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Rosa Parks: Abused and Misused |
It’s bad enough that Rosa Parks’ decision in 1954 to stay put rather than give up her bus seat for a white man is so often seen as the reaction of a... |
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An Urgent Message from Teaching Tolerance |
Editor’s Note: Teaching Tolerance
Director Maureen Costello sent this message in an email to newsletter
subscribers on Sunday after the killings... |
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After Election Day |
Let’s talk about voting.
Yesterday, we asked our 65,000 Facebook followers if they had held mock elections in their schools. We heard from one... |
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Nathan Bedford Forrest: No Hero for Selma |
Every city, town and hamlet has them: monuments
commemorating pivotal events; memorials to heroes; parks, schools and public
buildings named in honor... |
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Hooray for LGBT Allies |
After the Southern Poverty Law Center responded to a plea for help from students in Savannah, Tenn., we’re happy to report that students successfully... |
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We Honor Sikhs by Learning about Them |
We know little about the motives of the gunman who opened
fire yesterday in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Many of us will monitor the... |
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Diverse Schools Are Essential for the Nation’s Success |
The face of America is changing.
In 40 years, the United States will become a minority-majority nation – a remarkable milestone for a country that... |
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Tear Down Boundaries, Register for ‘Mix It Up’ |
At a time when the nation’s schools are becoming more
segregated, teachers and students across the country have an opportunity to show
the rest of... |
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School Choice: It’s Not for Everyone |
This week is National School
Choice Week—a well-orchestrated PR event to celebrate “school choice.”
The week of nationwide events even
kicked off... |
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Bringing 9/11 Into the Classroom—10 Years Later |
My son was a 16-year-old high school junior on 9/11/2001. He
could see the twin towers burning a few miles across the harbor from his school
in... |
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Alabama’s Immigration Law: The New Jim Crow |
Editors Note: Since the writing of this article, several provisions of H.B. 56, including the education provisions discussed below, have been... |
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End the Silence on LGBT Bullying |
New evidence of the bullying crisis in our schools appears
daily in news reports and blogs. For some students, verbal harassment,
cyber-ostracism and... |
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Meet Mike Hucksterbee |
It's not often that history teachers get to have a good laugh. But this week we enjoyed a rare moment of rolling-on-the-floor laughter.You see, we're... |
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Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire |
Going to graduate school at New York University was often a
literal walk through American history. A row of brownstones facing Washington
Square... |
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Arts: The Secret to Making Schools Great? |
Last week, I had a chance to preview documentary films that
showed how a strong arts program—and that could range from mariachi to
Shakespeare to... |
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Taking History Out of Context |
There are three questions students of history should always
ask:
What’s the context?What’s the context?What’s the context?
Yes, I know, it’s a play... |
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The Height of Unintended Bias |
The Southern Poverty Law Center held a Health Fair yesterday
at which employees could get their blood pressure checked, visit with fitness
experts... |
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Race Conversation Must Go Deeper |
When I was in fifth grade and new to suburbia, my teacher
introduced the concepts of racism, civil rights and fairness. And she began the
task of... |
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Choosing The Right Words |
Words can shed light or generate
heat.
This week, in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, there... |
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Today’s Vocabulary Word is “Vitriol” |
A year ago, we introduced a new curriculum, Civil Discourse in the Classroom and Beyond, citing the “pressing need to change the tenor of public... |
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Denial Fails as an Effective Anti-Bullying Program |
The suicides of boys tormented by anti-gay harassment
grabbed the public’s attention this fall. Those suicides are the tip of the
iceberg.
For every... |
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The Price of Pilgrimage |
For people who complain about a “war on Christmas,” here’s a
reality check. If you’re Christian in the United States, you can generally practice your... |
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I Heard the News Today, Oh Boy |
Thirty years ago, I heard the news that John Lennon had been
shot. Every year since, the morning news
on NPR reminds me again of that day.
I... |
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What To Do About the Civil War? |
The Teaching Tolerance team had a confab earlier this week
to plan ahead. Looking at a 2011 calendar, Sean Price, Teaching Tolerance’s
managing... |
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How Not To Deal With Bullies |
The news today brought yet another tragic story of a teen suicide related to bullying. The world lost a promising young man who had... |
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Bullying is a Civil Rights Issue |
Kudos to the U.S. Department of Education for making such a strong case in this week's Dear Colleague Letter that bullying is a matter of... |
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Anti-Gay Bullying, Suicide and the Need for Empathy |
September has been a grim month. Three boys—15-year old Billy Lucas in Indiana, and
13-year olds Asher Brown in Texas and Seth Walsh in... |
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Cut Your Chances of Suspension: Don’t be Black |
A new study proves what many already suspected: Your chances
of getting suspended in middle school rise dramatically if you are black. The study... |
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Commemorate 9/11 by Confronting Islamophobia |
Last week, Teaching Tolerance ran a post from an assistant principal in Illinois. Lamenting the recent spate of anti-Islamic incidents and... |
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Focus on the Family Goes After LGBT Students |
For the last few days, an “educational analyst” for Focus on the Family has been getting a lot of press. She’s been suggesting that anti-bullying... |
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When the Bully is the Principal |
Everyone is worried—rightfully—about what seems to be a cross-country epidemic of bullying. The problem may be nationwide, but the solution has been... |
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How My Muslim Students Made Me a Better Person |
Among the baby pictures, reports on summer activities and
other news reported by my many former students on Facebook, I saw this status
update about... |
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“Above all, do no harm” |
Some things that happen in school are just not right.
It’s not right for a six-year old boy to be handcuffed and
shackled to a chair by an armed... |
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Helping Kids When Their Parents Won’t |
Active parents make a teacher’s job much easier. They check
up on homework assignments, help with discipline and guarantee that education
is valued... |
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Live Oak High School’s Teachable Moment |
When four students showed
up at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, California, last week wearing American flag T-shirts on
Cinco de Mayo, their... |
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Getting Beyond the ‘Noble Savage’ |
Pretty much as soon as Europeans landed in the “New World”
and encountered American Indians, they began creating stereotypes.
For Columbus,... |
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Twenty States Still Use the Paddle |
In 1964, my third-grade teacher relied mainly on an air of
motherly authority to maintain control over her classroom of more than 50
8-year-olds. But... |
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Why Arizona Needs Ethnic Studies |
My mother’s birth certificate,
dated 1915 and issued in Brooklyn, New York, gives her name as Maria. I knew
her only as Mary, the name that appears... |
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Pop Quiz on School Segregation |
All questions are True/False.
Question 1: The
racial segregation of schools ended quickly after the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.... |
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Enduring Images Captured the Conscience of the Nation |
A powerful collection of Civil Rights-era photographs is on display now through August 2010 at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. If you can’t... |
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‘What Will You Do After Graduation?’ |
This time of year, high school seniors around the country answer that question on a daily basis. Most can offer a ready—and truthful—answer. They're... |
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The Mississippi Misstep |
A school district in northern Mississippi has cancelled
its high school prom rather than let a lesbian student wearing a tuxedo attend
with her... |
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The Trouble with Women’s History Month |
The trouble with Women’s History Month—with all these
special months—is that they encourage people to think that problems have been
solved. The... |
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Noose on Campus |
It used to be thought that
college was where you went to open your mind, explore ideas and, in the words
of Robert Maynard Hutchins, former president... |
