Social justice leaders as educators: Maritza Galvez and Kruti Parekh at TEDxYouthBuildCharterSchool

Maritza Galvez, an alumnus of and current leader within YouthBuild Charter School of California's school program at the Youth Justice Coalition, contextualizes the state of public education today by calling attention to its historical foundations in Puritanism through to the Industrial Revolution, Reaganomics, and the nefarious after-effects of zero-tolerance policies on societal perceptions of impoverished people of color -- especially youth. She and Youth Justice Coalition (YJC) Director Kruti Parekh highlight the direct relationship between cultural attitudes toward youth (language) and the way that public schooling is structured (practice).

Maritza Galvez is a Leader at the Youth Justice Coalition (YJC) and one of the founders of FREE LA High School, the high school program at YJC. YJC is working to build a youth-led movement to challenge race, gender, and class inequality in Los Angeles County's, California's, and the nation's juvenile injustice systems. Maritza experienced the juvenile and criminal injustice systems first-hand and also witnessed the impact of police and prisons on family and community; YJC represents one of the nation's few organizing and public policy projects lead by people who have been impacted by mass incarceration. Maritza is a graduate of FREE LA High School and currently attends Santa Monica College. She is a youth organizer and Board member at YJC.

ted.com/tedx/events/11924 | tedxyouthbuildcharterschool.wordpress.com

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