Articles

Conversations about religious diversity can happen in the classroom. Start by making a safe space where folks can tell their stories and share their religious identities.

An Ohio school district with a high percentage of Amish students learns the value of respect and compromise.

A video of a moment in a high school basketball game inspired many, but this writer had a decidedly different interpretation.

After rejecting an offer of prayer from a student, this teacher reflects about the power of religious freedom that she teaches in class.

Watching a television program featuring deaf and hard of hearing characters changed this teacher’s perspective. She wants to pass it on to her students.

Giving Gen Ed teachers the tools to realize the potential of inclusive classrooms.

What happens when coaches get church-state separation wrong?

I had lunch with my preschooler recently. In line with my daughter was a little girl dressed in an embroidered churidar suit, a traditional garment in Southeast Asia. As she walked, the decorations around her collar and the gold bracelets around her wrist jingled merrily with each step. I told her how I loved her outfit. The assistant teacher leaned over and explained that the little girl was celebrating something, “I think the birthday of a god.” She looked down at the girl, “Isn't that right?” The girl looked blankly back. I then quickly interjected, “Honey, are you celebrating Diwali?” At that, the little girl nodded, grinned widely and skipped over to her table. The assistant teacher looked up at me and stared perplexed, “How did you know that?”

Growing up, I remember the children in “special ed” seemed to live in an alternate universe within our school. Regardless of the distinctions in their challenges, they all were placed together in one class, shuttled around as one throng, rarely included in the activities the rest of us took for granted.

Jenny started the year desperate to make friends. She was new, immature for her age and starting seventh grade. Because of a learning disability, Jenny was reading and writing at a second-grade level. She tried to hide that from friends. But in the cover-up effort, she often badmouthed her classmates and created drama.