Blogs

The nominees for the 43rd NAACP Image Awards were recently announced. We are pleased to see that several progressive authors have been honored. Teaching for Change's Busboys and Poets Bookstore proudly hosted several of the nominated authors in the past year in Washington D.C.: Tayari Jones, Toure, Melissa Harris-Perry, John Carlos, Dave Zirin, and Harry Belafonte. We will be hosting one nominee, Elijah Anderson, in April 2012.

		Melissa Harris-Perry delivered a riveting presentation on her latest book, Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America, to a full house at Busboys and Poets on September 19, 2011. Read more.
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		On September 20, 2011, Tayari Jones delivered a powerful reading from her newest novel, Silver Sparrow. Tayari's reading followed an equally-great reading by author Martha Southgate. The final question of the evening happened to be “What do you have on your Kindles?” Jones stepped in and made a great anti-Amazon pitch before responding to the spirit of the question -- a great ending to the event.
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John Carlos and Dave Zirin presented their book, The John Carlos Story, at Busboys and Poets on October 1, 2011. Listen to the podcast. On October 3rd, Carlos spoke to the students at Capital City Public Charter School. Read More. Carlos pointed out that textbooks include the famous photo of Tommie Smith and himself with their fists in the air because those in power “cannot ignore the power of that picture, that demonstration. So they take it and they put it in the textbook for the students to see. But yet and still, they give you no more than two lines to explain what that picture’s worth."
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		Blazingly honest and witty, American novelist, essayist, music journalist, cultural critic, and television personality Touré dealt with the complexities of contemporary racism to a full house on Oct. 5. You can watch the discussion of his book, Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness, on C-SPAN's BookTV.
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		On December 15th, Harry Belafonte was interviewed by Phyllis Bennis, who is also a noted author and a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. In front of a packed Busboys and Poets, Belafonte discussed his memoir, My Song, and his lifelong committment to social justice.
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		Coming in April     Teaching for Change's Busboys and Poets Bookstore welcomes Elijah Anderson to discuss and sign his new book, The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life Thursday, April 26, 2012 6:30 to 8:00 PM Busboys and Poets - 14th & V Sponsors: Teaching for Change, Busboys and Poets, Urban Affairs and Planning, Virginia Tech

Staff reviews of Waiting for the Biblioburro (by Monica Brown) and Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia (by Jeanette Winter)

Reviews by Katie Seitz, Bookseller

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For teachers who are moved by the story of Luis Humberto Soriano Bohórquez, Alfa, and Beto and want to introduce them to their students, consider supplementing these books with resources that contextualize the situation in Colombia with more depth and dimension. For example, the website supporting the PBS Point of View documentary "Biblioburro: The Donkey Library" (www.pbs.org/pov/biblioburro/) has a wealth of resources including clips from the film, video news updates from Luis, and straightforward information about the political and economic violence in Colombia. It also includes interactive maps providing information about literacy rates worldwide as well as videos of mobile libraries in Africa, North America, Australia, Asia, and Europe.

