The Uprising and Our Schools: Educators Speak Out
We asked a group of teachers and students to write about their experiences of the Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd and during the uprisings for […]
Reflections
Teaching Voting Rights in the Time of Coronavirus
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 15th Amendment, which promised “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or […]
The Last Time
I went swimming for the last time last summer in late August. I had a tattoo planned for the next weekend, which would mean a few weeks of no swimming — […]
Coronavirus and Our Schools
We asked a group of teachers and students to write about their experience of school during the pandemic. We left it open-ended, but suggested they write about a particular experience that stood […]
The Pandemic Is a Portal
Who can use the term “gone viral” now without shuddering a little? Who can look at anything anymore — a door handle, a cardboard carton, a bag of vegetables — […]
“I Don’t Like China or Chinese People Because They Started This Quarantine”
On April 20, 2020, blogger LittleGrayThread made a Facebook post of a note her daughter had written. She reported that in a Zoom class meeting, one of her daughter’s 2nd-grade […]
The Freedom to Harm vs. the Freedom from Harm
The smartest piece I have read during the COVID-19 era is Ibram X. Kendi’s May 4 Atlantic article “We’re Still Living and Dying in the Slaveholders’ Republic.” When armed demonstrators […]
Teaching More Civics Will Not Save Us from Trump
A high school social studies teacher argues for rethinking how we teach civics so that students learn that organizing, activism, and civil disobedience are as important as the Constitution.
Action News – Wisconsin Uprising
Wisconsin Uprising — Justice Is in the Air
Do or Die Land
photo: AP PHOTO/AMES TRIBUNE, NIRMALENDU MAJUMDAR A British parent confronts the realities of U.S. schooling By Andrew Gumbel Sooner or later, anyone who lives abroad reaches a defining moment when […]
We Don’t Need Another Soldier
A former student returns from the Marines
An Unnatural Disaster
During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, grassroots activists in New York City galvanized to try to meet the needs of those affected as well as to respond politically to issues […]
A Message from a Black Mom to Her Son
An African American mother and teacher educator uses examples from her own childhood to describe how she hopes her child will be treated by teachers, and what she fears.
About Those Tests I Gave You …
A middle school language arts teacher apologizes to her students for the states narrow and deceptive standardized test.
Testing Our Limits
First graders, three at a time, use classroom computers to take standardized tests. Their teacher explains the impact on the students and herself.
Haniyah’s Story
Haniyah wrote this article as a 17-year-old participant in Project WHAT! a program of Community Works West, based in Berkeley, Calif. The young people in Project WHAT! all have family […]
Teaching Haniyah
Several years ago, I taught a unit on power in my 9th-grade social studies classes at Berkeley High School in California’s Bay Area. It’s a diverse school—rich folks from the […]
Candles in April
This story has lived in me for more than 25 years. I was in the 7th grade. This is a time when how others see you is crucial to your […]
Keepers of the Second Throat
When Chicago stole my mother’s tongue, it also stole all her yesterdays. A poet’s lyric plea for teachers to nurture their students voices and stories.
Fuzzy Math
A middle school writing teacher reflects on a day spent scoring districtwide math tests.
Support That Can’t Support
Are peer mentoring programs bowing to the pressure to teach to the test?
Childhood Is Dying
Iraq’s children have been more gravely affected by the U.S. occupation than any other segment of the population.”
Empire or Humanity?
The American Empire has always been a bipartisan project—Democrats and Republicans have taken turns extending it
Everything Flowers
I noted the biased curriculum… the absence of lessons on the Chicano movement or other aspects of my history and culture
Pump Up the Blowouts
This year is the 40th anniversary of the Chicana/o School Blowouts