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When students express outrage over the “rape culture” in another country, the teacher brings the discussion closer to home for further exploration.

Editor’s note: The author of this essay prefers the pronoun they. In a poignant letter to their teenage self, Jey Ehrenhalt—a transgender educator and advocate—recalls jarring and painful experiences of their youth and describes how many schools urgently need to become more welcoming and supportive places for transgender students.

The Teaching Tolerance team had a confab earlier this week to plan ahead. Looking at a 2011 calendar, Sean Price, Teaching Tolerance’s managing editor, reminded me that the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War was fast approaching. Did we want to do something? My first response? Frankly, no. As a former U.S. history teacher, I suspected that the next four years will present an unending opportunity mainly for military history buffs to strut their stuff. We would, I suggested to Sean, better serve teachers by focusing on the themes that spoke to racial justice.

For transgender youth, the school’s bathroom can be a dangerous place. School administrators must set policies now allowing for students to use the facilities to match their gender identities.

Educators have long used music to inspire, engage and teach their students. Whether by tapping into popular culture or reaching back through history, songs and their lyrics offer an excellent example of how humans use

Advice for first-year teachers from the Teaching Tolerance community.

Manuel J. Fernandez makes cultural responsiveness a "principal" priority.

It was a brisk New England day as I walked out of the community center with a group of Somali Muslim women from my adult English as a Second Language class. My students were laughing and joking, their hijabs blowing in the breeze. We had finished our unit on the New World, drawing connections between Europeans immigrating to America and Somalis immigrating to Lewiston and southern Maine. Suddenly, a local woman shouted, "Terrorists!"

Michael Josephson, founder of the Character Counts Coalition, offers steps to reduce or eliminate negative cheers.