Recommitting to the Joyful Classroom
Joy is not an escape from the hard realities of our world, but a dive into them.
Editorial
Reproductive Justice and Our Classrooms
There is no end-point in the fight for justice and equality, no moment when the argument is finally settled. As Angela Davis has said, “Freedom is a constant struggle.” Although that proposition seems exhausting, it is also hopeful. If our wins are never wholly secure, then neither must our losses be permanent. The struggle for reproductive justice continues, and our curriculum must nurture our students’ capacity to envision and participate in its next stages.
Editorial: New Teachers’ Union Movement in the Making
The seven-day Chicago teacher strike last September was historic. It showed the importance of teachers using their collective power to demand that all children get the education they deserve. It […]
Taking the Long View: The Organizing Tradition
As we go to press, 30,000 Chicago teachers and education support personnel—joined by parents, students, and community members—are out on strike for the first time in 25 years. The first […]
Blowin’ in the Wind
We’ll need everything we’ve learned and built in the past 25 years to keep fighting for social justice education.
Saving Our Schools from Superheroes
This isn’t just about a bad film. The outpouring of critique and activism that greeted last fall’s release of Waiting for “Superman” was a hopeful sign of resistance. Educators, parents, and activists […]
What’s Up with All the Teacher Bashing?
It’s hard not to take it personally: A few months ago, the cover of Newsweek consisted of 11 sentences in chalk on a blackboard. They all said the same thing: “We must […]
Katrina’s Lessons
It wasn’t just the hurricane that devastated the Gulf; it was also a slower, more preventable surge of racism and poverty.
The Tsunami and Other Disasters
The Dec. 26 tsunami swept away the lives of more than 200,000 people and ravaged the livelihoods of millions more. Throughout the world teachers and students discussed the tsunami and […]
The Fordham Foundation
‘The anniversary of Sept. 11 found the nation and our schools still wrestling uneasy…’
Educate for Global Justice
‘The last year has not been an easy time for educators…’
Rethinking the Basal Reader
The first editorial by Rethinking Schools speaks across the years to provide perspective on today’s push for standardization.
Clear-Cutting Our Schools
No single policy reflects the bankruptcy of current education reform politics more than the mass closings of public schools. From Chicago to Washington, D.C., to New Orleans, Detroit, and Philadelphia, […]
The 2020 Election and the World Our Students Deserve
The central tasks of the 2020 campaign are to defeat Trump and to strengthen the impact of grassroots social movements on the U.S. political system. If we pursue these goals with energy, hope, and passion, we will win a chance to build the world our students deserve.
The Green New Deal and Our Schools
So often, the climate crisis is presented in frightening, threatening terms: rising seas, superstorms, raging wildfires, unlivable temperatures, species extinction, disappearing glaciers, dying coral, climate refugees. These are real. But the paradox is that this dystopian possibility is forcing us to imagine an entirely different kind of society. Schools have a central role to play in devising new alternatives and equipping young people to bring those alternatives to life. This is the work we’ve been assigned.
Why We Should Teach Reconstruction
Unfortunately, the transformative history of Reconstruction has been buried. First by a racist tale masquerading as history and now under a top-down narrative focused on white elites. It’s long overdue we unearth the groundswell of activity that brought down the slavers of the South and set a new standard for freedom we are still struggling to achieve today.
Celebrating Transgender Students in Our Classrooms and in Our Schools
What can teachers, schools, and districts do to meet the needs of trans students? To make them visible? To keep them alive? To celebrate them?
Enseñando en la era de Trump
Repensando las escuelas nació en la era de Reagan. Celebramos nuestro décimo tercer aniversario en la era de Trump. Sabemos algo acerca de mantenernos esperanzados durante los tiempos difíciles. Hace […]
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 […]
The Children of Gaza
Like millions around the world, Rethinking Schools editors have been horrified and angered by Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people of Gaza. Of the more than 2,100 Palestinians killed, the […]
Restorative Justice
Misbehave, get punished. That pretty much sums up the approach to “disciplining” students that educators through the decades have taken in schools and classrooms. The most extreme form of this […]
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 […]
Aumentando la resistencia en contra de los exámenes estandarizados
El Secretario de Educación de Estados Unidos Arne Duncan desencadenó una torrente de críticas el noviembre pasado cuando le dijo a un grupo de superintendentes escolares que la oposición a […]
Vouchers, Accountability, and Money
Voucher backers are ignoring key lessons from Milwaukee’s voucher experience, including higher tax burdens and less accountability for academic achievement.
The Trouble with the Common Core
It isn’t easy to find common ground on the Common Core. Already hailed as the “next big thing” in education reform, the Common Core State Standards are being rushed into […]