Articles

Let’s talk about voting. Yesterday, we asked our 65,000 Facebook followers if they had held mock elections in their schools. We heard from one lone voice that reported her middle school had 100 percent turnout.

My parents stopped patronizing our local cinema when I was a child because they were livid when the theater owner demanded to see a copy of my birth certificate as proof that I could pay the child admission price. The boycott lasted six years. Although it satisfied my mother’s desire to “not give that theater” her money, the theater’s business didn’t crumble. I am not sure it prevented the theater’s management from treating another young girl the same way.

The anniversary of the integration of Little Rock’s public schools gives us the opportunity to reexamine the long-term, societal impact of the Supreme Court’s 1954 'Brown v. Board of Education' decision.

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.

I was excited by my lesson plan about the presidential elections. I planned to help students research issues and form opinions by guiding them through a variety of perspectives. Then my student teacher asked a question that surprised me. “Do you ever have parents complain about elections being discussed in school?” he wanted to know. “Why would they?” I asked.

In the years since they graduated from middle school, several of my former students earned the prestigious rank of Eagle Scout. I was proud of them. I read their stories in the local paper and was inspired by the various ways in which these young men improved our community. Each time, their accomplishments and selflessness impressed me. Earning the highest rank in Boy Scouts of America is an admirable achievement.

Grand Island Public School District (GIPS) in Nebraska wanted 3-year-old Hunter Spanjer to change his name because they said it violated the school's weapons policy. I am outraged. But more than that, I realize that students like Hunter need advocates.

A new literacy landscape has emerged that is whispering farewell to the clothbound books of my childhood. Classrooms today are moving away from traditional print-based texts to incorporate digital media, often referred to as “new literacies.” Elementary school classrooms now come equipped with Smart Boards, computers and even iPads.

Students with hidden disabilities should not be lost in the shuffle or ostracized.

This 1972 law was never just about sports—it radically changed everything about education for girls and women.