Following The Flame
Teacher and students discover that even critically acclaimed literature can disenfranchise as well as empower.
Social Justice
Living Algebra, Living Wage
Eighth graders finally get what they ask for: an algebra lesson for the real world.”
Do Ask, Do Tell
Two Chicago educators question the premier teacher education accrediting agency’s removal of social justice and sexual orientation language from its standards.
Shaking Foundations
Virginia professors take on the state’s attempt to eliminate Social Foundations of Education” from required course work.”
Money, Schools, and Justice
School funding systems mirror—and reproduce—the inequality we see all around us.
Lego Fascists’ (that’s us) vs. Fox News
What’s so wrong about questioning modern American values such as consumerism and militarism?
Still Rethinking Our Classrooms
Rethinking Schools rolls out an updated and expanded version of our bestselling guide to teaching for social justice.
Students Galvanize for Immigrant Rights
Viviana, who had only lived in the United States for two years, walked nervously to the speaker’s podium at a press conference on the steps of her high school. Although […]
Rethinking Agatha Christie
The strange and offensive history of Ten Little Indians” (Hint: They weren’t always called “Indians.”)
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Reconstructing Race
“Is Mr. Smith a White Guy?” I then changed the topic, volunteering to be a contemporary example. “OK, so the next question is: Is Mr. Smith a white man? Yes […]
The Recruitment Minefield
Emiliano Santiago. Not many of our students know his name. But they should. Santiago joined the Oregon Army National Guard on June 28, 1996, shortly after his high school graduation […]
Integrals and Equity
An AP calculus class at a prestigious boarding school doesn’t seem a likely venue for student reflection on privilege and wealth. But when I taught a group of academically inclined […]
Not in Our Name
Reclaiming the democratic vision of small school reform.
When Small Is Beautiful
The principal of Brooklyn’s El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice shows how art can connect students with their communities.
Rhetoric or Reality?
Do small schools change teaching practice?
Exploring Our Urban Wilderness
My students’ home terrain consists — at least on the surface — of houses, streets, schools, and stores. Like many urban kids, the bit of unpaved, unfenced nature my second […]
See You When We Get There
Profiling an African American teacher on Chicago’s south side.
Beyond Pink and Blue
A unit on gender stereotypes inspires students to take action.
“The Laptops Are Coming! The Laptops Are Coming!”
Things to think about before the laptops arrive in your classroom.
Rethinking Our Classrooms Among Race and Education Books Censored at Illinois Prison
In late January, authorities at the Danville Correctional Center in east-central Illinois removed more than 200 titles from the prison’s library. One of the books that was confiscated was the Rethinking Schools book Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice, first published in 1994 and edited by Bill Bigelow, Linda Christensen, Stan Karp, Barbara Miner, and Bob Peterson.
Macaroni Social Justice
A 3rd-grade teacher uses thousands of pieces of macaroni to facilitate a lesson about fractions and to spur classroom conversations about wealth inequality.
Trayvon Martin and My Students
President Obama’s speech about the Zimmerman acquittal in Trayvon Martin’s murder and Cornel West’s response are rich sources for students learning how to analyze, evaluate, and critique.
Stealing Home
The historic destruction of the Chávez Ravine neighborhood in Los Angeles – to build Dodger Stadium – paves the way for students to understand changes in their own neighborhood. Second in a two-part series.
Connecting the Dots
The 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom this past summer produced some brilliant commentary about the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. One of the […]
Looking for Justice at Turkey Creek
High school students embed themselves in a community’s history and people when they study the impact of “development” on historically African American Turkey Creek in Gulfport, Mississippi.