Article by LaTissia Mitchell | Interview by Jonathan Tucker

Teaching for Change encourages teachers and students to question and rethink the world inside and outside their classrooms. This makes it especially gratifying when our curricula and teaching guides become the cornerstone of after-school and summer educational programs. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture used our publication Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching (published with PRRAC) in its 2011 Summer Education Institute. For those unfamiliar with the Schomburg Center, for 85 years this research institution, a division of the New York Public Library, has collected, preserved, and made available the largest collection of materials documenting the history of African-descended peoples. Centrally located in Harlem, N.Y., the center’s collection and programs serve approximately 87,500 residents, students, and scholars each year. This summer participants in both the Junior Scholars Program and the Summer Education Institute received copies of Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching. The book connects the African American Civil Rights Movement to Native American, Latina, Asian American, gay rights, and international struggles. Deirdre Hollman, MSEd, director of education and the Junior Scholars Program at the Schomburg Center, offers the most succinct assessment, saying, “Teachers really appreciate Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching because of the practical resources it provides.” In addition, Hollman proclaims, “I love it because it has so many perspectives on the movement that help me connect with different populations.” The book’s collection of songs, speeches, and classroom activities make it the ideal resource for both teachers and students.
“Naturally, I always turn to this resource,” says Hollman, who was first introduced to Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching as a graduate student by her mentor and contributing author, Professor Bernadette Anand (Bank Street College). It challenges the dominant narrative of traditional textbooks and curricula that deify Martin Luther King Jr., pacify Rosa Parks, and teach students that only a handful of equally extraordinary individuals brought about the great social, cultural, and political transformation of the 1950s and 1960s. Our book expects students and teachers to see themselves as a necessary continuation of that struggle. Rather than separating ourselves from this history, Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching draws a link between our lives today and the people’s movements for freedom and justice that we study. We provide teachers with the tools to help their students make that connection.	Deirdre Lynn Hollman, Director of Education & The Junior Scholars Program, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
The Junior Scholars Program brings together 100 youth from the New York metropolitan area for a precollege black studies program that meets October through May annually. After 10 years, the program continues to teach the unique and rich contribution of African diasporic experiences on politics, social movements for justice and equity, and the arts. Teaching for Change’s discussion and teaching guides on the African American Civil Rights Movement offer a perfect complement to the goals of the program because the movement influenced and collaborated with other social movements. Learning through this seemingly narrow lens of African American experience places the students in the program at the center of what Hollman describes as “the complex social fabric of our histories.” By using Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching, the Schomburg Center equips students and educators to understand how social movements connect people throughout history.
The inclusion of Teaching for Change materials in the Schomburg Education Institute this summer fulfills one of our own programming goals: professional development. The institute unites educators (schoolteachers, college faculty, and community educators) with premier historians and scholars to explore the history and cultures of African Americans and African peoples throughout the diaspora. It pleases us to learn that Dr. Yohuru Williams, one of the advisors to Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching, led a session. Dr. Williams, a history professor at Fairfield University, used the book during his presentation about the ongoing movement for civil rights in the United States. An emphasis on the continuity of struggle and community involvement makes the history covered in the book and subsequent lessons both relevant and necessary to today’s students.
Judy Richardson (pictured left near podium with other presenters), SNCC veteran and associate producer of the landmark documentary Eyes on the Prize, also presented at the Summer Education Institute. Her chapter from Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching—an educational guide to Eyes on the Prize—exemplifies the links to the present that arise from effectively teaching movement history. The centerpiece of the chapter is a list of themes for the study of the Civil Rights Movement: • The movement was a primary force for the expansion of democracy for all. • The movement was based on the work of thousands of ordinary people who both organized and sustained it. • The movement emphasized our responsibility to each other. • The movement was based on humane values that brought out the best in each individual involved. • The movement was not simply a series of spontaneous demonstrations—it was carefully planned and executed. • A continuity of protest exists within African American history. • Women were a fundamental part of the leadership and the troops of the movement.
The past and present exist within a continuum in this list of themes. Richardson’s suggestions on how to use Eyes on the Prize to reach young people today mirrors the dynamism of the movement, thereby engaging students in the learning process. Interactive lesson plans, role plays, and other ideas to make the movement energetic are available online at civilrightsteaching.org. “The companion website,” exclaims Hollman, “is extremely valuable. It is really great how these resources envelop me and my students in the multiple and varied social justice issues of the day.” Together, Teaching for Change and the Schomburg Center encourage young people to become change agents and active citizens. We are honored to have our teaching materials used by one of the premier education and research institutions in the country.

Pictures courtesy of the Schomburg Center.

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For more information about the Schomburg Center’s education programs, visit www.schomburgcenter.org or email schomburged@nypl.org.

For more resources about teaching the civil rights movement, visit the dedicated website for Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching at www.civilrightsteaching.org.

Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching is available for bulk discount purchasing for your classroom, training or organization. Read more.

	L-R: McKinley Technology High School; Librarian Orisanmi Burton shows some donated titles; Bookseller Derrick Weston Brown carting books; Brown helps Burton load the donations into his car.

by LaTissia Mitchell

At times, Teaching for Change’s mission, to nurture and build social justice in schools, surprises us with its reach. In April, members of the McKinley Technology High School PTSA approached Publications Director Don Allen and me about hosting a book drive to expand the school’s library. The opportunity to utilize Teaching for Change’s Busboys and Poets Bookstore in such a positive and tangible way appealed to us immediately. The bookstore would be a conduit for enriching students’ intellectual development. We decided at the initial meeting that McKinley’s librarian, Orisanmi Burton, would consult the bookstore’s website for titles.

