The modern world faces social issues such as mental health awareness and women’s rights, which can negatively impact society while being out of one’s control. Steinbrenner’s AICE Sociology teacher, Dr. Miliziano, presents a social issues poster project yearly, with the goal of gaining attention on ‘real world’ topics.
As a part of the curriculum, AICE Sociology deep dives into the agents of socialization, using the course’s content to describe social phenomena. Miliziano guides her students by looking at the past and the ways people peacefully demonstrated their beliefs at the time.
Inspiring Miliziano, the 1968 People’s March in Washington DC which resulted from Martin Luther King’s death aimed for addressing issues important to people then, including inequalities between races, poverty, and war. In the curriculum, the class looks at agents of socialization, reviews the vocabulary, and analyzes the sociology lessons, such as the People’s March.
“We realized that a lot of the issues were economic issues, social issues. Some of the same issues that we have today, that people are concerned about,” Miliziano said. Providing this project allows the students to have a real-life connection to what they studied in the curriculum, as well as linking the past and the present together.
“We created our own 2025 social issues gallery and the issues of what each individual student has on their mind,” Miliziano stated. Throughout her sociology classes, students covered topics important to them, highlighting their beliefs.
Allowing them to work individually or in pairs, her students can collaborate on concepts that others have similar to them. “The idea is that they just rip up a piece of cardboard like they were going to go to a demonstration,” Miliziano said, wanting the project to resemble real life. Students are asked to rip up a piece of cardboard or paper, like how someone would when getting ready for a real protest. Then, using paint and art supplies, students use their creativity to make a sign on the issue that’s important to them.
Many of the problems in the past have shown to be similar in this generation. During the 1960s, people had problems with racism, war, unequal rights, and sexism. Posters on the wall this year are about suicide prevention, climate change, Roe v. Wade, water shortages, and even pollution concerning today’s world. Much like the prior years, people still struggle with economic, social, political, and environmental issues.
Once the assignment is finished, Dr. Miliziano likes to hang them in the hallway for display and take pictures. From there, the class will analyze all the problems at hand and see which issue is the most important in today’s generation. The students then get the chance to keep, recycle, or throw away their artwork.
