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Like the more than 22,000 students who visit the Civil Rights Memorial Center each year, Brittney Johnson loved the fountain. The 10-year-old Montgomery, Ala., native had never been to the memorial center, even though it’s just a few miles from her house. And like most visitors she was instantly drawn to the circular black granite fountain out in front. This unique piece of architecture, designed by Maya Lin, is engraved with the names of 40 civil rights martyrs. Next to it stands a wall of water that cascades transparently over Martin Luther King Jr.’s well-known paraphrase of Amos 5:24 -- We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

One-size-fits-all appearance policies cannot work in our increasingly diverse schools.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has declared April Confederate History Month. His original seven-paragraph proclamation was full of paeans to grey-clad heroes but nowhere mentioned the agonies of slavery. This understandably offended African Americans, and McDonnell spent a day or so getting beat up in the media.

The empty space left by the death of a young person seems somehow larger—perhaps because we sense not only the absence of who he was, but also of who he could have become. This emptiness can engulf an entire community, even a nation, when the death is unjust.

Teaching the movement to high schoolers gave this college student an opportunity to address her personal "privilege paralysis" and embrace her potential as an agent of change.

Last November more than 3,000 schools accepted the challenge to sit somewhere new.

With or without the latest headlines from the White House, immigration is worthy of class discussion, and teachers should be ready to facilitate that discussion.

In Minnesota, yet another group is organizing backlash against equitable teaching practices. It's an all-too-common threat—and a reminder that educators need more support.