You Spoke, We Listened

Reader Exchange

"Yoga in Schools" got the online community talking.

I think all of my students ... would benefit from a little breathing and stretching. I can only imagine what a positive effect it would have on my anxious students, my hyperactive kids (who no longer have any sort of recess at all), or the older students who are so busy that they hardly have the time to pause and breathe.

–Submitted by Erin M.

It seems to me that since yoga is a branch of the Hindu religion that it is a violation of separation of church and state to teach yoga techniques in the classroom.

–Submitted by Charlie J. Ray

 

Readers told us they planned on reading "Confronting White Privilege" first when they received the last issue, and "Yoga in Schools" sparked interest from teachers who wanted more specifics about classroom relaxation techniques.

Invisible disabilities

My son has Asperger’s and was horrendously bullied at school for many years. After one particularly heinous day he commented to me that, “They would never treat Sarah [not her real name] the way they treat me, because her disabilities are visible and mine are invisible.” I’m pleased to see Teaching Tolerance address this issue, as most of the recent focus on bullying has been solely on LGBT students. I empathize deeply with their challenges, yet also found myself wishing someone would talk about our kids with “invisible disabilities.”

Carole, via Facebook

 

Timely and relevant

Our suburban district has been slammed with the highest foreclosure rates in our county and the numbers of our homeless children have tripled. “Struggling in Suburbia” would make a difference to our staff as they are becoming aware of the nouveau poor amongst us.

Erin LaVerdiere, Sumner, Washington

 

Women not well represented

I was struck by the Title IX article talking about supporting women and then by the lack of women in your civil rights article. One woman? Where was Ella Baker or Diane Nash? Or any number of other women?

Mary Anne Joyce, Portland, Oregon

 

Title IX gets good classroom use

Teachers are now charged with the task of using more “informational texts” in our classes to satisfy the requirements of the new national Common Core State Standards. I am planning to use “Title IX Turning 40.”

Dan Diercks, Hagerstown, Indiana

 

Children's March sets great example

Thank you for producing such an interesting and timely material packet. It is good to see children doing good and courageous things to make a difference in our world.

Jerrilyn S. Young, Abita Springs, Louisiana

 

Critical analysis lacking

I recommend Ms. Swalwell [author of "Confronting White Privilege”] and your readers investigate at a much deeper level the educational settings in which “bursting the bubble” of white privilege has occurred or is occurring. Within the current social-cultural-political-class-gender-religious... divisions ... it is necessary to go beyond the hopeful to the effective.

George Hess, Woodstock, Georgia

 

Speak Up At School offers validation

Speak Up validated my actions, but it also validated my fear and sadness that there is so much more to be done on disability-bias education.

Janis Sommers, Harwich, Massachusetts

 

Future teachers need resources

Thank you so much for continuing to make resources like Speak Up at School and Responding to Hate and Bias at School available ... impressing upon the next generation of teachers [that] the important work of social justice is a challenging task but so essential.

Patty Stinger-Barnes, Knoxville, Tennessee

 

Speak Up At School has great lessons

I just downloaded Speak Up at School and Responding to Hate and Bias at School. I find these lessons particularly appropriate in that I teach a class on social justice to eighth-graders. I am continually impressed with the quality of educational materials produced by Teaching Tolerance and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Thank you for your good work.

Mike Michalik, St. Paul, Minnesota

 

Katrina Marie Loera

You folks have changed my life. Thank you for your resources and for what you do to teach all of us what it means to be tolerant.

via Facebook

 

Miki Clark

I use the Teaching Tolerance movies, magazine articles, etc. throughout my 10th-grade  curriculum. Kids don’t get out of my room without learning something about tolerance: race, sex, religion.

via Facebook

 

Georgina C. Perez Nice

I used Teaching Tolerance, Bill Bigelow and Howard Zinn for a social justice summer camp (provided for by a grant). Thanks for all of the GREAT work you guys do for teachers and our students.

via Facebook

 

Pat Finn

A great program to teach tolerance for all, and to eliminate bullying in our schools.

via Facebook