Education Justice Now Archive

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., born January 15, 1929, became the most well known leader of the modern civil rights movement. But the truth of King’s legacy is often whitewashed and sanitized. On his birthday, MLK Day and year round, use these resources to provide students with a more complete, radical context of King's fight for justice—and discuss how his work still creates ripples today.

This week, the International Olympic Committee announced that political protests at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will be regulated. News coverage of the policy creates an opportunity to talk with students about voice, power and what it means to stand against injustice. These resources can help.  

As news breaks about increased tensions between the U.S. and Iran, your students may encounter Islamophobic comments or sentiments. These resources can help ensure that you’re ready to interrupt and address Islamophobia if it appears in your classroom or school—and that you’re ready to help students do the same.

This winter break, we hope you’ll take the time you need to relax and reflect on the year so far. We’re grateful for everything you do for students, and we hope these articles offer useful ideas for recharging and for recommitting yourself to the work that lies ahead in the new year.

This week, a photograph of a math assignment asking fifth graders to set prices for enslaved people went viral. Assignments like this are clearly harmful. But students can learn about slavery in ways that recover the lives and histories of enslaved people or dehumanize them; celebrate their resistance or erase their agency; recognize how slavery shaped our nation or ignore it completely. Educators can teach this hard history—and teach it well—in any discipline, to students of almost any age. Here are a few examples of how.