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Violent Truth Is Much Scarier Than Simulation |
I have never been in a situation like the
one at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I have, however, been a teacher in one of
the most violent parts of... |
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Partners in Grief |
In Oakland, Calif., there are a lot of homicides especially for
a fairly small city of about 400,000 people. Last July, there were seven
homicides in... |
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Conversations Move Us Beyond Bias |
I recently confronted my prejudices. After
teaching for many years in a low-income, high-violence area of Oakland, Calif.,
I decided to do some... |
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Ethnicity Check Goes Outside the Box |
I recently served as a reader of
scholarship applications. The process included a complex algorithm for
inclusion and took several criteria into... |
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A Place to Play is a Release from Prison |
When I was a kid, I attended two different elementary
schools in the same town. They were very different. One was large, suburban and
within walking... |
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Affirming Many Variations of Family |
When I was
growing up, most of my friends’ families had a mom and a dad. A few parents
were divorced and that meant stepdads and stepmoms were also... |
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Segregation is Still Part of Our Classroom |
Through Big Brothers, Big
Sisters, I’ve been working with a little girl from the neighborhood where I
used to teach. I think very highly of this... |
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Seeing the Child behind the Anger |
Many of my third-graders are very angry. They have good reason. Growing up in the most violent area in Oakland, many have lost family members to... |
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Putting Feelings into Words |
Emotions
can be frightening for all of us, especially for children. But if students don’t
have the vocabulary to express their feelings, they may... |
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It’s Still Good to Talk About Race |
Recently,
I was in a public place with a friend when I saw a woman wearing a very
creative, flamboyant outfit. Knowing that my friend would be... |
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For the Want of a Home |
Editor’s
Note: This month, Teaching Tolerance launched a new series of lessons called Issues of Poverty. This week’s featured lesson can be found... |
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Classroom Guest Busts Stereotypes |
It’s not unusual to encounter misconceptions about Africa. People erroneously refer to “the country
of Africa” or say that someone “speaks African.”... |
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Going Deeper Than Skin Color |
Among my third-graders,
conflicts often arose over the issue of skin color.
“Your mama
left you in the oven too long. You look just like a... |
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Get Past Group Mentality, See People First |
When I began teaching classes of primarily black students in Oakland, Calif., many of my white friends started to see me as something of an expert on... |
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Get Past Seeing Diversity as a Difficulty |
For all
the wonderful things that diversity brings to a classroom, teaching a diverse
group of students can be much more difficult than teaching a... |
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Tracking Derails Diversity |
The first day of my second year of
teaching, a third-grader walked into class, saw another student and punched him
in the nose. He didn’t say... |
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The Black Teacher Who Wasn’t |
As a young
white woman from the suburbs, I knew I was going to experience some culture
shock as I began my teaching career in one of the more violent... |