Mr. Burton cites Teaching for Change’s commitment to progressive curriculum development in his remarks about the genesis of the book drive: “This book drive was part of an effort by our very active parent association to build up the library’s Women’s Studies, Black Studies, and young adult fiction materials. Our library, like many school libraries, is underfunded and has a paltry collection. Many of the resources we do have are outdated. We turned to Teaching for a Change because of the organization’s focus on social justice materials.” The selected titles would then be available for customers to purchase and donate during the weekend of June 12-14; additionally, the book donation would entitle the buyer to a discount on the day’s shopping.

When the weekend for the book drive arrived, no one could have prepared for the customers’ tremendous generosity and overall spirit of cooperation. Throughout the weekend, patrons of Teaching for Change’s Busboys and Poets Bookstore enthusiastically donated books to McKinley’s library. Everyone commented that this was an innovative and inspiring approach to solicit support from the community for DCPS. A nominal act of kindness on the part of many resulted in the purchase of all 40 selected titles, which amounted to a $725 donation to the library.

I also want to believe that the book drive allowed the general public to reflect on current budget restrictions that necessitated supplemental funding for a public school library. In the end, the students of McKinley will benefit from the widespread involvement of friends, family, and strangers. We at Teaching for Change look forward to a continued collaboration with McKinley Technology High School.

We are interested in partnering with more schools on book drives for their school libraries. For schools in Washington D.C., we can create displays in the bookstore and apply discounts to in-store purchases. For schools outside of the D.C. area, we can use our webstore to create title lists and give discounts to customers anywhere in the country who are willing to donate books. Email us to discuss a book drive for your school.

A sample of titles donated to McKinley

See the full McKinley Technology High School Reading List.

Successful book drive is best day at work for bookseller Sonia Valencia

by Louise Derman-Sparks with Merrie Najimy

What messages are you hearing from the mainstream media about the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt? What about the fighting in Libya or the government crackdowns in Syria and Bahrain? If the messages and images of Arabs and their countries are confusing to you, imagine what children are picking up from them. These new messages occur in a social environment full of existing stereotypes, misinformation, and incidents of discrimination and hatred directed at Americans of Arab descent. For example, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) reports that in 2011, the number of discrimination complaints handled by the ADC legal department is the highest since 2003—even more than after 9/11/2001 (2010 ADC Legal Report: Legal Advocacy and Policy Review).

If you work with Arab American children, you will want to assess how your learning environment supports their positive identity and home culture. As anti-bias educator Merrie Najimy relates:

Growing up Arab American in the '70s and '80s—not quite white, Semitic nose and lips, black hair galore—I felt like I lived in two worlds, “Arab" and “American”—the former not to be shared in the latter, because of concerns about being different from the dominant culture. My Arabic world was my grandmother, aunts, uncles, and first cousins all living nearby, regular Sunday dinners at Sitto’s (Grandmother’s) house, her friends chatting in Arabic, the elders smoking fruit tobacco on the Argeelee (water pipe). Women walking hand in hand and men arm in arm with no homophobic stigma attached. My cousins picking up the tabla (drum) and making powerful music, the beauty of the men dancing, and so much more. I had many friends, yet felt like an “other.” I made faces at Dick and Jane in the basal reader and scribbled in the book because their lives were nothing like my life. They represented a life that I was supposed to emulate. When kids found out I was Lebanese, they often asked, “What’s that?” which made me feel like my ethnicity was a disease. I now realize that the awkwardness I felt was due to the absence of a multicultural education—i.e., an anti-bias framework. (From Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards, 2010).

Now is a crucial time to assess how you are teaching children about children of Arab heritage.

Teacher Preparation Guidelines

• Common stereotypes include "All Arabs have the same culture" or "Arabs look the same."
• A predominant and possibly harmful stereotype from mass media is that Arabs are scary and they hurt other people.
• People often erroneously think that all Arabs are Muslim and all Muslims are Arabs.
• To see more stereotypes with full descriptions, go to this companion page: Countering Arab Stereotypes.

2. Learn about how your particular group of children thinks. Use this data to plan for long-term materials and activities to correct and expand children’s ideas and foster unbiased interactions.

