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She’s popular, but is she right? TT examines Dr. Ruby Payne’s A Framework for Understanding Poverty.

I was excited by my lesson plan about the presidential elections. I planned to help students research issues and form opinions by guiding them through a variety of perspectives. Then my student teacher asked a question that surprised me. “Do you ever have parents complain about elections being discussed in school?” he wanted to know. “Why would they?” I asked.

Every now and again, a student will say something that leaves me speechless and desperate for the correct response. I can feel in my bones that the moment is about to become pivotal. One of these moments came while we were reading Katherine Paterson’s novel The Great Gilly Hopkins, in which the main character deals with her racism. We were in the process of analyzing her character, her motivations and her racist attitudes, and I could tell that my sixth-graders didn’t really understand the theme of racism, so I needed to step away from the novel for a moment and put the history in context for them.

Wouldn’t it be productive if schools established school-wide norms for civil discourse this fall?

Young philosophers in San Francisco ponder age-old questions

Despite arguments to the contrary, ethnic studies benefits all students—and research backs it up.

The First Amendment defines the parameters of including religious content in U.S. public school classrooms, but teachers still wonder: What does religion as content look like?

A group of technology-loving eighth-graders at Georgetown Day School combined their digital skills with a passion for helping others. It was community service in a computer lab. As part of the school’s service learning program, we asked the Northern Virginia AIDS Ministry (NOVAM), a local health organization, if students might interview staff, record the interviews and produce podcasts about its work and mission. NOVAM educates the public about HIV and AIDS and provides support to people and families coping with the disease. The eighth graders hoped their mini-radio programs might be posted on the organization’s website for clients to download.

The passing of this literary great reminded us: We’re still learning from her masterpiece.