The Coronavirus and Our Work
(Ricardo Levins Morales) First, we hope that you are safe and healthy. This is a stressful and frightening time for everyone, and the uncertainty of where the coronavirus pandemic is […]
Updates
Rep. Barbara Lee Calls for Climate Education in All Schools
“We need to teach every young person the human impacts of climate change and how to combat the climate crisis before it is too late.” By Bill Bigelow Congresswoman Barbara Lee […]
“Just Look Outside” — Teaching Climate Change in Alaska
By Soren Wuerth This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. The first week of […]
Teach the Fossil Fuel Industry — Our Students’ Enemy
By Bill Bigelow This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. A while back, I […]
Teachers Strike for Their Lives and Their Students
By Bob Peterson Tens of thousands of teachers went out on strike last Thursday. Not in West Virginia or Los Angeles — but in Colombia’s five largest cities. And they […]
On September 20th, if Our Students Are Not in the Streets, Let’s Bring the Streets to Our Students
By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca At the end of August a group of student activists presented a letter to the Portland, Oregon, School Board regarding their plans to walk out of school […]
New York Post Attacks Rethinking Schools
Dear Rethinking Schools friends, Have you seen the recent attacks on Rethinking Schools? Over the past couple of weeks, the New York Post published two pieces attacking social justice teaching […]
The Green New Deal and Our Schools
By the editors of Rethinking Schools As Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope wrote recently in The Nation, “There is a runaway train racing toward us, and its name is climate change. […]
Take Sides for the Earth and Teach Climate Justice
TEACHING CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS As we celebrate Earth Day, we invite you to join us in taking sides for the Earth by teaching climate justice and becoming […]
Hip-Hop Artist Macklemore Donates to Match School District Purchases of the Book Teaching For Black Lives
Macklemore Donation Match We’ve got some great news about Teaching for Black Lives! Hip-hop artist Macklemore is donating up to $10,000 to match dollar-for-dollar school district purchases of Teaching for Black Lives. […]
Black Lives Matter At School National Week of Action Feb. 4 – 8, 2019
We call on educators to make commitments to teach social justice, anti-racist curriculum and foster student conversations about the Black Lives Matter movement. We also call on educators to grow […]
#StandWithOkinawa: We Need The World With Us
By Moé Yonamine “Don’t cry here,” an 86-year-old Okinawan grandmother I had never met before told me. She stood next to me and took my hand. I had been visiting […]
Students “Warrior Up” for Climate Justice
[This is the third installment of our new environmental justice column — Earth, Justice, and Our Classrooms — and celebrates the annual two-day “Climate Justice Fair” at Madison High School […]
The Midterms, Trumpism, and the Increased Racialization of American Childhood
By Julio Angel Alicea When Donald Trump was making waves for his bigoted statements about Mexicans, Muslims, and women during the Republican primaries, my high school students, most of them […]
LeBron’s School Should Be Every School — Public, Fully Funded, and with Arms Around the Community
By Ari Bloomekatz There are few public schools receiving as much attention these days as LeBron James’ I Promise School in Akron, Ohio — and it’s because it’s just that: […]
“This Is Our Time, This is Our Moment”: Los Angeles Teachers Are Ready to Strike
An interview with Arlene Inouye, chair of UTLA’s bargaining committee By Ari Bloomekatz Mediation between the Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles failed in mid-October, and […]
Despite National Outrage, Scholastic Defends Children’s Books Celebrating Trump
By Deborah Menkart His buildings reached into the sky. His businesses just grew and grew. Then Trump became our president — people wanted something new. Believe it or not, this […]
Nurturing Student Activists in the Time of Trump
By the editors of Rethinking Schools The 2018–19 school year has begun at a time of terrifying climate disruption, seemingly endless war, spectacular inequality, xenophobic and fascist revival, police brutality […]
ED ALERT: Fighting Manufactured Chaos in Puerto Rico’s Public Schools
By Mercedes Martínez and Jia Lee August 13 marked the first day of school for more than 319,000 students and 22,000 teachers in Puerto Rico. But instead of feeling prepared […]
EDITORIAL: The Important Role Teachers Play in Resisting Trump’s War on Immigrant Families
“Aren’t Grown-Ups Supposed to Keep Kids Safe?” By the editors of Rethinking Schools Kina, the 6-year-old daughter of one of our editors, walked into her living room one day over […]
Bill Ayers on Arne Duncan’s How Schools Work
By Bill Ayers If you pick up Arne Duncan’s How Schools Work hoping to learn something about, well, unsurprisingly I suppose, about “how schools work,” you’ll be sorely disappointed. There’s […]
Wow! Exciting News About Teaching for Black Lives
Teaching for Black Lives has been earning rave reviews since it was released just a few months ago, and today we’re honored to announce that Grammy award-winning artist Macklemore and […]
A Hurricane in the Classroom: Inside the Schools Ensnared in Puerto Rico’s Privatization Fever — and How Its Teachers Are Fighting Back
[SPECIAL REPORT: Education “reformers” are using the disaster in Puerto Rico to close hundreds of public schools and convert much of the school system to charters. But teachers, parents, and […]
Guns Out of Our Schools, Propaganda Out of Our Classrooms
By the editors of Rethinking Schools Just a week after 14 students and three staff members were murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February, President […]
Keeping Kids Safe — at the Border and in Our Classrooms
By the editors of Rethinking Schools Kina, the 6-year-old daughter of one of our editors, walked into the living room when the TV was on last week and saw a […]