• Preparation Strategy 1
• Preparation Strategy 2

3. Examine your own ideas and feelings.

Children are not the only ones vulnerable to misinformation and negative messages about people of Arab heritage; most of the people living in the United States have been surrounded by considerable anti-Arab prejudice from mainstream media for many years. Among the most serious myths affecting adults is that all Arab men are extremist and/or terrorists, out to get Americans; Islam is responsible for Arab terrorism; and all Arab women are much more oppressed than women from other ethnic or religious groups. None of these are true. As in all groups, a small minority of individuals may fit one or more of these characterizations, but not the vast majority. Honestly uncovering stereotypes, misinformation, and learned prejudices will enable you to eliminate their insidious influence on your thinking, attitudes, and behaviors.

4. Design appropriate activities to counter misinformation and help children resist prejudice. Keep in mind that “Ethnic stereotypes are especially harmful in the absence of positive ethnic images” (Wingfield & Karaman, Beyond Heroes and Holidays, p.138).

5. Make sure that children of Arab heritage in your program are visible in your learning materials, your curriculum supports their home culture (including being Muslim if that is the religion of their family), and fosters bilingualism if their home language is other than English.

• Strategies for supporting home culture

Assemble and create accurate teaching materials. This task will require you to search beyond the traditional sources and to also make your own materials—especially for young children. There are a few good books that focus on Arabs in other countries; however, young children need to know that there are many Americans of Arab heritage and that they live in a variety of ways. Ask Arabs from your community if they will help you create books, photos to use for learning games, etc. (See Anti-Bias Education, chapter 4, for more ideas.)

Concept 1: Arab American families live in a variety of ways. They are both alike and different from your own and other families. With older children—upper elementary, middle, high school, you can also expand to include Arab families in other counties (such as Sitti’s Secrets and Everybody Bakes Bread). Merrie’s story is about herself—ask someone you know to share something similar.

• Strategies
  
• Book Recommendations:
  
  

Concept 2: Arab American families work and contribute to our country in many ways. With older children—upper elementary, middle, high school, you can also expand to include the work and contributions of Arabs in other countries.

• Strategies

Concept 3: Untrue stereotypes about people of Arab heritage exist and are unfair.

Although this essential work can be done beginning with preschool/K children, activities will change developmentally if you teach primary and older children.

• Strategies for preschool/kindergarten-age children
• Strategies for primary school-age children

Concept 4: (For primary and older school children) Build understanding and empathy for the people living in countries where U.S. troops engage in armed conflict with particular political factions or governments.

Primary graders (and beyond) are old enough to hear about stories of conflict, presented in an age-appropriate, sensitive context that focuses on the lives and actions of ordinary people who are caught up in the conflicts.

• Strategies

We are interested to hear about more strategies being used in classrooms. Share your ideas for teaching about Arabs and Arab Americans: Email us or log in to post comments below.

For further information about Arabs and Arab culture, see Facts About the Arab World. Also, Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies has produced free downloadable pamphlets, including Who are the Arabs? and The Contributions of Arab Civilization to Mathematics and Science.

Recommended Books on Arabs and Arab Americans

Images taken from Beyond Heroes and Holidays, Sugar Comes from Arabic, One Green Apple, and The Librarian of Basra.

A Moment in the Sun

John Sayles might be wasting his talents making movies. The acclaimed director has true skills as a writer, possibly eclipsing his work behind the camera. Anyone who has seen Lone Star, Eight Men Out, or any of Sayles' numerous movies knows that it would take prodigious writing talent in order to top his accomplishments as a director. Yet, Sayles new novel, A Moment in the Sun, shows him as a top notch writer, possibly one of the best at bringing to life America’s dark and dirty history. Set in the late 19th century, this is a raw and epic novel, loaded with Sayles' typically brilliant explorations into injustice and racial inequality. Plus, he doesn’t shy away from the harmful reality of U.S. imperialism, showing its deadly effects on the people of the Philippines and on the Americans unlucky enough to be a part of the U.S. military. For fans of Howard Zinn’s essential work, A People’s History of the United States, Sayles has created a fiction equivalent. His stomach-turning, descriptive powers effectively squelch glorifying of a time period associated with Reconstruction and Imperialism. In summary: Crucial Reading. -- Don Allen, Teaching for Change Publications Director

• PURCHASE BOOK

	More Books by John Sayles:
	Films by John Sayles:

"Both of my grandmothers were elementary school teachers. Both of my aunts were librarians, and everyone in my family loved to read."

