Why Our Students Need ‘Equity Literacy’ http://www.tolerance.org/blog/why-our-students-need-equity-literacy:
An informational placard presents the chilling
current statistics behind the display: “Today the net worth of the average African-American
family is about one-tenth that of the average white family. Much of that disparity
is due to differing rates of home ownership between these two groups and to the
generally lower values of homes blacks own than homes owned by whites. The gap is
perpetuated as wealth—or the lack of it—is passed down from parent to child.”
(cut article here)
People were shown three pie charts on
wealth distribution. They were asked which one represented the current
situation in the United States. The first pie chart was split evenly five ways;
the second was less equal with the top quintile controlling 36 percent while the
lower quintile controlled 11 percent; and the third, which showed the top quintile
with 84 percent of the wealth while the bottom two quintiles controlled 0.3
percent combined. After making their guesses, participants were also asked which
society they would most like to live in.
The report found that people dramatically
underestimated wealth inequality in the United States, rarely choosing
the correct
pie chart—the most unequal. (Sweden represented the second pie chart;
the first
was hypothetical). At the same time, respondents—regardless or political
affiliation—overwhelmingly
expressed a desire to live in societies with even more equally
distributed wealth. This suggests Americans may be more open to policies
that
support more equitable wealth distribution than our pundits and
politicians proclaim.
This report and our encounter with students
at the exhibit made me rethink how we, as educators, must frame our
curriculum
and pedagogy from a social justice perspective. Teachers must
proactively position their work as responding to a disturbing gap in
Americans’ knowledge base. We need
to draw attention to how many people are un- and misinformed when it
comes to social
and economic inequality in our society. We also need to remind our
neighbors how
important it is that students learn basic facts, like those represented
in the museum’s
exhibit.
(cut article here)
I suggest that we call this knowledge base
“equity literacy” and add it as the sixth element to Connie North’s definition
of social justice education. We need K-12 students who are knowledgeable about
the inequity that exists in our midst as much as we need them to know that two plus
two equals four, that George Washington was the first president of the United States
or that the earth is round. We need students to have a grasp of the historical trajectories
of marginalized and privileged groups and to understand how those groups have been—and
continue to be—framed. And we need them to be familiar with the many ways these
facts are interpreted. Thoughtful debates about policy at the local and national
level depend upon the people’s capacity to do so.
