Youth and Social Justice

[Mel Gurry]

Greetings,

I'm new to Radical Unschoolers Network.  I have a 12 year old boy who lives for social justice (and a 10 yr old who sometimes joins in) discussions.  When I saw your group I knew I had to join!

I find that we can have hour long discussions about anything that happens in any given day.

Life is full of injustice, just wondering if you all present unbias information and let them decide for themselves?

 

[Angelica English]

I'm new to RUN as well. My oldest is five and we often have conversations about all sorts of issues as well. The issues usually come up as a part of the youth work I do and since I'm a social justice major in college. She'll usually ask a question about something I' or my husband have said and I'll answer her question. Sometimes this leads to a discussion that includes both opinions and facts. There are usually two or more answers I can give to her questions so I lead with facts if applicable, then my answer and if she's still interested I also give answers others may give. It's much like the conversations we've had about religion and god. I lead with my beliefs and give her examples of others' beliefs as well to show her there is not just one way. I suppose I am bias about issues that are very important to me but I still present other sides.

[Billie Morelli]

Ultimately, yes.  I give as many sides as I can think of, and usually give my personal opinion expressed as just that, and my 12yr old boy takes it all in and makes his own decisions.   He definitely appreciates my input, but very much has his own voice on many matters.  But at 12, its so important they are guided to view as many sides of the story as possible since its unlikely any one person can come up with them all by themselves.

 

I'm in Columbia City.  Alex would love a new chum.  We just pulled out of the school system about a month ago...

 Billie & Alex

[Mel Gurry]

Thank you for your post, I agree, allowing them to look at many sides of the issues is so important today.  My method is similar as your post.  At 12 it's interesting to see what they think.  What answers they have and how they would go about making a change or doing things differently.  As he goes along I may add in more important facts he doesn't know and let him once again come to a conclusion. 

It's very interesting to speak to kids today. 

I would love my son to chat with yours Billie - I'll see what I can do - funny that he is so passionate about social issues yet has no interest in using social media!! 

Mel

 

 

[Meredith]

I don't so much think of what I do as "presenting information" as sharing what I know and think about the world. I try to be conscious of my biases - a tricky feat in and of itself! I also try to understand others' perspectives - that's part of what drew me to unschooling, trying to see things from my stepson's perspective and then my daughter's.

 

Of course, I'm not the only or even necessarily the most important source of information in my kids' lives. Maybe when I was younger, but now that they're 9 and 17, they have plenty more influences of all kinds - people, books, music, movies, games, the internet....