Search

The NBA’s Golden State Warriors, educators, students and others are standing up to say, “I pledge to stand up to all forms of hate, bigotry and bullying.”

In my eighth-grade language arts classroom, we use discussion as a vehicle for learning, thinking, writing, posing and defending arguments, questioning and reviewing—just about everything. And as can be expected, we sometimes digress from the topic at hand.

Schools have a responsibility to maintain a safe learning environment for all students—this seems on first examination a simple enough statement. It isn’t. Two words are key—“learning” and “all.” A school that is inclusive of all its students but unable to nurture learning has failed in its responsibility. An academically successful school that only supports its majority students has equally neglected its obligation.

As this Teaching Tolerance story points out, the poor represent the fastest-growing segment in our nation’s suburbs. They are immigrants who choose to locate there and formerly middle-class families who have been hit by

For students living in instability, a safe classroom becomes a second home.

In sports, machismo and closeted sexuality prevail. And players courageous enough to talk about their sexual orientation are, sadly, not on equal footing.

By not including contemporary Native peoples into any discussion of Native experiences, we are doing these populations and our students a huge disservice.

Twitter, Google Docs and their cousins shrink the spaces between cultures even as they expand the reach of a typical classroom. How can you use them to promote social justice?