Like Our Blog Posts from Teaching Tolerance? Here Are Some of 2011's Best.

Like Our Blog Posts from Teaching Tolerance? Here Are Some of 2011's Best.

Blog posts generate a variety of reactions. Sometimes readers agree. Sometimes they challenge us. Here are a few of the top Teaching Tolerance blogs from 2011. Laura Sofen discussed the challenges of teaching young men in "The Boys in My Study Hall." Ted Palenski explained how he has dealt with gender issues among young students in "Make Room for Pirate Girls, Princess Boys." Jill E. Thomas pondered the difficulties of dealing with hateful Internet comments in "Online Hate: Unfriend or Speak Up." Teaching Tolerance Director Maureen Costello showed how old forms of prejudice come back again in "Alabama's Immigration Law: The New Jim Crow." New Media Content Manager Annah Lauren Kelley explained how the body mass index is being misused to "help" some students in "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Student." And H. Roy Kaplan showed that the greatest challenge in fighting bigotry often starts at home in "The Case of the Black Barbie Doll."The Unholy Bond of Race and Marriage

The Unholy Bond of Race and Marriage

In 1958, Virginia police arrested Richard and Mildred Loving. The charge: Interracial marriage. This absurd arrest led nine years later to the Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia, which struck down anti-miscegenation laws throughout the United States. An upcoming documentary to be aired on HBO, The Loving Story, tells the beautiful story behind this case. Watch for the teaching guide, created by Teaching Tolerance, to help educators bring this into the classroom.

Teaching With Religious Diversity In Mind

Next summer, from July 16 to Aug. 3, the Interfaith Center of New York and Union Theological Seminary will hold a three-week institute for teachers designed to help them understand religious diversity in everyday life. Applications are due in the spring. Go here for more information or contact Henry Goldschmidt at info@religiousworldsnyc.org or (212) 870-3514.

Special Offer from Teaching Tolerance

We have available to teachers hardback copies of Rhinos & Raspberries: Tolerance Tales for the Early Grades, a literature-based teaching kit (click here for a sample lesson). Also available are classroom sets of A Place at the Table: Struggles for Equality in America, a book of brief, kid-friendly stories about efforts to overcome discrimination in U.S. history (1 box of 30 copies). Ordering limit is one per teacher as long as quantities last.




What's Ahead: New Teaching Tolerance Lessons
Plan ahead for the next four weeks:

· Jan. 4: Family Tapestry: My Family is the Same. My Family is Different (3 of 4)

· Jan. 9: Family Tapestry: Stitching It Together (4 of 4)

· Jan. 17: Issues of Poverty: What is Poverty? (1 of 4)

· Jan. 23: Issues of Poverty: A Structural Problem (2 of 4)

Start the Year Right—Tell Your Friends About Us
If you like what you read at Teaching Tolerance, then forward this newsletter to your colleagues. If a friend sent this to you, sign up for your own FREE e-newsletter here.