Trans Teacher, Detrans Student
A trans teacher draws out lessons for all educators from painful conversations with a student who has detransitioned.
Reflections
Now Is the Time to Defend Our Students
Two Los Angeles educators detail how community patrols have become an essential part of their work after Trump’s immigration crackdown.
It’s a Beautiful Day in Ms. Rachel’s Neighborhood
Rethinking Schools editor Larry Miller discovers Ms. Rachel and her courageous stance on Gaza through engagement with his granddaughter.
Families Talk About Palestine
A former classroom teacher describes a series of workshops she helped put together for Jewish families interested in learning about Palestine.
From Muffins to Movements:
Sugarman and Taylor detail the challenges and successes of teachers using Teaching for Black Lives study groups to refuse isolation and defy the crackdown on anti-racist education.
Teaching the Culprits of Climate Chaos
Using his updated climate crisis trial, Bigelow shows how students explore the forces behind climate chaos.
Table Talk: An IEP Meeting — from the Other Side
A Black elementary teacher recounts her experience as a caregiver in an IEP meeting.
Teaching Palestine
Palestine has long been one of the great silences in the official curriculum. Teaching Palestine: Lessons, Stories, Voices provides educators with powerful tools to uncover the history and current context […]
My Struggle with Identity in a White Education System
Jackson reflects on the racist history he learned in school as a child and powerfully connects those experiences to his own incarceration.
If I Could Rewind That Morning
A former 5th-grade paraprofessional reflects on how racism shaped a student-teacher interaction in a classroom that also fostered trust, joy, and exploration.
Letter to My Asian American Students
A high school social studies teacher critiques Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in a moving letter to his students.
Let’s Stop Using Metaphors that Celebrate Extraction, Colonialism, and Violence
Too often our metaphors embed messages that are hostile to the Earth and to social justice. Metaphors can reflect — and legitimate — a violent, extractive, colonial worldview.
In the Wake of Uvalde, a Teacher’s Plea for Police-Free Schools
Braginsky argues that her students — and young people everywhere — are safer in school without police.
Fatphobia Showed Up in My Classroom
It is the noisiest time of the day at school. It’s lunchtime and I’m sitting with two of my 3rd graders in the basement cafeteria of our public school building […]
It’s a Big Fat Deal
A special education teacher tackles fatphobia in our schools head-on, pointing out how we fall far short in our efforts to rid it from the classroom and how fundamentally detrimental fatphobia is to teaching and learning.
Eugene Debs and the Idea of Socialism
This year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the scholar-activist Howard Zinn (1922–2010), author of A People’s History of the United States. In each Rethinking Schools issue this year, we have published a “Zinn at 100” essay. This is not nostalgia. We commemorate Howard Zinn because his writing continues to provide needed context for today’s events.
Don’t Despair About the Supreme Court
The courts have never been on the side of justice, only moving a few degrees one way or the other, unless pushed by the people. Those words engraved in the marble of the Supreme Court, “Equal Justice Before the Law,” have always been a sham.
Oakland Youth to Teachers’ Retirement System: “Divest Now!”
It was a letter to the CalSTRS board, demanding that they dump the pension fund’s investments in oil and gas companies. It was signed “From the many young climate justice activists who will continue to be at every one of your meetings until you divest.”
Abbott Elementary: A Sitcom with a Conscience
The show also reminds us that regardless of parental, administrative, and legislative warnings against bringing politics into classrooms, teaching remains a political act.
Can a 4-Year-Old Know Her Gender Identity? Yes.
“Do you feel like a boy?” “No, mom. I’m a girl.” My daughter’s statement could not have been more direct, honest, and clear. In that moment I glimpsed how deeply gender-expansive people feel who they are, no matter what society has labeled them as at birth.
Educators Speak Out: Spring 2022
To say this year has been tough on schools and educators would be a wild understatement. We asked a group of educators if there was one moment, event, or issue that really stuck out for them — something that encapsulated their experiences during these tough times. We also asked if there was anything that gave them hope, strength, or helped them through this year. Here’s how they responded . . .
ZINN AT 100: Empire or Humanity?
Have we reached a point in history where we are ready to embrace a new way of living in the world, expanding not our military power, but our humanity?
Teaching about Ukraine
Dear Rethinking Schools friends, Like you, we are angry and fearful about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is already causing immense suffering — which will only increase. These are […]
“Take These Nametags Off!”
A doctoral student tells the story of her experience with a dangerous role play — poorly conceptualized and taught — when she was an undergrad.
Zinn at 100: The Scourge of Nationalism
In honor of Zinn, we are featuring a “Zinn at 100” essay in each issue of Rethinking Schools this year. This is not nostalgia. We commemorate and celebrate Zinn for his ongoing relevance in helping us think about education and activism.