Social Justice & Human Rights

How do we help students to build a fair and just world?

YES! Recommends: Teaching Diverse Students Initiative

posted Mar 26, 2010

How can teachers effectively teach diverse students when they struggle with their own understandings of race?

Curriculum and Resources: Americans Who Tell the Truth

posted Dec 28, 2009

Robert Shetterly's remarkable collection of portraits reminds us of the dignity, courage and importance of America's truth tellers. Here we offer curriculum tools to support the series.

Rethinking Schools

posted Sep 22, 2009

Like YES! Magazine, Rethinking Schools strives to be both visionary and practical. We are delighted to share three of many lesson plans from Rethinking Schools that get to the heart of a real-world education.

Visual Learning: Week of Nonviolence

posted Jan 27, 2009

Use this photo to ask your students what they notice and are wondering. Then share the facts behind the image to connect to greater understanding and discovery.

Connect and Engage: Making History

posted Jan 16, 2009

To teach happiness, be happy. Teachers, in particular, need support to be passionate and content in a challenging profession. The Center for Courage and Renewal's "Courage to Teach" supports this belief with essays, articles, and a retreat program.

Connect and Engage: Addressing Fear

posted Oct 27, 2008

Here are lesson plans and how-to resources forcoming to terms with false assumptions about immigrants, the current economic crisis, and walls that separate important relationships. Simply put, it’s about addressing fear with clarity and calmness.

Equality Ride :: Photos from the 2007 Tour

by Adam Britt, Amanda Harris

posted Jul 29, 2008

Photos from the 2007 Equality Ride, bringing 50 riders to conservative campuses to show the humanity and spirituality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

Connect and Engage: Foreign Policy

posted Jun 03, 2008

As a teacher, helping your students understand foreign policy requires that you explore other cultures and nations and how they relate to the United States. Here are a couple of curriculum options to help you make that connection.

Teaching with the News

posted Jun 02, 2008

The Choices Program’s Teaching with the News initiative provides online curriculum materials and ideas to connect the content of the classroom to the headlines in the news. Its twelve lesson plans cover a range of foreign policy and international issues, from analyzing U.S. efforts to combat terrorism to exploring policy alternatives for relations with Iran.

Addressing Guatemala’s Educational Crisis

by Ryan Richards

posted Mar 10, 2008

The Miguel Angel Asturias Academy offers a model for reforming Guatemala’s education system. Scholarships and low general tuition rates make the Academy accessible to even the poorest families. The curriculum combines strong academic fundamentals with training in leadership and human rights issues.

Students Unite for a Department of Peace

by Rob Atkinson

posted Dec 27, 2007

Southwestern University student Rob Atkinson describes his commitment to peace and involvement with the Student Peace Alliance.

Voices in Wartime

posted Dec 27, 2007

Curriculum tools and resources from the Voices in Wartime Education Project.

Connect and Engage :: Teaching Peace

posted Dec 27, 2007

Resources to accompany the December 2007 Education Connection newsletter on Teaching Peace: PeaceJam, Teaching Tolerance, Educators for NonViolence, Oxfam Education: Darfur-Teaching the Issues.

SIDEBAR :: Teaching Respect

by Sarah Kuck

posted Mar 26, 2007

Imagine a school that takes a human-rights based approach to education. Loring Nicollet Alternative School (LNAS) in Minneapolis does just that.

Military Recruitment of Youth - stories, links & resources

by Brandi Bratrude

posted Dec 08, 2006

Are you being recruited? Are recruiters giving you all the information you need to make an informed decision about joining the military? Do you have other options? These questions should be filtering through your mind while trying to understand what it means to be a young American.