, as well as some of the Psychology students getting on so well and becoming a closer knot group.

I think I’m going to remember this lesson for a lesson plan in future, it was very well thought out and the acting by the talented Derek Robertson was phenomenal! It teaches a great message in an effective way, what’s not to love.