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“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” These few words, spoken casually by Sonia Sotomayor at the annual Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at UC-Berkeley in 2001, came back to haunt President Barack Obama’s nominee for the United States Supreme Court during the spring and summer of 2009. Hard to believe that this brief statement could cause such anguish, particularly among the conservative white senators who form part of the Senate Judiciary Committee, yet they led to days of arrogant grilling by the Senators and weeks of newspaper articles and commentary by television pundits speculating on what Sotomayor meant, whether it would hurt her confirmation, and what it would signal for the new court.

The food justice unit was one of the most successful of the year. Until the meltdown. Students had watched Food, Inc., read several articles about food production and created masterful multimedia presentations on their learning. They were now presenting. Omar chose several pictures of his favorite dishes. He told us about them and how they were made. Then he interjected a seemingly innocent joke.

This interview with teacher Lisa Weinbaum accompanies her Teaching Tolerance article "'At Risk' of Greatness."

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to hear directly from journalist and author of The Teacher Wars, Dana Goldstein!

In the wake of the election results, one teacher tries to help students reflect clearly on the voters who decided the election—and to maintain hope.

After a colleague told her, “I’m not coming back next year,” this teacher reflected on what makes her an effective anti-bias educator.

In this first of a three-part series, this new-educator mentor explains how mentoring can help new teachers focus on students’ assets rather than their deficits.

Examining “classic” literature presents the opportunity for a fascinating study in historical gender roles, but a comparison with today’s media can help students uncover shocking similarities.

Emotions can be frightening for all of us, especially for children. But if students don’t have the vocabulary to express their feelings, they may turn to acting out. This fails to resolve the feelings and makes a teacher’s life much more difficult.