Keeping Kids Safe — at the Border and in Our Classrooms
By the editors of Rethinking Schools Kina, the 6-year-old daughter of one of our editors, walked into the living room when the TV was on last week and saw a […]
Current events
Transforming Teacher Unions in a Post-Janus World
By Bob Peterson “I’m from Wisconsin, I’m from your future!” I start off my speech. Despite my love of science fiction, I’m not talking to sci-fi fans. I’m talking to […]
Puerto Rican Teachers and Students Protest Budget Cuts and Privatization on May Day
By Kate Aronoff In a May Day event largely overlooked by mainland U.S. media, strikers representing various unions, opposition parties, and social movements all converged on San Juan’s banking district, […]
Making People’s History in Arizona: Educators Rise Up
By Sarah Giddings My house has recently become muddled with protest signs, event flyers, red T-shirts, and simply, chaos. How it came to this point resides in the story of […]
The March for Our Lives and National Day of Action Against Gun Violence: Two Opportunities to Involve Young Children
By Bob Peterson During my three decades of teaching elementary school I was regularly impressed with how much my students knew about what was happening in the world, and even […]
Teachers Can Respond to Trump’s Racial Hatred with Empathy and Inquiry
By the Editors of Rethinking Schools By now, most of us have read of Trump’s vile and racist comments of last Thursday. We all have a moral obligation to speak […]
Overcoming Hate in our Backyards
By Mica Pollock Hate speech and harassment have spiked nationwide since the 2016 election. They’ve spiked in our own backyards, too — requiring each community to counteract hate proactively. We […]
The Black Panther Party Was Founded on This Day in 1966: Here’s What We Don’t Learn About the Black Panther Party in Our Schools — but Should
By Adam Sanchez and Jesse Hagopian On Monday April 1, 1967 “George Dowell and several neighbors from North Richmond, California . . . heard 10 gunshots. Sometime after 5:00 a.m., […]
Backpack Full of Cash: New Documentary Narrated by Matt Damon Explores School Privatization
By Barbara Miner Like many supporters of public education, Sarah Mondale and Vera Aronow had become increasingly concerned in the last decade about the attacks on public schools and teachers. […]
Christopher Columbus: No Monuments for Murderers
By Bill Bigelow A New York Times article, following the white supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the murder of anti-racist activist Heather Heyer, described the growing calls to remove monuments that […]
Taking the Fight Against White Supremacy Into Schools
[This important article from Rethinking Schools editor Adam Sanchez was first published by the Zinn Education Project (where Adam works developing curriculum and organizing) and Common Dreams. We are republishing […]
The Role Students and Educators Played Before NFL Players Protested on Sunday
[This article first appeared in The Progressive in October 2016. We’re republishing it following Sunday’s unprecedented protests in the National Football League to highlight the role that students and educators played […]
As the School Year Begins, Open Minds to Equality Offers Ideas for Teaching Against Racism and Hate
By Nancy Schniedewind As the school year begins, we social justice educators must work harder than ever to make Black lives matter in our schools and to educate students about […]
800,000 Reasons To Teach About DACA
Resources for Explaining the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program to Elementary School Students By Grace Cornell Gonzales “It just kind of sucks. I mean, going to college and getting […]
Outrage — and Resources for Teachers — After the Trump Administration Ends DACA
By Ari Bloomekatz Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was once dubbed a “champion of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant extremists” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, announced Tuesday that the Trump administration […]
Victory for Mexican American Studies in Arizona: An Interview with Curtis Acosta
In 2010, state lawmakers in Arizona passed legislation that banned courses that “promote resentment toward a race or class of people.” But the legislation was, in reality, specifically targeting a […]
As the Year Begins, the Burning Question on Every Teacher’s Mind: “What Should I Say About Charlottesville?”
By Deborah Menkart What was troubling enough as 20th century history is happening in the present time. It is essential that we have discussions about Charlottesville in the classroom. “What should […]
Para los educadores después de Charlottesville: Enseñando en la era de Trump
Después del horrible despliegue de violencia y odio en Charlottesville el pasado fin de semana (11-13 de Agosto), que fue alimentado por la supremacía blanca, muchos maestros se han acercado […]
Seven Ways that Teachers Can Respond to the Evil of Charlottesville — Starting Now
An educator confronts the failures of an education system that breeds white supremacy, and offers concrete tips for teachers who seek to challenge it. By Xian Franzinger Barrett This article […]
What Does It Mean When Your Teacher Changes Your Name?
“Ayyy, I already told you, your name is too long! We don’t go by two names here and we don’t go by two last names. Pick a name. Maria or […]
Fighting for Okinawa — My Home, Not a Military Base
By Moé Yonamine My family moved to the United States from Okinawa when I was 7. But Okinawa is still home — and I’m hurt and angered at how […]
The Climate Crisis Is Real and Young People Deserve to Know
Dear supporter of climate justice, Like many of those in our global community, I was disgusted and outraged after listening to Donald Trump’s speech at the White House announcing the United […]
Rethinking Schools vs. Heartland Institute
Dear Rethinking Schools friends, Did you see that the Koch brothers-supported Heartland Institute is sending a climate denial textbook to every science teacher in the country? As the Moms Clean […]
Climate Deniers Flooding Schools with Alternative Facts — Educators Are Fighting Back
By Bob Peterson While hundreds of thousands of concerned global citizens march for science and climate justice, a massive corporate-financed disinformation campaign on climate change is flooding our nation’s schools. The […]
Arkansas’ Howard Zinn Witch-Hunt Fizzles
Why the great historian would have loved what transpired over the past few weeks By Bill Bigelow Last week nearly 700 Arkansas teachers and school librarians received copies of books […]