Free Cover Stories • Teaching for Hope and Activism
How do we bring the fight to protect and transform public schools into our classrooms? How do we connect our classrooms to the struggles in the streets? As the crisis over public education escalates, activist teachers are experimenting with new approaches.
Teaching and Learning in the Midst of the Wisconsin Uprising
By Kate Lyman
A Madison elementary school teacher returns from occupying the Capitol to help her students put the events in context and decide how they want to participate.
Teaching Budget Cuts to Third Graders
By Dale Weiss
A Milwaukee 3rd-grade teacher uses Martin’s Big Words to explain that social change can take a very long time.
Declassified • Struggle for Existence (We Used to Eat Lunch Together)
By Brian Pickett
Declassified is a student-created play about a NYC school closure. When administrators try to shut the play down, a viral protest lets the show go on.
Free Scholastic Inc.• Pushing Coal
By Bill Bigelow
A 4th-grade curriculum lies through omission.
Rethinking Schools exposes links between Scholastic and the coal industry. Three days later, Scholastic promises to stop distributing pro-coal curriculum.
Tiger Moms and the Model Minority Myth
By Helen Gym
The media splash around Amy Chua’s writings about Chinese mothers exploits Asian stereotypes, exacerbating racial tensions and creating additional obstacles for vulnerable youth.
Te Tremble • An Unnatural Disaster
By Adam Sanchez
Who was responsible for the enormous impact of the earthquake in Haiti? High school students use a mock trial to explore the economic, social, and political background to the tragedy.
Early Childhood Military Education?
By Ann Pelo
The U.S. military advocates for early childhood education, but for all the wrong reasons.
My Failing School
By Wanda Caine
A faculty boat trip becomes a metaphor for a school condemned to closure.
Testing What Matters Least
By Maika Yeigh, Andie Cunningham, Ruth Shagoury
Teacher educators are disturbed by the implications of the high-stakes test for literacy specialists.
Shhh!! No Opinions in the Library
By Amanda Vender
IndyKids and kids’ right to an independent press.
A current events magazine for young people, written from a social justice perspective, has to fight for space in public libraries.
Free EDITORIAL • This Is What Solidarity Looks Like
By the editors of Rethinking Schools
Free BOOK REVIEW • The Next American Revolution
Reviewed by Greg Smith
The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century
By Grace Lee Boggs with Scott Kurashige
Free GOOD STUFF • What's in a Name?
By Kathy Xiong
What’s in a Name?
Free RESOURCES
Our picks for books, websites, and other resources for social justice teaching.
ACTION EDUCATION • Save Our Schools
By Anthony Cody
