Tamera Bryant writes stories, poems, songs and creative nonfiction—mostly for kids and their teachers. When she is not writing, she is usually taking photographs, playing and learning with kids, or hugging trees. Sometimes she does all at the same time. She is co-author of The Values Book (Gryphon House).
Growing up, I remember the children in “special ed” seemed to live in an alternate universe within our school. Regardless of the distinctions in their challenges, they all were placed together in one class, shuttled around as one throng, rarely included in the activities the rest of us took for granted.
Hussein, the narrator of My Name Was Hussein, lives in Bulgaria. His Muslim family takes great pride in their religion and traditions. But soldiers soon arrive in their village and force all of the Muslims to adopt Christian names, thereby inhibiting their freedom and identities.
In this blog post, Houska emphasizes the enduring spirit of the Native American people and their culture, outlines the group’s past and present obstacles and calls to action young Native Americans to carry on the torch of resilience.
To confront current education censorship and voter suppression, modern social justice projects build on the foundations of the historic 1964 Freedom Schools.