Not So Shocked by 'NurtureShock'
I’ve been bracing myself for the release of NurtureShock, a book on childrearing by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. Early reviews of the book made it sound like a real downer for anti-bias educators. The Wall Street Journal implied that the book made “teaching tolerance and promoting diversity look…unimpressive.” Naturally, I wanted to see what evidence the authors would use to support their claims.
Verbal Bullying Puts Students Behind
Last week, CNN reported: “the study from the University of Illinois suggests dealing with classmate put-downs can make it harder for good students to learn and make it more difficult for students who are behind to catch up.” I think many of us have known for some time that bullying is physically and emotionally harmful to youth, especially bias-based harassment. And, although there’s now solid data to show that verbal put-downs also hinders learning, I believe almost every teacher could have shared this news through his or her first-hand experiences.
A Wise Latina Woman: Reflections on Sonia Sotomayor
“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” These few words, spoken casually by Sonia Sotomayor at the annual Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at UC-Berkeley in 2001, came back to haunt President Barack Obama’s nominee for the United States Supreme Court during the spring and summer of 2009. Hard to believe that this brief statement could cause such anguish, particularly among the conservative white senators who form part of the Senate Judiciary Committee, yet they led to days of arrogant grilling by the Senators and weeks of newspaper articles and commentary by television pundits speculating on what Sotomayor meant, whether it would hurt her confirmation, and what it would signal for the new court.
Looking at Labor
The lesson “Looking at Labor” explores some critical questions, like “Are all jobs created equal? Why or why not?” and “What would happen if everyone was paid the same regardless of what job he or she held?” These questions certainly started me reflecting. I invite you, along with your students, to explore some of these essential questions in “Looking at Labor.”
Taking a Closer Look at Religions Around the World
When I reflect on the incidents last week involving students who wore offensive shirts with anti-Muslim statements on them in Gainesville, Florida, I cannot help but to think of Jonathan Swift’s quote, “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.” I don’t agree with Swift, though. All we have to do is observe how no local company in Gainesville, Florida would agree to print the T-shirts.
