The Military Invasion of My High School
A high school teacher describes the problematic impact of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at her school.
English
When Girls Are Activists
Child and teen activists fighting for social justice often get left out of official histories and curriculum. In their picture book biography, Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike […]
A Revitalized Teacher Union Movement
The president of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association describes paths and pitfalls in moving beyond bread and butter issues to social justice unionism.
Children With Absent Parents
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Educators and the Climate Crisis
Jenna Pope On Sept. 21, 2014, 400,000 people poured into the streets of New York City for the People’s Climate March. As Democracy Now! reported: “With a turnout far exceeding […]
Ed Alert: The GED Goes Private
Selling Off Second Chances Across Oakland, California, residents have been bombarded with billboards featuring celebrities urging them to get their high school equivalency credential by passing the GED. The billboards […]
Editorial: Queering Schools
How can we create classrooms and schools where discrimination and assumptions about gender and/or sexuality don’t keep us from nurturing every child, parent, and staff member?
Environmental Crime on Trial
The 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill coincided with my first year of teaching modern world history at a high school in Portland, Oregon.
Letters to the Editor 28.3
Is It the Text or the Teaching? Michelle Kenney (“Of Mice and Marginalization,” fall 2013) makes compelling points about the pressures of choosing texts for her classroom. When her […]
Mything Mandela
Kadir Nelson’s acclaimed picture book Mandela portrays Nelson Mandela as an isolated hero, ignoring the movement of which he was an integral part.
Organizing Resistance to Teach for America
Former TFA corps members join with parents, students, and veteran teachers to organize a people’s assembly and nationalize efforts against TFA.
Our picks for books, videos, websites, and other social justice resources 28.3
Check out these valuable resources, reviewed by Rethinking Schools editors and Teaching for Change colleagues.
Teach For America: A Voice of Dissent
A former TFA corps member describes her experiences inside TFA, beginning with the cultlike atmosphere of the training.
Short Stuff 28.3
Testing Boycott in Chicago Teachers at two Chicago schools—Maria Saucedo Elementary Scholastic Academy and Thomas Drummond Elementary (Drummond Montessori)—voted to refuse to distribute the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) to […]
The Gathering Resistance to Standardized Tests
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan touched off a torrent of criticism last November when he told a group of state school superintendents that opposition to the Common Core State […]
Victory for Portland Teachers
After coming to the brink of what would have been the first strike in their union’s history, Portland, Oregon, teachers won a historic contract that reduces workload significantly. The district […]
When a Picture Book Is Subversive
As a K-8 teacher librarian, I love to read picture books that generate thoughtful questions and debate among the diverse students I work with. Toni Morrison’s children’s book The Big […]
’12 Years a Slave’: Breaking Silences About Slavery
A teacher educator puts the award-winning 12 Years a Slave in the context of other films used to teach about slavery.
“May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor”
The Hunger Games becomes the basis for a role play that deepens students’ understanding of social class and its impact on alliances and resistance.
Carbon Matters
A 6th-grade teacher uses the carbon cycle to help students understand climate change. Along the way, she deals with a parent who wants her to give equal time to “climate change is a myth.”
David McLimans
Since 2003, David McLimans (1948-2014) contributed significant illustration art to these pages, most recently for the articles about Teach For America in Rethinking Schools’ spring 2014 issue (pp. 39 and […]
Disarming the Nuclear Family
Most children’s books—even those with animals as the protagonists—portray families with two heterosexual parents. A 2nd-grade teacher has her students create a book that represents their own more diverse families.
El desarme de la familia nuclear
La mayoría de libros para niños -hasta los que usan animales como protagonistas- retratan a las familias con dos padres heterosexuales. Una maestra de 2do grado pide que sus estudiantes creen un libro que represente la diversidad de sus propias familias.
Independence or Catastrophe?
A social studies teacher uses conflicting narratives to engage students in studying the history of Palestine/Israel, focusing on the events of 1948.
Report Looks at Public And Private Schools
A recent report says when policy makers assume private schools are better than public schools, they ignore lessons that could make all schools better.