by Angela Berkfield with co-authors Chrissy Colon Bradt, Leila Raven, Jaimie Lynn Kessell, Rowan Parker and Abigail Healey.
Published by Green Writers Press, Brattleboro, Vermont, 2021.
Reviewed by Harriet Heath, PhD
This book is written as a study guide for parents to help them integrate social justice as a guiding principle in their parenting. It is the product of the authors’ intense ferreting out of the issues, searching for solutions and integrating what they have learned into their discussions with children. The authors’ recommend that the reader take time to thoughtfully read the book as a text, do the reflections to questions asked and carry out suggestions for how to help their children be social activists.
Social justice as presented in this book is defined by what it would look like:
A socially just world meets everyone’s basic needs (food, housing, transportation, health care, education, job, etc.) in a dignified way; guarantees equitable distribution of resources; ensures everyone has a voice in the decisions that affect them; makes sure all people are physically and psychologically safe and secure; treats people from every background with dignity and respect; and supports the development of all people to their full potential. To achieve social justice we must stand in opposition to capitalism, exploitation, racism, and oppression in its many forms. We must engage in a constant practice of creating and recreating our actions so they are aligned with social justice principles (20).
The goal of the book, at least as far as child rearing is concerned, is to make children conscious, connected and equipped to make change (282).
The book deals with five aspects of American society where social justice is glaringly missing: social justice as a concept itself, racial, economic, gender, and disabilities. A chapter explores each.
The book is carefully crafted to guide parents along the path of discovery. Each chapter turns readers’ attention to the issue of that chapter with some quotations, usually from well known people, that expressed provocative and often disquieting ideas. Questions follow to encourage readers to explore the issue from multiple perspectives. Being part of a group while reading this book would make such a discussion more rewarding and possibly more insightful. Others would see different aspects of the issues. It would be easy as a single reader to skip over these kinds of statements and questions.
Having caught the readers’ attention each chapter presents the goals for the chapter and an outline of its content. For the serious reader, having this information certainly is helpful to organize what they are reading as they go.
In the first chapter Angela Berkfield defines what is social justice She expands the seven components of social justice with examples of both unjustice practices and just. The chapter includes discussions of diversity and culture and how each relate to social justice. The chapter concludes with examples of how one can work for social justice and to encourage readers to take time to reflect on how they are feeling about the topic and thinking.
The second chapter explores how parents can integrate ideas and activities about social justice into their parenting. The chapter begins by having readers reflect on their own childhood and current life as related to issues relating to social justice. The chapter then askes how parents who care about people and the planet, how can they raise children who will interact with the world “in a way that is conscious, connected, and equipped to make change?” The chapter is a summary of how the author has found she can parent based on her understanding of social justice. The presentation has tools or suggestions of how to do it. It includes examples drawn from her parenting experience. With each step along the way the author reflects on her experience and tells the reader to stop and do likewise.
Each of the next four chapters focusses on a major area of injustice, racial, sexual, economic, or disability. The chapters begin by the authors telling their stories. One of the authors has experienced the effects of oppression from the injustice under scrutiny. These life stories make the oppression very real, very authentic. The writer continues her story into how she is raising her children compared to her own experience of growing up. For example the writer on racial justice is telling about the lack of fairness and how they have come to deal with it, and, thus, her children can try.
Each chapter has an analysis of the issue. Presented as “The stories we are told are the stories we tell— the content in each case is a clear sociological description of the situation as seen by the writer. The analysis may include a definition of terms such as what is class? Or what really is race? What is a disability. It will continue a description of the process of oppression. For example if people are viewed as disabled, assumptions by a prospective employer may be made as to what the disabled person is or is not capable of doing when the person is looking for a job.
One of the real strengths of this book is that with each area of oppression there are suggestions of how the situation can be changed. For example, in the chapter on economic injustice, how a government policy of a basic income for all would support families where their pay for hourly work is so low basic expenses are not covered. Another example is listing laws that, if passed, would make it easier to demand equal pay regardless of gender.
Having presented the issue and having suggested ways of addressing it, there are questions for the reader. What has the reader learned? How does the reader feel about what has been presented? If the readers are in a group, the authors strongly suggest that now is the time for them to pause and reflect.
Following the exploration of the issue in each chapter come ways of including children in the discussion. How can we raise the issues? How can we expand their understanding? There are dialogues presented with some discussion about their effectiveness. There are suggestions of books to read with questions to help children dig deeper into the topic and more questions for the reader to reflect on what is being presented. The authors recommend videos to watch and ways to discuss with children what has been viewed. In some chapters these suggestions are given with the age range of the children with whom they might be most effective.
Finally, and one of the real strengths of this book in each chapter there are suggestions of what children and families can do. These suggestions give a sense of hope. There is something that can be done. The reader is again encouraged to reflect on what has been suggested and to relate the ideas to their own world.
The last two chapters bring finality to the book. The seventh chapter is the author’s resolution to the trauma of oppression. She finds freedom in recognizing that all things are interconnected including that which oppresses us. This freedom is found in what she calls collaborative liberation. Collaborative liberation is “a recognition that each person’s liberation is tied up in the liberation of all people, and that racism and white supremacy, along with all other forms of oppression, dehumanize both those they oppress and those who (at least in the short term) profit or are privileged by them.” (250). She illustrates how collaborative liberation has impacted her parenting.
The last chapter is review and summation of what has been covered again related to child rearing. There are, as always, questions for the reader’s reflection.
The book contains three appendixes with ten more available on-line. Appendix A deals with social justice frameworks. B reviews definitions and C lists resources. Each is a valuable resource and of course the value of appendixes on-line is that they can easily be updated and kept current.
This book is a serious reflective study into issues related to social justice. The writers have shared their stories as well. One of the true strengths is the lists of books and shows to watch that speak to various issues of oppression. As a developmental psychologist the book made me rethink stages of development and when in their growing years are children most capable of handling serious prodding questions without undermining the child’s courage to ask questions and seek answers.
The book reminded me how difficult it is to write conversations with children which in the home are apt to happen over time when they can occur within ongoing family life. I remember when my kids were young I’d keep in the back of my mind topics I wanted to be sure to cover with them when the appropriate time came. I also remember finding time most advantageous with each child. The whole topic did not need to be covered in one setting. This kind of ongoing dialogue is hard to describe in a book.
This book is written to be studied with a group of other seekers where questions can be raised and insights shared. This review would be stronger had I had those companions. The book deserves careful reading. It raises for parents the question what are the values you want for your children to have to live by?