Sierra College may be a small junior college in a corner of Placer County; however, this week they had a demonstration of something that is all too common in our nation’s public colleges and universities… they celebrated “Social Justice Days” (link here).

Professor Matt Archer along with a number of other professors and students did their “part in raising awareness about homelessness in the Sacramento area” by “giving up their warm bed and house for two nights”… they slept on the grass. Professor Archer commented, “I would hope that the people involved will come to realize that they can have an impact on social justice issues, however big or small, and that something can be done and should be done.” Professor Archer, why don’t you and the other professors take the students to a homeless shelter and volunteer to actually help those less fortunate? Or Professor Archer why not teach the students to start a business so they can offer jobs to the homeless?

“Social Justice Days” contained an exhibit entitled “Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of War” along with “Health Re-Forum” where a panel of professors discussed health care in the United States. The highlight of “Social Justice Days” was Michael Moore’s newest production, “Capitalism: A Love Story.”

This may seem goofy and harmless, but it should alarm everyone when we discover how liberals define “Social Justice.” From Wikipedia (link here) (and please stay with me through this), “Social justice is a term, generally applied by the left, to describe a society with a greater degree of economic egalitarianism through progressive taxation, income redistribution, or even property redistribution, policies aimed toward achieving that which developmental economists refer to as equality of opportunity and equality of outcome.” The National Association of Scholars reports (link here) the term "social justice" is today understood to mean "the advocacy of more egalitarian access to income through state-sponsored redistribution." David Horowitz of the David Horowitz Freedom Center is more blunt. He says that "social justice" teaching is "shorthand for opposition to American traditions of individual justice and free-market economics." He says it teaches students that "American society is an inherently 'oppressive' society that is 'systemically' racist, 'sexist,' and 'classist' and thus discriminates institutionally against women, nonwhites, working Americans, and the poor."

On October 29, 2008, the pro-public-school establishment journal “Education Week” (link here) featured a long front-page article describing “social-justice teaching.” A revealing explanation of social-justice teaching comes from Bill Bigelow, the curriculum editor of a Milwaukee-based organization called “Rethinking Schools”, which publishes instructional materials relating to issues of race and equity. The purpose of “Rethinking Schools” instructional material is to teach teachers how to “weave social justice issues throughout the curriculum.”

"Social-justice" lessons concentrate on past mistakes in U.S. history rather than on our many remarkable accomplishments and opportunities. Emphasizing problems and injustices rather than achievements is given the highfalutin label "critical pedagogy."

"Social-justice teaching" does not mean justice as most Americans understand the term. Those who use the term make clear that it means the United States is an unjust and oppressive society, and that the solution is for community organizers to organize the poor and minorities to demonstrate and to demand political power so they will be given government handouts.

“Social Justice” is not a small obscure movement. Lobbyists for “social justice teaching” sponsor seminars which are well attended at taxpayers’ expense. For example. “Teachers 4 Social Justice” attracted 1,000 educators to an October 2008 seminar in Berkeley, California.

The bottom line to all this is the fact that this type of socialist propaganda has deep roots, financed with taxpayers’ money, in our state colleges and universities across this nation. Students are cheated because time is spent on “social justice” education rather than the basics. American exceptionalism, the idea of freedom to dream big dreams, the freedom to pursue those dreams and the freedom to reap the benefits of dreams realized is on the outs… “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” is in. This is ruining our kids and in turn our country. This is a black eye on Sierra College and the other colleges and universities that propagandize students like this… and it needs to stop.