Breaking the mold of chronologically-taught history, this all-digital program offers a thematic, multidisciplinary approach to historical injustices and clearly establishes a link to their contemporary legacies, empowering students to research, evaluate facts, and ultimately act to help fight injustice in their own times, in their own communities.
FIGHTING INJUSTICE
We want to give every student the tools to fight injustice and the knowledge to recognize it when it appears
Silencing Debates
Curriculums have been anesthetized to the point where history is divorced from its underlying impact. It’s hard to have tough conversations about things that are happening in real time. It’s hard to have discussions when people profoundly disagree. But just because it’s hard doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be done.
Avoiding Controversy
The program is not without controversy. That’s okay. While not in any way, shape, or form partisan, Fighting Injustice is not neutral. It’s important to take moral stands on complex problems that have complex roots.
PROGRAM GOALS
Fighting Injustice curates the research experience to give students the tools to evaluate sources of information
When history is taught chronologically, it gives students the distinct impression that problems arise and problems are solved. Students move on to a different topic, a different issue, a different era with different problems that are found and solved. The thread that connects past problems to the present, the very ideas that might help us avoid making the same mistakes, is often abstract and lost in the minutiae of dates, events, and the scope of history.
Fighting Injustice selects topics that connect present injustices to their historical roots without distraction, following their natural evolution. By curating the students’ explorations and establishing the link between cause and effect, students will understand how historical actions impact lived experience today.
Not everything printed is true, and certainly not everything on the web is factual. Teaching students how to navigate between fact and fiction in a world of over-information is key to their academic and life success. If we get this wrong, we get everything wrong. In each module of Fighting Injustice, students will have the chance to test and weigh sources of information.
GUIDING STUDENTS
TO A RELEVANT END-PRODUCT
We believe that it is time to move away from the essay as the ultimate expression of academic proficiency. Essays on virtually every subject are now readily accessible on the internet and therefore no longer necessarily demonstrate a student’s clear grasp of subject matter—merely their ability to google. Essays are also highly individualistic when increasingly employers are demanding the ability to collaborate effectively in small groups.
Each module of this program leads students to an end-product that is relevant, actionable, and informed, one that mimics social advocacy and career readiness. Students may end up crafting a social media campaign or drafting model legislation.
As we move away from the essay, it’s important to think about how to foster team as opposed to individual effort. Our program gives students the tools they need to collaborate in a positive and safe environment, ensuring that the end result represents different points of view by taking advantage of technological innovations that facilitate small-group interactions, both in and out of school. Fighting Injustice is a program designed for this age.
FINDING VALUABLE INFORMATION
Research is a prerequisite of academic success. Teaching students how to find the factual information they need is also the path to a well-informed citizenry.
Fighting Injustice does not provide students with all the pieces. It curates the research experience, helping them traverse the stormy seas of who we are and how we got here.
PLEASE DONATE TO HELP THIS MISSION
New Vistas in Education Foundation connects the Past and the Present to the Future.
