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Every marking period I contact the parents of my most remarkable students to tell them how great their kids are. I do this for a few reasons. Too often, my attention is consumed with kids who need refocusing, redirecting and all the other IEP-mandated practices teachers do anyway. But mostly I contact the remarkable students because I’ve noticed that the kids who do good work often go unacknowledged.

Katie is the student I imagined all my students would be like when I first started teaching. In my fantasy, all my students were motivated, conscientious and ready to independently tackle any challenge I proposed. In this same fantasy, I was not the wild-haired, one-legged juggler I’ve become, but rather a calm force of wisdom and benevolence.

The question above was posed to me in the comments section of a blog post I wrote recently. The post was entitled "Imani and the Cabbage Seeds." In it, I wondered about “isms”—racism, sexism and other things that either separate people or give one group power over another.

This toolkit for the feature story “Ask Angy” links to videos created by activist Angy Rivera in association with her advice column for undocumented youth, “Ask Angy.” The videos and prompts will spark students’ thinking about the issues that affect undocumented youth living in the United States.

Teaching about religious extremism can be challenging, but not teaching about it may sow seeds of intolerance. This toolkit for "Extreme Prejudice" is an activity that teaches students about religious diversity and that extremists—in any religion—represent a small minority of people.

Facing History and Ourselves offers lessons that illustrate the freedom our Founders envisioned.

Answers to your toughest social justice questions.