Teaching to Empower

This essay offers strategies for balancing teaching about injustices with strategies to empower students by looking to the past, the present, and the future. Learning about past organizing for social justice using primary archival documents offers lessons in perspective, strategy, and inspiration. Learning about present activists and organizations teaches students cutting-edge strategies for social change and opens up possibilities for their future activism. Finally, teaching students the importance of envisioning a better future, especially through the creative arts, can help them clarify their values and develop affirmative, constructive goals. This essay describes specific activities and exercises for doing each of these things to enhance teaching to empower.