Setting the Stage I am in a hotel room with three millennials: Grace, 24, Gabriel, 22, Glorie, 20. An argument is raging: How can I be civil with people who support evil? I know that’s harsh. Is your neighbor who voted for Trump evil? I’ll say no. But these young people are having none of it. [...]
Juneteenth (On My Own Holidays) June 19th, 1865, began as another hot day in Texas. African American slaves worked in fields, in barns, and in the homes of the white people who owned them. Then a message arrived. Freedom! Slavery had ended! The Civil War had actually ended in April. It took two months for [...]
Hamilton in the Classroom Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably heard of the Broadway musical Hamilton, the hip-hop and rap production of the life of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, written by award-winning musical playwright, composer, and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda. Many of your students know the play well. In fact, many [...]
The inside cover of Amanda Ripley's book asks the question, "What's it like to be a child in the world's new education superpowers?" - namely South Korea, Poland, and - yes, of course - Finland. To accomplish this, she follows the lives of three separate American teens who serve as foreign exchange students there. In [...]
My school district recently purchased a class set of the March Trilogy, the graphic novel memoir that recounts the experiences of Congressman John Lewis (5th District, Georgia) in America’s struggle for civil rights including the marches from Selma to Montgomery. The comic book-style illustrations are engaging and some may mistake the memoir as something for children. Lewis’s experiences in the [...]