Learning Together: Do Justice
I am a curriculum snob. For me, curriculum is a tool, something I use to help me learn what the group I’m working with already knows and how to help them use that to understand the new concept we’re working with. Good curriculum is flexible for settings and people. Good curriculum is inclusive of all learning styles. Good curriculum provides pathways to develop new understanding from an existing concept. Good curriculum engages rather than dictates. I don’t often find curriculum that has all of these components, nor ones that also make sure that the learner’s curiosity is piqued and fed. Learning Together: Do Justice from Spirit and Truth Publishing is one of those curriculums that ticks off all of these requirements and provides space for both the learner and leader to engage and grow.
Learning Together: Do Justice is part of a series of resources designed to be used in flexible settings. If you have a multi age Sunday School class, this will work. If you want something in a VBS type setting, these units flex for that. Are you looking for something to use intergenerationally? These have the meat to do so. Do Justice is a 5 lesson unit that focuses on what justice is, how it manifests, and how we find out about it from the Bible. The unit contains whole group openings, small group conversations, music connections, service project suggestions, and a unit-long project. The whole group opening is meant to bring together the learners and activate their prior knowledge, sending them into smaller groups to delve more deeply into what justice is and what our responsibilities are as Christians in working for it. Each session has Scripture to examine, helping the group to focus on the tasks coming into their small group times. At the end of the 5 sessions, the groups will have worked together to develop actionable steps within their communities to work towards justice. Each session introduces important words and phrases to help guide understanding about some of the obstacles to justice, providing the small groups time to discuss and research how these play out in their communities. You will need access to the internet and devices to use this. Notetaking within the group can be shared by all or just a few, leaving space for full participation for those that find reading and writing challenging. The topics covered are not exhaustive of all the roots of injustice in our country, and that is by design by the publisher. They state in the beginning that this is meant to be a unit that includes young children, so this provides a solid overview and introduction for those that are just engaging with the topic for the first time while providing outlets for curiosity and research for learners who have been working with this for a while.
Learning Together: Do Justice is incredibly flexible and provides you with a depth of learning that should not be missed. Yes, this can be used for your traditional Sunday School offering. Families are more likely to commit to short term classes now, and this 5 week session plays right into this. Families are also more likely to commit to classes that speak to what they value and research is showing us that they value working for justice. This would make an excellent study to use with parents and children, as well as grandparents. Imagine the strength of the generations discussing and critically examining our calling to work for justice. I am a calendar nerd, and I know that we have 3 separate 6 week sessions from Epiphany through Pentecost this year- this 5 week session would be a perfect offering. I wouldn’t limit it to traditional Sunday School. I’d bring this out for midweek learning. I’m probably using this for our midweek Lent study in the congregation where I work, a multigenerational gathering on Wednesday nights. We gather in person, but the grouping and activities are such that I can easily make this hybrid, allowing families to join us from home or carpool or soccer game sidelines. This is flexible enough that you could easily adapt this to be used asynchronously; the Scripture passages teamed up with Important Words and discussion questions from each session make it easy to pop these into with a playlist form or a closed Facebook group for people to access and work through in their own time. If I could wave a magic wand, I would have church councils work through this unit together as they go about the important business of coordinating church ministries and resources. Imagine what it would look like to have a leadership team that intentionally discussed justice and what we should be doing as God’s people. I’d also love to see it used for middle school and high school youth group gatherings. This flexible and thorough offering is worth your attention!
