After recent news and photographs from El Paso—of asylum-seeking families held in chain-link, barbed-wire pens—your immigrant students may be feeling afraid, and you may feel unsure how to support them. These resources recommend steps you can take inside and outside your classroom to address injustice and insist on the human dignity of all people, no matter where they're born.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos told the House Committee on Education and the Workforce that it's a "school decision" whether educators report undocumented students to ICE. Not only does this suggestion conflict with settled law, but it also fundamentally undermines the promise of our schools as a place where all students can thrive. This edition of The Moment offers guidance on how to speak up for the children in your care.
We join you in mourning those lost to violence this weekend. Like many of you, we’re feeling angry, exhausted and heartbroken. We take some solace in offering these resources for supporting your students and communities and for doing what you can to fight hate before it turns violent. After losses like these, we know we must move forward. But we refuse to move on.
Juneteenth, celebrated June 19, marks the day enslaved Texans learned they were free in June of 1865. While the history of the holiday includes the injustice of enslavement, Juneteenth should also be understood in the context of Black people’s fight for justice and freedom. As Staff Writer Coshandra Dillard notes, “Students, particularly Black students, can find empowerment in the jubilant celebrations of culture, activism and the humanity of a people.”
The 2020 election is six weeks away, and time is winding down for future voters to get registered! Whether you’re working remotely or in-person, these resources can help you teach students of any age about voting and civic engagement. Here, you’ll find easy advice on helping students register, along with recommendations and resources for teaching about voting rights and voter suppression.
Voter suppression is not a thing of the past. It’s essential that students learn to identify it in history—and in this current election cycle. Including insight from Carol Anderson, John Lewis and others, these resources can help you teach about the Voting Rights Act, the historic back-and-forth fight for voting rights, the ways voter suppression manifests today and the ways young people are demanding better of the democratic process.
As Martin Luther King Jr. Day approaches, educators across the nation will teach about King’s life and works. Countless others will echo his famous quotes. Few will offer a full picture of who King truly was—or of the collectivist movement that surrounded him. These resources can help you offer a fuller account of King, his peers and the ongoing legacy of their shared dreams and actions.
With so many significant issues in the balance, it's imperative that we pay attention to the upcoming midterm elections, particularly on the local level. Young people, families and communities need to know how powerful their votes are in our democracy. These LFJ resources can help you support your students—and all the young people in your life—in learning about the voting process and ongoing civic responsibility.
