David and the Social Justice Dilemma

When students realize that pop culture, or popular brands are unjust, there tends to be a knee jerk reaction to try and address the issue, or show the teacher/parent that the current state of being is not appropriate, and not up to their standards. In the second chapter of "Getting Beyond I Like the Book," the teacher David comes across a story about two hockey teams with varying resources. One, a suburban school has matching uniforms and are decked out head to toe, while the other urban school can barely pull together a full uniform. This reading began a discussion about what cloths are "cool" for kids to wear, and one brand mentioned was Nike. The students then discussed the production ok Nike, and how it was cool, uncovering the fact that Nike uses small children to produce their project, which sparked discussion, outrage and the search for more resources on the topic. The students drew pictures, wrote letters and continued their discussion on the issue for weeks to follow.

In this instance, David has the uniqu opportunity to address a social justice issue that was really sparked by the students, rather than provoked by the teacher. The issue of equality/fairness and Nike opens up the door for talking about other cultures, and how students lives would be different if they livd in other countries. This could be a good reflection point for students to think about what their life would be like if they grew up in another country. Would they be producing Nike products? Working in the fields? Or maybe staying around and helping to run the family business? If students are forced to address these questions, and analyze another culture, than people like Paulo Freire would be one happy person, understanding that students are grateful for living in a democratic society who have the opportunity and access to education.

One activity that David's students could do to analyze the advertisement fliers of t.v. commercials of Nike, would be to create a parallel advertisement that would highlight the social justice issues of the company. For example, rather than having the Nike "swoosh" and "Just Do It," the students could produce advertisements with a similar symbol on it reading "Just Don't Do It...Promote Socially Just Companies." This would allow fellow students to create the parallel in the advertising as well as begin to as questions of what the advertisement means. In this case, if students were to produce work that is tangible, and challenges others, it would allow for them to spread their message and begin to get other students thinking about social justice issues and take action themselves.