In celebration of the World Day of Social Justice on February 20, 2021, with the theme, "A Call for Social Justice in the Digital Economy," Alternative Education Center in Odessa, TX, hosted an Interactive Social Justice Essay Contest for Middle/High School students using Padlet. The essay contest allowed students to engage in interschool discussions about how they can help promote social justice and the global goal of peace, justice, and strong institutions by applying any applicable knowledge or skills they had learned from their classes and personal experiences. AEC students used the essay entries of students from other campuses in their essay analysis activities to learn how to write good essays in preparation for their TELPAS and STAAR. AEC students chose the following winning essays, presented alphabetically according to student authors' last names.
This year's commemoration of World Day of Social Justice supported the initiative of the international community to seek solutions to achieve sustainable development, poverty eradication, the promotion of full employment and decent work, universal social protection, gender equality, access to social well-being, and justice for all. The celebration aimed at fostering dialogue with member countries, relevant UN institutions, and other global stakeholders on actions needed to overcome the digital divide, provide decent work opportunities, and protect labor and human rights in the modern era of digital technologies.
Carlos Martínez Cánovas
4Y, IES Prado Mayor, Spain
Social justice is a global system that guarantees social and labour equality to all people. Anyone has the right to a good and remunerated job with a good salary, holidays, free days, etc. Young people have more problems finding a good job according to their qualifications. It is so disappointing that you are 25 years old (for example) studying all the time and when you finish your studies, you do not find a job. For this, we have to complain and achieve social justice.
On the other hand, poverty is a giant problem too. It is unacceptable that 152 million young people live in extreme poverty and 6% of the world population will be living in extreme poverty in 2030. The government should do anything (give work or give house) to solve this giant problem because these people are people without a future, qualifications, and most importantly without a house and food.
But certainly, the most important problem is racism. This problem is in every country regardless of money, religion, among others. This problem affects us at work, at school, at supermarkets, at libraries... Everywhere and at any time! Sexism is a social problem too. In 90 countries, women still do three times more unpaid care and domestic work than men and an average of 137 women die per day. This is a real problem, for this thousands of women are murdered.
These are the most important social problems and we can solve them with strength and perseverance. By the way, now we have many ways to help poor people or similar. We can sign up for an NGO. We can volunteer for the food ban. Everything is in you. Even sexism or racism, we can solve it too. And we can help sign up for an association or we can go to demonstrations.
Elze James Z. Montealto
Grade IX, PSHS-ZRC, Philippines
Social justice is subjective to the eye of every unique individual. One may view a certain action or event as morally right, while others may view it otherwise. The main problem with most communities is that we assume which is socially right or wrong in a biased point of view as we disregard the opinions and perspectives of those who metaphorically on the opposite side of the river. Now, the main question is how we, as active members of the community, can promote social justice that is unbiased and possible.
In simple terms, social justice can just be broadly defined as the just distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. With that being said, we’re setting a parameter to a certain society with a generalized community. Holding on to that fact, we must first need a survey to analyze if the distribution among people is unbiased. We should identify both the physical and mental aspects of every individual in relation to their available opportunities such as the “hour of work/day and income” ratio, “leisure and savings” ratio, and many other variables.
Secondly, after we identify the different aspects that affect the opportunity gap, we must compare and contrast the results of low-income households with high-income households, then we must relate the results to external variables such as politics and competition. If we can see a pattern like politician-related people having better opportunities and related scenarios, we can say that that certain society has a political bias that should be addressed. On the contrary, if none, we could safely say that it is just without resorting to communism.
In conclusion, capitalism plays a major role in the economic gap between the rich and poor, we could say we pity the poor. However, we cannot invalidate the hard work and sacrifices of the rich, which is the reason why they become wealthy in the first place. Some may be fed with a silver spoon, but that’s also because of the hard work of their parents or ancestors. This can also be applied to anybody whose poorness can be traced back to the mistakes of ancestors.
Chaima Rahali
4ºZ, IES Prado Mayor, Spain
Social Justice for me has a lot of meanings or interpretations, but all of them make reference to equality in all fields that involves all individuals of a society.
First of all, everyone has the right to have a good living condition. I mean, each person of the society isn’t obligated to live in poverty, if the wealthiest people put something from their side to help those unfortunate people. Furthermore, by helping each other, we can put an end to a cause of social inequalities, and by being more supportive or cooperative, we’ll build a better world where all the human rights are present.
