Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer and activist that fights for what goes unnoticed in our justice system. But alongside this, Stevenson works to reteach American history… Stevenson forces his audience to remember the amount of black bodies that have been lynched and enslaved in our country’s history by demanding that we build them memorials and museums. One of the ways I was introduced to him was by watching this TED Talk at the museum I worked at last summer. It motivated me to rethink the ways that my education has been framed and I hope it will do the same for those of you who choose to watch it as well.
One Reply to “On the discourse of punishment…”
Leave a Reply to Arianna Miller Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hi Emily,
As a future high school English teacher, I found this Ted Talk to be so important. I think this a really interesting idea–to teach history so that we are aware of all the “dark and difficult things” that have happened. Early in the talk, Stevenson explains how caring teachers will always impact their students more than those who don’t care, or at least don’t act like they do. I think it’s important to teach students to “challenge injustice,” as Stevenson says. I think younger generations need to understand how corrupt the justice system has been over the course of history, and even now. I want my students to recognize the problems involved in our justice system, through literature we read in my (future) classroom.
I also think this relates to the article we read in class, how using restorative and/or transformative justice can make such a change in our society. The people who commit crimes, who do things they shouldn’t, are not always awful people. There is always a reason why people do the things that they do. How can I make students see this? Maybe by reading “Jazz,” and analyzing Joe Trace.
Ari