During a season of protests and pandemic, our Fall 2020 magazine is here. Dive in to discover how students and educators are fighting for our rights, and how they’ve always done so. Here, we’ve highlighted an illuminating interview with This Book Is Anti-Racist author Tiffany Jewell, about engaging children and young people in anti-racism, and a Story Corner for young readers, about speaking up against Coronavirus racism. We hope you find value in these stories—and in every story in our new issue.
If young people are to make the vision of a just and peaceful world a reality, we must give them the tools to build a strong multiracial democracy—and those tools include an accurate, comprehensive and inclusive history of the United States. We are thrilled to introduce Teaching the Civil Rights Movement, our newest curriculum, which begins in 1877 with Reconstruction and continues the narrative of the movement for equality and civil rights to the present. At this critical moment in which states and districts are attempting to censor discussions of race and racism in U.S.
Young people deserve to learn honest history—history that is accurate, comprehensive and inclusive of perspectives beyond traditional, dominant narratives. Our newest resource guide, Advocating for Teaching Honest History: What Educators Can Do, offers concrete tools for educators seeking to ensure the right of future generations to an accurate accounting of our nation’s history.
Education censorship and discriminatory book bans—like the policies pushed by politicians in Florida—are undemocratic and threaten children’s well-being and right to learn. As students head back to school, let us all commit to supporting honest history and inclusive curricula. These LFJ resources support educators in teaching truth and parents and caregivers in advocating for inclusive education.