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.
Read moreThe Myth Behind Public School Failure
In the rush to privatize the country’s schools, corporations and politicians have decimated school budgets, replaced teaching with standardized testing, and placed the blame on teachers and students.
Dean PatonYou Can’t Bounce Off the Walls If There Are No Walls: Outdoor Schools Make Kids Happier—and Smarter
New approaches to kindergarten offer us a glimpse of what childhood used to be, and still could be—the modern re-creation of the children’s 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—and 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
“The United States of Energy†was a colorful series of lessons on the advantages of coal, aimed at 4th-graders—and sponsored by Big Coal. Here’s 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’s No Child Left Behind Law: “I Was Wrongâ€
In her new book, Diane Ravitch—one of the leading thinkers behind the controversial Bush-era law—explores 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 “social and emotional learning†skills lies in experience, not in workbooks and rote classroom exercises.
Lennon Flowers
Protecting Classrooms From Corporate Takeover: What Families Can Learn from Teachers’ Unions
Teachers are fighting the privatization wave by connecting with families right where they live.
Amy B. Dean
When This Teacher’s Ethnic Studies Classes Were Banned, His Students Took the District to Court—and Won
Curtis Acosta's classes in Mexican American Studies gave kids pride in their heritage—until the Arizona Legislature canceled them. That's when his students became activists, and some real-life lessons began.
Jing Fong
Solutions We Love
Explore SectionA 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