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446 ARTICLES

January 26, 2012

Students Use Classroom to Inspire Others

Some of my favorite teaching moments are when I can shut up and let students teach each other. This magic happened recently when a group of high school students from one of Chicago’s most under-resourced neighborhoods came to our university campus—just a few miles—but an entire world away.

Topic

Class Rights & Activism

January 26, 2012

Students Rally for Change, Peace

All over the nation people strive to answer Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous invocation: “What are you doing for others?” Many engage in projects to make their community a better place to live. My students at Life Academy in California have answered the call to service in several ways. First, they showed up on campus during a school holiday to beautify the school grounds, paint a mural, clean out an old storage room, build benches and tend to a garden. Second, they launched a 74-day fast “Season of Peace Building.” Students signed up to fast on certain days, in a kind of relay, to highlight the time from MLK day to Cesar Chavez day.

Topic

Rights & Activism

December 7, 2011

Training for Arguments in the Classroom

Parents might think the last thing their child needs is more experience arguing. Teachers might agree. But I’d like to advocate for practicing arguing. Our democracy depends on it. It’s important we teach our children how to deal appropriately with different points of view.

Topic

Rights & Activism

November 18, 2011

Finding the Civil Rights Movement in Oregon

As a middle school student, I was perplexed by a quote by George Santayana that my history teacher posted on the wall. It read, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” As a budding history teacher, it continued to puzzle me.

Topic

Rights & Activism

November 18, 2011

Durham Schools Agree to End Discriminatory Policies

We were encouraged to see that the school system in Durham, N.C., last week agreed to end discriminatory practices that prevent Latino students from receiving an adequate public education.

Topic

Race & Ethnicity Immigration Rights & Activism

November 16, 2011

Students Protest Alabama’s Immigration Law

For more than 20 years, Teaching Tolerance, based in Montgomery, Ala., has worked to help educators embrace the diverse classroom. We strive toward bias-free schools. We advocate acceptance, respect, equality and safety for all students.

Topic

Immigration Rights & Activism

November 8, 2011

Student Advocates Help Realize a DREAM

Oct. 8, was a day of victory for a group of 22 Life Academy students in Oakland, Calif. They are part of a 2-year-old advocacy club called “The Real DREAM Act Movement.” Students met regularly to support in campaigning for the passage of the federal DREAM Act. After several weeks of active letter writing and campaigning, their dream had finally come true: California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law AB 131, a companion bill to AB 130, together known as the “California DREAM Act.”

Topic

Immigration Rights & Activism

November 8, 2011

Turning Headlines into Impromptu Lessons

The explosion of news coverage over the controversial execution of Troy Davis in Georgia recently is a reminder that our students learn powerful lessons outside our classrooms. These events offer opportunities for lessons of context inside our classrooms.

Topic

Race & Ethnicity Rights & Activism

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