Every time a new study is released showing black students are suspended at far higher rates than any of their peers, the public seems shocked. Words like “race” and “school to prison pipeline” and “discrimination” find their way into headlines—and then the issue fades away yet again.
During Cracking the Code, students examine texts for bias related to race, gender, class, religion, age and sexual orientation, among other identity categories.
In this lesson, students will read an excerpt of an interview given by Mary McLeod Bethune and will learn that she founded the Daytona National and Industrial School for Negro Girls (now Bethune-Cookman College) in 1904. Through close reading, they will explore and discuss connections between events from Bethune’s life experiences and their own lives, and connections between past and current events.
Dr. June Cara Christian brings more than15 years of education experience to her role as a teaching and learning specialist for Teaching Tolerance. She has taught secondary, undergraduate and graduate students, and is an expert in critical pedagogies. Christian holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in English literature (from Washington University and Tennessee State, respectively), an M.Ed. with an emphasis in American culture from Washington University, and a Ph.D. in education leadership and policy from University of Missouri—St. Louis. Christian has trained educators across the United States and in
During this lesson, students will reflect on the ways they have experienced or participated in bias based on physical size and appearance—and will discuss how society’s expectations about body image and appearance affect people. Students build on their media literacy skills as they examine media images for messages that consciously and unconsciously affect attitudes and behaviors toward others. Finally, the class will explore ways to get beyond appearance as a dominant force in their social lives.Note: This lesson has been adapted with permission from the original created by GLSEN for its program, No Name-Calling Week.
The topics and strategies in this section provide tools to help educators build students’ understanding of justice and develop skills to take action and participate in a diverse democracy.
Survivor testimony provides a crucial way to learn about the Holocaust, understand the context, history and diversity of Jewish people, and address antisemitism in the world today.
In this lesson, students will address misconceptions they likely have about Christopher Columbus and the colonization of what is now the United States.