Teaching for Change staff member Derrick Weston Brown has just released his first book of poetry, Wisdom Teeth (published by the Busboys and Poets imprint of PM Press). Derrick started at Teaching for Change as a bookseller nearly six years ago and was integral to the launch of Teaching for Change’s Busboys and Poets Bookstore. At that time he became Busboys and Poets’ first Poet-in-Residence. Derrick’s hometown is Charlotte, N.C., but he currently resides in the Washington, D.C. metro region, specifically Mount Ranier, MD. He teaches creative writing at Emerson Preparatory School in northwest and at Hart Middle School in southeast. 

Teaching for Change: How does your hometown Charlotte influence you? 

Derrick Weston Brown: Charlotte has and will always be home to me, although I haven't lived there for close to 10 years. I had a great childhood and I developed a love of books and writing through my family. Both of my grandmothers were elementary school teachers. Both of my aunts were librarians, and everyone in my family loved to read. As an only child, I had an active imagination and my family encouraged it as well as helped me focus my imagination toward the performing arts

TFC: What was your favorite book when you were a kid?  What is your favorite children’s book right now? 

DWB: That's an easy one,The Story of Ferdinand. Favorite kids book right now; Those Shoes and Hip and Hop, Don't Stop.

TFC: What are you reading right now?

DWB: John Murillo's Up Jump the Boogie and an autobiography about a Liberian peace activist called And Still No Peace Came.

TFC: What is the book that you are most likely to tell people that they MUST read? 

DWB: The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

TFC: Who are the biggest influences as a writer?  

DWB: As a writer: Sonia Sanchez, Paul Beatty, Sherman Alexie, Lucille Clifton, Shel Silverstein.

As a person: Mom.

TFC: What book (or books) changed your life in some way? 

DWB: Paul Beatty's The White Boy Shuffle and a little known book called The Stray by Jamie Wyeth. These books changed my life as a writer because I really saw from Beatty's work that all the elements and literary devices of great creative writing could be used in poetry AND fiction. Jamie Wyeth's The Stray was the first book to make me cry, because of the unexpected tragedy at the end of it. I was not ready and Wyeth didn't foreshadow anything. Like life, death comes without warning. I was so mad at the end of the book. I was twelve or thirteen and I felt betrayed. I was so invested in the characters, that when the tragedy came, I was ill-prepared. That's when I knew, that was good writing.

TFC: Can you share your favorite haiku (written by you)? 

DWB:

Paul D's Haiku to Sethe
I always loved trees
long slim limbs swaying brown boughs
Sethe be my Oak

(This is from "The Sweet Home Men Series – For Toni Morrison" in Wisdom Teeth– ed.)

TFC: Why is your book called Wisdom Teeth?

DWB: Wisdom Teeth is about growth and pain and inevitable readjustment. I've always had a hard time with change. This book reflects the journey and continuance of that struggle, discomfort and eventual understanding that change is the one constant in this world. 

TFC: How does D.C. influence your poetry?  

DWB: D.C. is important because it is a great city for writers. Before I moved to D.C. I had an email conversation with E. Ethelbert Miller. He told me that D.C. was fertile ground for writers. D.C. also influenced my growth from a young man into a "grown" man. I learned how to hustle in this city. I got my heart broken in this city.  I found love, lost love, found love in this city. I also found a strong and nurturing writing community in this city. I learned what it is to really "craft" a poem in this city.

TFC: How does Hip Hop influence your poetry?

DWB: I think I'll quote Mos Def to answer this question:

My restlessness is my nemesis
It's hard to really chill and sit still
Committed to page, I write rhymes
Sometimes won't finish for days
Scrutinize my literature, from the large to the miniature
I mathematically add-minister
Subtract the wack
Selector, wheel it back, I'm feeling that
From the core to the perimeter black,
You know the motto
Stay fluid even in staccato

Washington D.C., March 25, 2011

"...they can never block my voice from reaching the great and peace-loving people in the United States."

