When we think about the school library as a place where reading communities begin and are nurtured, we have to remember that a school is a place where many students do not inherently feel welcome. Historically speaking, school systems have sometimes been an instrumental part of systems of colonization and indoctrination, and culturally relevant libraries are not something everyone has access to. The tendency to demonize the unique parts of us that make us individuals,…
New research from Boston University’s Wheelock Education Policy Center finds that teacher diversity increased in Massachusetts during the COVID-19 pandemic. The racial and ethnic diversity of teachers hired for the 2020-2021 Massachusetts school year increased. This was particularly true in schools serving the state’s highest concentrations of Black and Latinx students, where roughly 41% of newly hired teachers were people of color. These increases combined with lower turnover among Black and Latinx teachers resulted in…
Voting is one of the primary ways we participate in our democracy, but it can be hard to know how to talk to kids about voting, especially during a contentious election season. Election Day is a great opportunity to help your kids understand how our country works—and to talk about the values you believe in (no matter who you’re casting your ballot for). Wondering how to get started? Try these seven tips for kicking off…
We live in a society where care of young and old is increasingly segregated, with very limited opportunity for the two age groups to interact. If we just thought a little more socially, however, these book end generations could become great resources for each other. All we need to do is put them in the same place for care. In a recent S4C documentary, six nursery children were introduced to an adult day care facility.…
When teacher Brandon Graves in Louisville, Kentucky, talks with his elementary school students about the attacks of September 11th, 2001, he tells them where he was that day — in Washington, D.C., a freshman at Howard University, where he could smell smoke from the Pentagon. Teaching K-12 students about the attacks on September 11th has always been difficult, but time has brought a new challenge: students today have no memories of that day. So how…
No offense to the worthy gentlemen, but the issue at hand is what to rename Woodrow Wilson High School, the comprehensive high school in Northwest Washington that has long carried the name of a two-term president. Wilson moved into the White House more than a century ago, and as a product of his time, he was also an unrelenting segregationist. Now in 2022, the D.C. Council is moving to change the name. School districts around…
Addressing weight with your child is a sensitive matter—you want them to be healthy, but also want them to accept their body. Weight is an incredibly fraught topic as well as an imperfect indicator of health. As parents, a kid’s sudden weight gain can be hard to know how to tackle. The last thing we’d want is to set the stage for poor body image or eating disorders for our children. Here are some tips on…
Amy Poehler, well known for her roles in Saturday Night Live and Parks and Recreation, has taken her platform and used it to help fight global poverty. Poehler and a colleague of hers, producer Meredith Walker, started Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls in 2007, which originated with a YouTube video series in 2008 to help inspire girls and teens to express themselves. Since then, the web series has grown into a dedicated website that is intended…
The effect of divorce on children is profound. The nature of divorce means that even with kids involved, adult needs are often prioritized before their children’s, and considering nearly half of all American marriages end in divorce, that’s a lot of children of divorce whose needs are being made secondary. When children’s needs aren’t prioritized in a divorce, it leaves room for misconceptions to run rampant and almost no space at all for truth-telling. These…
In the past, many non-violent video games simply weren’t fun, but today that’s no longer the case–and the list of qualifying games is growing. Whether you’re looking for game-based learning or simply games that are fun to play, all of the video games on this list represent an impressive design achievement, and they are definitely worth a play. Whether kids will actually enjoy the game or not, especially in an era dominated by Fortnite and…
