What Do Halloween Costumes Say?
The “Illegal Alien” Halloween costume is wrong and needs removed from the stores.
The “Wild” Side of Kids with Disabilities
When I first met Graciela Tiscareno-Sato, I was literally living in the wild. In 1991, Grace and I were both students in the U.S. Air Force Survival School, and we spent a week in the forest on the Canadian border, eating ants and worms and trying to make fire with sticks. I was terrible at this stuff, but Lt. Tiscareno – as she was known then – became a “go-to” person for everyone in the unit. She wasn’t much better at starting fires than the rest of us, but her can-do spirit made her feel like someone you could lean on.
So imagine my surprise when I saw her name in the “letters to the editor” file at Teaching Tolerance 18 years later. Grace didn’t know I worked here: she just had a story to tell, and was confident we would be interested. In the Air Force, when you take that kind of adventurous stab at something, people say you’re doing things “in the blind.”
Making the Invisible Visible: Preparing for Mix It Up at Lunch Day
Have you ever walked in the same hallway every day -- or driven from point A to point B -- without remembering how you got there, who you passed, or what you saw?
Lessons from Laramie – and Sylacauga
Today is the 11th anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard. I don’t think anyone can contemplate this date without a mix of strong emotions. But for me, the date always brings a special blend of anger, shame and guilt.
All About Hair
When my daughter was three, she showed up at preschool without her normal braids or twists, her glorious afro present for all to see and celebrate. Her little peers didn’t respond kindly though; they chimed in instead — quite loudly — with criticism: “What’s wrong with Zoe’s hair?”