Respectively, we can’t speak about living appropriate conditions without mentioning the equality of opportunities. Whether in the study, at work, in the political field, in the right to social well-being, etc., each person has to have the same probability of access to these opportunities. Namely, this social justice serves to ensure that everyone has the same capabilities or rights as members of society.
Thirdly, the welfare state is very important to implement social justice. The government provides services to fulfill the social rights of all the people in the nation. We know that if we have a mixed economy, our government can fund institutions for health care and education like in Spain. This includes direct benefits every citizen can get in an equal and fair manner.
In addition, social justice also includes the equality of labour rights and good working conditions for the entire active population. That means that people who have invested a lot of years of their life to get licensed need the opportunity to work in their field. It’s extremely sad that those young people with high marks and with really elevated intellectual capacities end working in jobs that they don’t like and for which they are not very well rewarded. So, to reach equality in offices and workplaces, and the opportunity to get them, we need to establish and implement the same laws and rights for all workers.
However, poverty is a challenge for equality because competition for scarce resources arises. They could be lacking. So, social justice among these individuals is a hard thing to achieve because everyone wants to get as most as possible personal benefits regardless of others' needs.
Matt Angelo C. Sareno
Grade IX, Philippine Science High School — Zamboanga Peninsula Region Campus
Philippines
Day by day, the gap between the rich and the poor widens, the rate of unemployment increases, and the number of individuals deprived of basic needs and privileges continues to grow — and yet, the solutions implemented to combat these debilitating problems are still insufficient. For society to attain global peace and justice, effective actions should be taken that involve promoting social justice.
A critical way to address social justice is by raising awareness and educating people about its importance and concerns. Social justice aims to bring forth equal and just opportunities, privileges, and rights for everyone — regardless of age, sexual orientation, race, etc. However, many individuals across the globe fail to acknowledge this important matter. Thus, by spreading information about social justice, more people can take part in driving change toward a more just and equal world. This can be carried out by creating informative posts on social media platforms, sharing the word with friends and families, making infographics and posters, and many more.
Along with that, members of the community should be empowered to take positive action in building just and equal communities. How can the plights of the poor be ameliorated if no changes are done within society? Hence, effective programs and campaigns should be implemented, in which all individuals are provided with the basic amenities needed to flourish and thrive. For instance, those living in impoverished lands should be granted equal employment opportunities so that they may improve their financial situations. All children should also have access to proper services and quality education, and everyone should have the privilege to exercise their rights as humans.
Most importantly, cooperation and unity should be developed within society. Nations should collaborate in creating a global effort to justly distribute economic growth and eradicate inequalities. They should also work together in upholding global institutions that aim to facilitate social justice, such as the United Nations organization. If these actions are effectively carried out, then society can certainly promote social justice and attain global peace, justice, and strong institutions in the near future.
Gabrielle Pauleen Tan
Grade IX, Philippine Science High School - ZRC, Philippines
One may say the present society has gone and improved so much from the past centuries, yet until now, social injustice has always prevailed, especially with the height of unemployment due to the pandemic and the common occurrence of unjust treatments due to social status. A very common occurrence is that those who are treated unfairly just accept their fate and live with the unjust treatment of society in order to provide for their families and not wanting to experience the struggle of starvation once again. Even not everyone gets to have the opportunity for work. No one has to live like this. Everyone should maximize their rights regardless of ranking in society. So, here are the ways I can help promote social justice to achieve the global goal of peace, justice, and strong institutions, based purely on my own capability and things I have learned and experienced.
As a part of the younger generation and living in an era of digital dependence, I would like to utilize my skills in using social media platforms in promoting social justice. I’d like to connect with people having the same opinions as mine and influence others to support this cause in acquiring world peace through the promotion of social justice. With that said, a lot of young people are oblivious to the act of social injustice, and I would like them to be aware of the future they will face. They should acquire the chance of changing that future.
Based on personal experience, I have witnessed how acquiring a job would need a connection from someone with high seats of power. So, it would be even harder for someone living in poverty to have a chance for a better life. I would like to promote, hopefully with the help of my influence in social media and my family, a much better chance for poor people to have a stable livelihood.
As they say, ‘knowledge is power’ and I, myself, know that I am as ignorant as one can get, so I would always be open to campaigns and seminars regarding human rights and social justice and share my opinions in order for us all to move together towards world peace because as Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “We cannot walk alone.”
The things I stated are, indeed, small and may seem insignificant, but I believe that if I join the ripple, it will eventually turn into a wave, one big enough capable of significant change.
