Spring 2014
Table of Contents
Education Uprising
In Depth
Explore SectionFrom the Editors
Meet the New Rebels Taking Back Our Public Schools
For decades the myth of failing public schools justified industrial-scale testing and a privatization agenda. Now radical educators are bursting the bubble test, getting culturally relevant, and restoring justice to the classroom.
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The Myth Behind Public School Failure
In the rush to privatize the country鈥檚 schools, corporations and politicians have decimated school budgets, replaced teaching with standardized testing, and placed the blame on teachers and students.
Dean Paton
You Can鈥檛 Bounce Off the Walls If There Are No Walls: Outdoor Schools Make Kids Happier鈥攁nd Smarter
New approaches to kindergarten offer us a glimpse of what childhood used to be, and still could be鈥攖he modern re-creation of the children鈥檚 garden. If we looked to these examples, we might be able to rescue childhood.
David T. Sobel, M. Ed.
Discipline With Dignity: Oakland Classrooms Try Healing Instead of Punishment
As executive director of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth, Fania Davis sees programs like hers as part of the way to end the school-to-prison pipeline.
Fania Davis
These Seattle Teachers Boycotted Standardized Testing鈥攁nd Sparked a Nationwide Movement
Parents, students, and teachers all over the country have joined the revolt to liberate our kids from a test-obsessed education system.
Diane Brooks
This Is What Happened When Scholastic Tried to Bring Pro-Coal Propaganda to School
鈥淭he United States of Energy鈥� was a colorful series of lessons on the advantages of coal, aimed at 4th-graders鈥攁nd sponsored by Big Coal. Here鈥檚 how educators and activists worked together to get it out of classrooms.
Bill Bigelow
Just the Facts
Why Corporations Want Our Public Schools
There are huge profits to be made in privatization, and much of it will come from teacher pay.
Doug Pibel & Tracy Matsue Loeffelholz
10 Things Creative People Know
Everyday creative activities like knitting and cooking can boost your levels of serotonin and decrease anxiety.
Charlie Murphy & Peggy Taylor
Proponent of Bush Administration鈥檚 No Child Left Behind Law: 鈥淚 Was Wrong鈥�
In her new book, Diane Ravitch鈥攐ne of the leading thinkers behind the controversial Bush-era law鈥攅xplores how the faulty logic of high-stakes testing, charter school expansion, and privatization hinders education.
Scott Nine
Unleashing Empathy: How Teachers Transform Classrooms With Emotional Learning
The secret to learning self-awareness, cooperation, and other 鈥渟ocial and emotional learning鈥� skills lies in experience, not in workbooks and rote classroom exercises.
Lennon Flowers
Protecting Classrooms From Corporate Takeover: What Families Can Learn from Teachers鈥� Unions
Teachers are fighting the privatization wave by connecting with families right where they live.
Amy B. Dean
When This Teacher鈥檚 Ethnic Studies Classes Were Banned, His Students Took the District to Court鈥攁nd Won
Curtis Acosta's classes in Mexican American Studies gave kids pride in their heritage鈥攗ntil the Arizona Legislature canceled them. That's when his students became activists, and some real-life lessons began.
Jing Fong
Solutions We Love
Explore Section
A Passion for Peppers: The Movement to Save New Mexico’s Treasured Chiles
New Mexico's traditional landrace chile varieties have adapted to hot days, cold nights, and long dry spells. But can they survive modern agribusiness?
Nina Bunker Ruiz
Legalization is a Human Rights Issue: Latin America Steps Up Resolve to End the Drug Wars
On the heels of pot legalization in Washington and Colorado, the movement for less punitive drug policy is coalescing at every level. Its new leaders could come from the very countries that have suffered the most.
Wendy Call
People We Love
This Fifth-Grader Raised $200,000 to Clean Up the Gulf Oil Spill by Selling Watercolors
These three young activists found creative ways to tackle issues from climate change to voting rights.
Christine St. Pierre & Miles Becker
Remember When We Toppled SOPA/PIPA in Just 24 Hours? How the People Can Still Win on Net Neutrality
When it comes to limiting digital rights, big companies are in cahoots with governments like never before. But the belief that everyone deserves safe, affordable, and private access to the Internet is taking off.
Hannah Sassaman & Josh Levy
The Page That Counts
Recycling One Aluminum Can Will Power a Laptop for More Than Five Hours
And other facts you should probably know.
Christine St. Pierre & Miles Becker
Culture Shift
Explore Section
5 DIY Musical Instruments You Can Make From Stuff Around the House
Craft instruments from easy-to-find materials and invite more music into your family's life.
Christine St. Pierre & Miles Becker
John Lewis鈥� Moving Graphic Novel Brings the Civil Rights Struggle to a New Generation
In the tradition of 鈥淢aus鈥� and 鈥淧ersepolis,鈥� 鈥淢arch鈥� tells the story of young African Americans who, like its author, rose up from the Jim Crow South to assert their human rights.
Valerie Schloredt
When Big Money Controls Big Media, There鈥檚 a Big Decline in Democracy
鈥淒ollarocracy鈥� examines innovations in other democratic nations to solve our money-in-politics crisis.
David Kortava
Why Politics at the Dinner Table Is Good for Democracy
Our political process, Robert Jensen reminds us, begins with conversation.
Andy Lee Roth
