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When 10-year-old Julia Alvarez immigrated to New York, she learned the power of words.

I didn’t say a word. I never saw myself as a person to let a homophobic comment slide. Even from another adult. Even from someone with more power than me in the hierarchy of the school structure. But that day, in that conversation, I just let it go.

When this teacher, then a closeted lesbian, heard her students using the word gay negatively, she had to choose between playing it safe and genuinely fostering an inclusive classroom culture.

As a child I knew my grandfather was different. Grandpapa had been a sharecropper in southern Indiana. He had worked most of his adult life raising corn and pigs. His hands were big and callused. He stooped when he walked and the skin on his neck and face was scarred. His earlobes were long, stretched and fused down low at the back of his jawbone. His eyes seemed to be a bit elongated in their sockets. He was different because he looked different. You see, when he was a young child he had played with matches and caught his clothes on fire. His facial disfigurement was the price he paid for the bad judgment of a toddler.

Educators can’t display religious symbols in public schools, but that does not mean religious symbols can never appear in the classroom. So when is it OK?

Children should learn about American slavery starting in kindergarten—and starting with Indigenous enslavement.