Because the United States denied her visa to enter the U.S., Malalai Joya, an acclaimed women’s rights activist and former member of Afghanistan’s parliament, addressd an audience of over 50 for an author event at Busboys and Poets via Skype on Tuesday, March 22. The event was co-hosted by Teaching for Change and the Afghan Women's Mission. Ms. Joya, who was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2010, had been scheduled to appear at Busboys and Poets in person as part of her three-week U.S. tour to promote an updated edition of her memoir, A Woman Among Warlords.

Busboys and Poets, Teaching for Change, and the Afghan Women's Mission advocated for her permisison to travel. Determined not to let the denial of her visa be an obstacle to free speech, all three groups coordinated her Skype presentation at the scheduled time - 6:30 on Tuesday evening in DC -- 3:30am for the author in Afghanistan.

Teaching for Change staff member LaTissia Mitchell described the very moving event, "The presentation and dialogue went smoothly, despite the delicate balance of technology, timing and circumstance that had to come together. Via Skype from an undisclosed location in Afghanistan, the screen all of the sudden filled with Joya’s face. She is animated and spirited, with an almost joyous demeanor. Her comments throughout were impassioned and pointed: she called for a public declaration of the Afghan war and occupation as a war crime perpetrated by the United States, she called the U.S. Embassy cowardly for denying her visa, and she let us know that everyday Afghanis are protesting both the war and the corruption of their own leadership. The collusion of mainstream media in the U.S. and in Afghanistan to silence dissenting voices was the most heartbreaking aspect of the evening. However, Joya said that Skype, Facebook, email, and the internet make it possible for peace-loving, justice-loving people to get news and information. The attendees asked questions and everyone expressed great appreciation for the opportunity to have this international exchange."

Colleagues of Ms. Joya’s report that the U.S. embassy told her she was being denied because she was “unemployed” and “lives underground.” At age 27, Joya was the youngest woman elected to Afghanistan’s parliament in 2005. Because of her harsh criticism of warlords and fundamentalists in Afghanistan, she has been the target of at least five assassination attempts. “The reason Joya lives underground is because she faces the constant threat of death for having the courage to speak up for women’s rights – it’s obscene that the U.S. government would deny her entry,” said Sonali Kolhatkar of the Afghan Women’s Mission, a U.S. organization that has hosted Joya for speaking tours in the past and is a sponsor of this year’s national tour.

Joya is also an internationally known critic of the US-NATO war in Afghanistan. Organizers argue that the visa denial appears to be a case of what the American Civil Liberties Union describes as “Ideological Exclusion,” violating Americans’ First Amendment right to hear constitutionally protected speech by denying foreign scholars, artists, politicians and others entry to the United States.

"When we hosted Ms. Joya in 2009, the audience appreciated her honesty and courage. It is outrageous that the U.S. government would attempt to prevent this important voice from being heard," said Don Allen, Publications Director of Teaching for Change, the co-host of Tuesday night's event.

Addressing the closing plenary of The Left Forum in New York City this past weekend via Skype, Ms. Joya said, "Now the U.S. government tries to stop me from entering, but they can never block my voice from reaching the great and peace-loving people in the United States."

Postscript: On March 24th, Malalai Joya was finally given a visa to the United States, more than a week after she was initially denied. Thanks to a sustained campaign that rapidly materialized through a national network of organizers, Joya is able to make it to the United States, and just in time for a major event at Harvard University featuring Noam Chomsky. The campaign to pressure authorities to grant Ms. Joya the visa was a multi-pronged one. Within days of her initial visa refusal, organizers in many states lobbied their representatives in Congress to send a letter to the U.S. Embassy urging them to grant her a visa. Following that an online petition was set up, which has been signed by over 3000 people to date. And, on Wednesday March 23rd, a national call-in day was announced, calling on Americans to flood the State Department with phone calls urging Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to grant Joya a visa.

Links:

Purchase Malalai Joya's book, A Woman Among Warlords

Joya's resumed tour schedule

Joya's website

San Francisco Chronicle article about her visa being finally granted

Fostering Young Children’s Thinking About Fairness and Cooperative Action

by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards

The political struggle in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and several other states over the right to unionize has thrust working people into the limelight. The threat to unionized labor, and the economic and health benefits supported by unions, also threatens children’s quality of life—now and in the future. In fact, millions of families and children risk losing their quality of life. Proposed and enacted state budget cuts to public education weaken the capacity of schools to educate the vast majority of children living in working and middle-class American households. In addition, our children are surrounded by contradictory messages about the very people who teach and serve them in their communities.

