Saturday will mark a historic moment in the fight to grant LGBTQ people equal access to public life and justice. The first National Trans Visibility March will bring together members of the transgender, gender-nonconforming and non-binary communities with allies in Washington, D.C., and in marches across the nation. We echo the marchers’ call with this question: What can you do to make sure students feel visible and heard in your school? We hope these resources can offer some answers.
Martin Luther King Jr. is the most iconic figure of the Civil Rights Movement, but the narrative around his life and work is often oversimplified in classrooms and public discourse. We invite you to expand the narrative and teach a more complex and comprehensive view of Dr. King and a more honest history of the United States. Check out these Learning for Justice resources to better understand King’s strategies and goals, the context of the movement for equality and civil rights, and the work that remains to be done.
In racist tweets this weekend, the president again used dehumanizing language to describe a place that’s home to hundreds of thousands of people of color. When you talk with students about place, how do you uplift a diverse range of experiences, call out coded language and engage questions of justice? This edition of The Moment offers a few places to start, with recommendations for talking about Baltimore and stories of student and educator action that counter racist narratives about New Orleans and Detroit.
Today we celebrate the lives and work of Rep. John Lewis and the Rev. C.T. Vivian. We’re eternally grateful for their lifelong, courageous activism. As we remember these leaders’ relentless pursuit of equality, we hope educators will join us in continuing to work for justice and liberation for all. And we hope young people will join us in holding Representative Lewis, the Rev. Vivian and other change makers as models for who we can be when we decide to make “good trouble.”
In the latest LFJ article, school counseling professor Riley Drake, Ph.D., outlines a model of social and emotional learning and explains “‘feeling safe’ is contextual,” especially for Black and Brown children whose needs are often overlooked in our nation’s classrooms. Relying on community partnerships, promoting mutual aid to foster solidarity and advancing restorative justice are strategies educators and other adults can employ to increase children’s feelings of safety and well-being. These LFJ resources offer more detail.