SOCIAL JUSTICE TED TALKS

TED has many videos that you can use to have students reflect on their understanding of others as
well as their ability to actually make a difference in the world. The first one is for you to watch and
reflect on, and the others are ones you can use to inspire your students to find their voices.

How Teachers Can Help Kids Find Their Political

Voices Sydney Chaffee explains how education can be
“a tool for social justice” and that social justice must be a
part of what we teach in schools. She wants to help
teachers “learn how to become effective facilitators of
[their] students' activism.”

In The Danger of a Single Story Chimamanda Adichie

warns that single stories create harmful stereotypes and
explains that if we “realize that there is never a single
story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.” It’s
an excellent video to use as a jumping off point for
discussions on understanding others.

How to Understand Power is a lesson by Eric Liu, who

states that “learning how power operates is key to being

effective, taken seriously, and not taken advantage of.”
He also explains what one can do to be more powerful
in public life.

How to Turn Protest into Powerful Change This is

another lesson by Eric Liu. He states that protest is often
necessary but not always sufficient, then outlines
strategies we can use for “peacefully turning awareness
into action and protest into durable political power.”
The Simple Power of Handwashing is a Ted Talk by
Myriam Sidibe, a woman who fights childhood disease
with a powerful weapon: a bar of soap. Use this video to
show students how something as simple as a campaign
for hand washing can save millions of lives.

What If You Could Help Decide How Government

Spends Public Funds? In this video Shari Davis gives an
inspiring call to action, saying "We've got to open the
doors to city halls and schools so wide that people can't
help but walk in,” She calls for real solutions to real
problems with new ways of thinking and working
together.

What We Are Getting Wrong Iin The Fight to End

Hunger Jasmine Crowe challenges listeners to rethink
the way we deal with food insecurity in a world where
one in nine people go to bed hungry every night. And
she has a plan for using technology to deliver unused
food to the people who need it.

The Disarming Case to Act Right Now on Climate Change

Many students believe they are too young to make a real
difference, and Greta Thunberg is a shining model to show
them that they are wrong about that because at fifteen, she
started a movement that grabbed the world’s attention and
saw her speak not only at TED but also to world leaders at
the UN.