Restorative justice in seventh grade

It’s early October, and seventh graders are once again wrapping up their study of the Tainos, Christopher Columbus and the first European colonization of North and South America.
 

In recent years, this lesson has culminated in a trial that sought to assign blame for the Taino genocide.
 

This year, the lesson has evolved to be a little less of a criminal trial and more of a process of restorative justice: less about punishment and more about involving the victims' voices and restoring justice to those who were harmed.
 

Presentations are complete, and students are each writing up their own proposals for how amends could be made to the indigenous people of North America, five hundred and twenty years later. The student’s initial brainstorm for reparations are above.

This lesson is part of a continuing conversation at Gordon about Columbus’s legacy. More of that story is at www.gordonschool.org/columbus