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“I hate Jews.” That was the sentence, uttered coldly and dripping with vile undertones, from the mouth of a sixth-grader that nearly caused me to let a very powerful teachable moment slip through my fingers. Almost.

As dean of students, I’m sitting at my desk passing time one morning when my radio crackles. “There was just a fight in the courtyard,” says a teacher. “I’m bringing both of the students in right now.” I sigh in frustration and turn to watch the security-camera footage on my computer. Sure enough, there are two students facing off in the courtyard. Oh no, I think. Please don’t let that be who I think it is.

My knee injury was neither serious nor permanent, but it was enough to put me on crutches and earn me a key to the elevator.

A family of four came to speak to my high school juniors and seniors. Two dads and their 16-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son talked about their family, the adoption process and their experiences with discrimination and prejudice.

Stories from the past, like those of Freedom Summer, serve to remind us that change happens when everyday people create it.

General Mills recently ran an ad for Cheerios cereal featuring an interracial couple and their child. This is cause for celebration and an opportunity to help students explore race and expand media literacy. Unfortunately, not all viewers saw it that way.

Introverts are often pushed to be talkative and outgoing. Doing so devalues their identities.

“Supermom Saves the Day” tells the story of a young girl who faces gender stereotypes on the school playground. This toolkit structures a guided reading of the story and can be used for grades 3–8.

The emancipation story remains largely incomplete, over 150 years later.

There’s growing momentum to take down Confederate flags, but our work to denounce systemic racism cannot stop at symbolic markers.