Rethinking Schools vs. Heartland Institute

Dear Rethinking Schools friends, Did you see that the Koch brothers-supported Heartland Institute is sending a climate denial textbook to every science teacher in the country? As the Moms Clean […]

Arkansas’ Howard Zinn Witch-Hunt Fizzles

Why the great historian would have loved what transpired over the past few weeks By Bill Bigelow Last week nearly 700 Arkansas teachers and school librarians received copies of books […]

Trump and Our Students

Dear Rethinking Schools friends, And so it begins. At a high school in rural Oregon, south of Portland, 30 to 40 white students celebrated Trump this week in front of […]

Racisim, Xenophobia, and the Election

By the Editors of Rethinking Schools As teachers and students return to classrooms this fall, together we have to try to make sense of a tumultuous presidential campaign and a summer […]

Making Climate Change Part of the School Curriculum

By Katy Farber Originally published at momscleanairforce.org. It can be a confusing time to be a kid. People on the TV, internet, and radio say conflicting things — about climate change — with seriousness […]

The Roots of Racist Violence in Milwaukee

Editor’s note: Milwaukee is the latest city to erupt as a result of the police shooting of a Black man. As in Ferguson and Baltimore, the outrage in Milwaukee last […]

Readying Students for the Conflagration

By Brian Gibbs and Holly Gibbs When the LA Times reported that there was negative backlash from the Portland School Board’s decision to make certain that climate change was accurately […]

A Dialogue with the Curriculum of Our Nation: A Critical Reading of Moments

Courtney Cook sent this poetic response to the murder of Philando Castile to Rethinking Schools. We wanted to share it with our readers as a source of healing and a call to action. Cook is a former high school English teacher who has been engaged in justice work and critical education in high schools, prisons, and youth-run organizations. She currently teaches Sociocultural Issues in Education at University of Texas at Austin.

Why I’m voting for MORE

By Adam Sanchez This article was written by Rethinking Schools editor and New York City public school teacher Adam Sanchez. Rethinking Schools does not make endorsements in elections — whether for political […]

A People’s Curriculum for the Earth

By Tim Swinehart “We can’t hunt [because] the ice is receding. People are going hungry,” says one voice. “Us, too! It’s food. We can’t grow it in the desert,” says […]

Opting Out of the Education Reform Industry

High-stakes tests provide the data that is the very fuel of the corporate education reform machine. By opting out of these tests, students, parents, and teachers have the power to take away the data. With the data seized and the machine deprived of its fuel, the corporate reformers cannot produce public education for private gain. This is why opting out is so threatening to the reform industry—and it should be.