Blog 3 - Kali

            For taking action I chose to send two letters to officials about the issues surrounding Planned Parenthood. The first letter was proposed by Planned Parenthood but actually was not focused on the funding issue. Recently there have been attempts to allow employers to deny birth control coverage for women so I signed a letter to a state representative in opposition to these bills. The second letter that I signed was sent to the Susan G. Komen fund demanding that they put women’s healthcare before politics since they have pulled all funding from Planned Parenthood a few weeks ago. The foundation has been in support of Planned Parenthood, especially of them doing breast exams, but with recent attacks on Planned Parenthood the Komen fund withdrew their funding. I feel very strongly about these issues so it felt really good to contribute to the cause and let someone know how I felt. The more people that take action, the better chance we have at fighting these efforts to cut funding and limit birth control. Many of the efforts against Planned Parenthood are coming from Republican officials, so in taking action against them I was connecting with my democratic values.

As far as social justice in education is concerned, I feel that it is extremely important to teach and to expose students to the different issues affecting our country. The quote, “Struggle for social justice is central to our nation’s history… Concerns about the common good and the rights of the individual, no matter how humble in social standing, transcends politics and hold a definitive place in the realms of morality, ethics and federal law, and therefore in the world of teaching social studies” captures the importance of teaching social justice. If students are sheltered from social justice they will never be able to see the reality of the world, and the classroom is a great place to discuss these issues. However, the topic of Planned Parenthood might be a little bit too mature for elementary students but there may be other ways to discuss the issue without going into the details of the services. If we inform our students about the pros and cons of the issues that we face, they will be able to make their own decisions and therefore create a better and more informed public.