When students take action, they create change that extends far beyond the classroom. In this article, the author, who was a former teacher from Crystal City, Texas, remembers the student walkout that helped launch the Latino civil rights movement 40 years ago. The Crystal City student walkout remains a high point in the history of student activism…

This article is a part of the "Why I Teach" series. The author has been immersed in the culture of Selma, Alabama for the past 15 months. The world knows Selma as a focal point of the Civil Rights Movement. Presidents and presidents-to-be have come here to commemorate the city's role in the struggle for equal voting rights. Despite the city's…

Most students who engage in name-calling or tell demeaning jokes don't have deeply thought-out and deep-seated bias towards particular groups. Often, they're just picking up on the messages they hear repeated again and again in the schools. When peers challenge the language, it not only cuts down on the degrading messages themselves, but it also…

This article recalls the painful lessons of a 1920 lynching of three of six African-American circus workers accused of robbery and rape. For African-American families in Duluth, the black-and-white photo taken in 1920 was a shocking reminder of the incident which this small city had tried for decades to forget. African-Americans believe that the…

Helen Keller was someone who worked throughout her long life to achieve social change; she was an integral part of many important social movements in the 20th century. Her life story could serve as a fascinating example for children, but most picture books about Keller are silent about her life's work. In this article, the author examines the…