This issue debuts the Teaching Diverse Students Initiative, unveils a reinvented Mix It Up program and discusses the real-life effects of zero tolerance policies in schools.
Departments
Connected to Everything
A story from the Bitterroot Salish
Prom Night in Mississippi
A new documentary film looks at a school that held its first racially integrated prom in 2008. Teaching Tolerance offers a teacher’s guide to help you use the film in the classroom.
To get a copy of Prom Night in Mississippi on DVD, visit the film's website.
Feature Articles
Know Your Audience, Find Your Power
"There’s nothing wrong with the way your grandparents talk,” my elementary school teachers used to say. “Standard English is different. Not better or worse. It’s just a way of talking that you need to know.”
Close to Home
Jackie Brown prided herself on teaching her students about disabilities. But could she confront her own feelings about her mother and polio?
Our Journey to Kindergarten
For one family, finding a kindergarten classroom meant getting honest about race, class and privilege.
What Can This Student Teach You About the Classroom?
She was always smarter than the curriculum allowed her to be. Now one Miami student is showing future teachers how to keep students engaged.
Learning to Roar
Parents find grassroots power.
Speak Out for Understanding
Students with learning disabilities create a documentary film to share their wisdom.
Take the Initiative
A new set of online tools and resources seeks to empower educators to improve the school experience for children of color
Reaching Students Where They Are
How can a website help you enhance learning opportunities for students of color? Renowned scholar Willis D. Hawley explains how the Teaching Diverse Students Initiative works.
Relevant: Beyond the Basics
Monica Edwards was frustrated. As a teacher in an urban elementary school, Edwards faced a class that was largely African American and Latino: she was neither. She often felt that she wasn’t effectively reaching them, and she was beginning to get discouraged.
Colorblindness: the New Racism?
Kawania Wooten’s voice tightens when she describes the struggle she’s having at the school her son attends. When his class created a timeline of civilization, Wooten saw the Greeks, the Romans and the Incas. But nothing was said about Africa, even though the class has several African American students.
Talking Race
Making a space where teachers can talk about difference
Inclusion on the Bookshelf
In fiction, children with disabilities are often still segregated, labeled, lonely and lost. These titles will help bring your school’s library into the age of inclusion.
Pushed Out
Zero tolerance policies were supposed to end school violence. Instead, they’re pushing students out of school and into the justice system — and children of color are paying the highest price.
A New Model for Mix It Up
Since 2002, Teaching Tolerance’s Mix It Up at Lunch Day program has helped millions of students cross social boundaries and create more inclusive school communities. So why are we changing a model that has worked?
