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Story Corner

The editor of Teaching Tolerance reflects on recent church burnings.

A war on obesity is raging. Everyone from Jillian Michaels to Michelle Obama is calling for all Americans to lose the fat. But as doctors spend millions of dollars on fat-shaming billboards targeting children and studies proving that dieting simply doesn’t work, one might ask where does encouragement end and bullying begin?

After reading a Teaching Tolerance Facebook post asking how we would be marking the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, I started to think about how I would address this in my classroom. My new group of sixth-graders will be 10 and 11 years old. What they know about these events will not be from their memories but from what they have learned from their parents and teachers. And given the proximity of our school district to New York City, it is quite possible that I will have students who lost a family member on that day. However I decide to approach it in the classroom, it isn’t going to be easy.

"Don't Be a Bystander,” says one of the anti-bullying posters created by Tualatin High School students. It’s an important message for students to hear. In an effort to combat the growing bullying crisis, Teacher Rachel Robinson showed her advanced digital arts classes Teaching Tolerance’s film, “Bullied: A Student, a School and a Case That Made History.”

As an organization committed to justice and equity, the similarities between the Watts Riots and the riots in Ferguson, Missouri following Michael Brown’s death compel us to point out that we do not live in a post-racial world.

The first International Day of the Girl, a United Nations initiative to promote gender equality around the world, was Oct. 11. When I explained the day to my extra-curricular group for girls, their responses varied. One student remarked that a day wasn’t enough, but it was definitely a step in the right direction. Another noted that it was about time someone recognized the multitude of issues that girls face. Still another asked why we needed a day at all.

As a class, develop a working definition of human rights.