Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky by Faith Ringgold has been around a long time. It was first published in 1991 and won the Caldecott Award for its illustrations in 1992. Born a slave, Harriet Tubman escaped to freedom in 1847. That would have been heroic enough for anyone. But Harriet Tubman did not […]
The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges Six-year-old Ruby Bridges was the first black child to integrate an all-white public school in the south. Day after day, escorted by U.S. marshals and her mother, she braved spitting, hissing, cursing crowds of white people throwing things at her in […]
We March by Shane W. Evans is a book about standing up for justice written for our youngest children and for early readers. The soft pastel illustrations show a family as they wake up early in the morning, prepare for the day, and then join thousands of other people for the August 28th, 1963 […]
Oh, Freedom by Casey King and Linda Barrett Osborne with a forward by Rosa Parks Rosa Parks says, “To live is to have stories.” This is a book of stories about real people who participated in the Civil Rights Movement. The stories are told through interviews done by children. Each child interviews a person, often […]
Martin Luther KIng tells us… Injustice is…a threat to justice Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Injustice is…poverty & homelessness & starvation The rich must not ignore the poor because […]
Racism exists. We live in a soup of roiling, boiling hatred based on one’s perceived skin color. And that hatred starts young. Children are not born racist. It is taught. Dylann Roof was not born a racist. He was taught. Are you teaching your children to be racist? Research indicates that children develop racist attitudes […]
In 1968 Jane Elliot, in reaction to the assassination of Martin Luther King the day before, introduced her all-white third graders to racism and prejudice by carrying out an activity which has become widely replicated in varying degrees. What did she do? She divided her class by eye color and then told the children that […]
If we wanted to build a flying car, we would look for people with a diversity of experience – engineers, designers, technicians, mechanics, cost analysts, etc. But would we also look for social diversity? Would having people from different ethnic backgrounds, races, religions, genders, and sexual orientations help us build a better flying car? So […]
By Tim Wolcott We are all builders: either of justice and peace or of injustice and war. Given the choice, most attempt to create harmony and equity in the world. However, many have no choice at all in this matter. They are allowed little agency. These are students in many of our primary and secondary […]
Activities for a Time of Stress This is the time of year when we often think about peace and yet many times find ourselves stressed from holiday preparations and rounds of visitors. Below are some activities that teachers can do with their students, and parents can do with their children, or that you can do on your own, in order […]
By Tim Wolcott “Help us stomp out domestic violence – join Waverly Cares.” The President of STANYS (Science Teachers Association of New York State), my professional association, rallies us to implement Common Cores (national teaching standards) and SLO’s (Student Learning Objectives), address STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math teaching objectives), adhere to RTTT (Race To […]
There was once a boy named Nikolai who sometimes felt uncertain about the right way to act. “I want to be a good person…but I don’t always know the best way to do that.” So writes Jon J. Muth in a retelling of a story by Leo Tolstoy: The Three Questions. When is the best time to do […]
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