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The early grades are time when students gain significant personal experience grappling with their own ideas about right and wrong. This toolkit lets students work from experience to talk about knotty ethical issues.

An innovative curriculum spurs South Carolina students to fight bigotry.

Providing a forum for candid communication helps young people believe their voices are worth hearing.

Heritage months offer opportunities to model yearlong inclusive teaching practices.

The 2012 Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Culturally Responsive Teaching

A Buddy Bench can make recess more inclusive—and more fun!

In 1964, my third-grade teacher relied mainly on an air of motherly authority to maintain control over her classroom of more than 50 8-year-olds. But when pushed, she warned darkly of deploying her spanking machine.

“I'm just not good at math,” my daughter grumbled under her breath. I was surprised. Where did she get that idea, I wondered. As far as I can remember she has loved numbers and was quick to pick up math concepts. However, I began to see her confidence slowly wither and her frustration rise. It started in the 2nd grade. And, now, she sat at the kitchen table with pencil in hand, ready to give up, convinced she just couldn't do it anymore.

Middle school teachers struggle to find ways to respond to bullying, teasing, name-calling and exclusionary practices among students. We tread lightly sometimes, afraid of saying the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time thus making conditions worse for a bullied student. Being heavy-handed almost never works. Students also know how to say the right thing to adults and then act in a completely contrary way towards peers.