I was recently struck by how valuable classroom spaces are when it comes to informing people about the ways in which injustices exist and are perpetuated. Classroom spaces, when inhabited well, are places where we can learn about the world around us –– as well as the experiences of our fellow image-bearing humans.

Many of us are individuals in majority groups or positions of privilege. Because of this, we are regularly engaging in unjust behaviors and systems (of which education is, admittedly, often one). When we have engaged in a way of thinking or being for the majority of our lives, we are often unaware of the extent to which those things affect us and the people around us. Being aware of the injustices that we perpetuate is the first step towards justice. However, awareness of withheld justice will not, on its own, lead to the creation of a just world. It is how we go about doing the creating that generates justice. I believe that schools have a place in that “how” as well as in the development of awareness.

Before diving into my main argument, it’s necessary to talk about how people process information. Let’s say we decide to sit down and watch a YouTube video about the Cold War. When the person making the video gives us a new piece of information (say, “No direct military attacks between the United States and Soviet Union were ever launched”), we form our understanding of it around the knowledge and frameworks that we already have in our minds. We remember our high school English teacher mentioning something about “Fahrenheit 451” and propaganda. We think about how, when we went to watch “Oppenheimer” (2023), someone in it mentioned competing with the Soviets. And we think about the vast amount of coverage of Putin that we’ve heard on the news. 

But these secondary pieces of information that we begin to recall have had so many fingerprints on them prior to their being deposited in our memories. Other people made choices about when and how to share these secondary pieces of information that we now return to in order to develop our own interpretations. For this reason, so much of the transfer of information is prone to natural human biases.

When we understand these complexities in the transfer of knowledge, it becomes easy to see how every individual’s perspectives and patterns of behavior are built up over the course of their lifetime. This is why it is so important to develop spaces where students are asked to come into contact with new and diverse perspectives. Learning new ways of understanding helps to arm us with more tools for navigating our complicated world. Learners should be exposed to new and diverse ideas, not for the sake of tokenism nor with the intention of manipulation/indoctrination, but because when people have a larger pool of secondary pieces of information to draw from, they are able to develop more robust frameworks from which to interpret new information. This is where educational institutions come in.

At their best, classroom spaces open the door for individuals to practice the kind of careful and creative thinking that –– when applied –– is at the heart of justice-seeking. One of the most important ways that educational environments foster justice-seeking is through the encouragement of thoughtful discourse. When thoughtful discourse takes place in a community and is given the resources necessary for it to be sustainable, people are empowered to come together and advocate for the systemic changes that foster justice. Educational spaces have the potential to go beyond mere information transfer and combine communities of peers with the resources offered by supportive educators in ways that shape young people into what Calvin calls “agents of renewal” in its mission statement.

One way that I’ve experienced this at Calvin was when my Religion 121 class — with adjunct professor Trevor Thompson — went together to attend a service at a mosque and at a synagogue. Yes, we spent time learning about the Abrahamic religions. But many of us also took the next step of moving out of our comfort zones in order to experience a new perspective. However, I also think that Calvin is lacking in some of these areas, particularly when it comes to discourse around gender, sexuality and the Church. By taking Calvin as an example, we can see just how complicated it is to set up an educational space that fosters justice-oriented people. 

That being said, the existence of spaces like Chimes where students can make their voices heard is a testament to the fact that making space for justice is possible. And if we understand justice to go beyond knowledge, then taking advantage of the spaces and resources that our educational institutions allow us access to is key to making us better advocates.