To the Past, with Love

The letters are sweet and encouraging — had they been delivered, they could have changed their recipients’ lives.

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.

The Voice of a Seed

I hope that centering Indigenous voices in the classroom and school garden will teach my students the value of Indigenous ways of knowing. As they develop an awareness of the social injustice and resilience that characterizes the stories of Indigenous peoples and their food cultures, I want them to be dissatisfied with the absence of Native narratives and seek out the voices of the tribes themselves.

Coming Home to Ourselves

In her new book, The Spirit of Our Work: Black Women Teachers (Re)member, Cynthia Dillard (now dean of the College of Education at Seattle University) provides language for what occurs when Black women teachers discover their spiritual wisdom and identities that are part of a long historical continuum of Black women’s resistance, creativity, and ultimately, their healing.

As She Rises

I recently stumbled across a podcast that made a wonderful addition to my students’ study of the climate crisis — As She Rises.

Choreographing for Justice

An elementary teacher helps her students express themselves about social justice issues like the murder of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter through movement and dance, and helps them see how dance can celebrate diversity.

Poetic Pauses During the Pandemic

Christensen describes how poetry can be used in this moment to be something concrete — that can be felt, touched, or smelled — but also something to stir our students’ imaginations, allowing them to dream.

“I Saw Eyes Begin to Widen”

Role plays can offer students engaging ways to learn, but require careful contextualization and follow-up. This article offers some cautions and guidance about using them. 

Who Killed Reconstruction?

Sanchez describes a role play about the demise of Reconstruction that helps students get beyond the question “Was Reconstruction a success or failure?”

“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.

bell hooks: Learning as Revolution

hooks’ influence on social justice education was so immense and so longstanding that we may not even recognize all the ways she touched our vision of the world — and our classrooms.

Sin Fronteras

Alexander and their middle school students use the powerful poem “To live in the borderlands means you,” by Gloria Anzaldúa, to explore the borderlands of their own lives. 

Remembering Bob Moses

Rethinking Schools editors and staff mourn the loss of Bob Moses (1935–2021), the extraordinary Civil Rights Movement activist and educator. Moses was a central organizer in Mississippi for the Student […]

Through the Lens of Those We Love

Kaler-Jones invites young Black women to gather their loved ones’ oral histories; together they find threads of resistance, solidarity, and racial justice.

The Power of Teaching Poetry

Christensen and Watson discuss powerful strategies for teaching writing — and deeply grounding curriculum in students’ lives through poetry.