What young children learn about economic class in this continued debate about economic and job security will affect how they perceive themselves and the world around them. They are taking in a range of messages about these events, from the wide variety of views on television to the opinions and statements of their own families on economic matters. Attitudes supporting unions and those blaming unions for the economic hardships in our country are all swirling around them. Now is an especially good time to educate and engage children about the work people do, labor, and about people working together to improve our lives.

By preschool age, children absorb messages from both society and family about the value and importance of different kinds of work, including what their families do. They are influenced by the prevailing misinformation about what makes people affluent, or poor. The relative affluence of their families shapes their attitudes toward economic class differences and their own economic status and prospects. They learn about who is important enough to be visible and valued from sources such as children’s books, videos, television, advertising and toys, and from their early childhood curriculum. Many kinds of valuable work seldom get seen (e.g., waitresses, farmworkers, custodians, domestic workers, store clerks, office workers, homemakers, and artists).

Children’s understanding of economic class changes as they grow up. Young elementary school children are likely to both describe and explain poverty and wealth in observable concrete terms, such as number of possessions and type of residence. From an early age they are aware that their parents work hard—often equating this hard work with not being available to be with them. When they are around 10 years of age, children begin to refer to psychological traits, such as motivation, in their explanations of why people are in different circumstances. During childhood and adolescence, children increasingly make the connection between having a job and getting money; and they are more aware of the status and financial benefits associated with specific occupations. Finally, adolescents are capable of seeing the role of the social and economic structure in the unequal distribution of wealth.

Children also have ideas about economic disparities and fairness. Often preschoolers say that it is not fair that some people have more money than others do and the rich should share with poor people. Elementary school children may also advocate equalizing the wealth between rich and poor. However, older children and adolescents are more likely to justify inequalities by claiming that poor people get what they deserve (“They didn’t work hard enough”). Children and adolescents from working poor families may succumb to the power of that myth and feel confused and disturbed about their families, who work very hard, yet still have little money.

The explosive growth of consumerism in the past three decades aggravates the effects of economic disparities. Advertising abounds that targets children on television, in films, and in print with the message that they should want and need to have the latest film spin-off toy, clothing, sugary cereal, action figure, or doll (for more information, Commercial Free Childhood). Receiving new toys and clothes is increasingly equated (for parents and children) with being “good” and being loved. American children have become a $42 billion market in terms of direct spending by their families on them and a $700 billion market when we factor in how they influence parent spending more broadly (e.g., response to child-directed ads about which clothes and cars to buy or where to vacation). Indeed, the U.S. child-related market is bigger than the total economies of the 115 poorest countries in the world (Media Education, 2009). Children do not yet have the skills to sort out or resist these pervasive messages. Their attitudes are quite often two-dimensional/simplistic: They feel deprived, unloved, or unworthy when they do not have the advertised object or they feel reassured, valued, and superior when they do have the advertised objects.

Here are several concepts and strategies for young children (preschool, kindergarten, 1st grade) about work, fairness, and people helping each other create a better life — the core issues of the current labor struggles. We look forward to hearing about what you do, so please add your comments below.

Concept 1 (For Children): Grown-ups do all kinds of work to make our lives better: They clean houses, wait on tables, cook food at home and in restaurants, drive buses and trucks, help people get well, teach children, work in offices, pick fruit, write books, and make music. All families work hard for their children even if they don't have as much money as some other families.

• Strategies
• Recommended booklist: Learning About Economic Class and Fairness

Concept 2 (For Children): Work includes tasks in the home as well as outside the home. Families love their children even when they can't buy new things

• Strategies
• Book recommendation:
  
  Mama Bear

Concept 3 (For Children): People work together to make a good life for their families and to make the world a better place for everyone. One way is working together in a union to get better wages to take care of their families, provide good health care, and have more time with their children.

• Guidelines for engaging young children in activities to create positive change
• Recommended booklist: Activism with Young Children

Concept 4 (For Teachers): Pay attention to economic class issues as you create a welcoming and equitable learning community for children.

• Strategies and Guidelines

To learn more about goals and strategies for working with young children on economic class and fairness, see Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves (Derman-Sparks & Olsen, NAEYC, 2010). Read biographies of Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards here.

Also Recommended

• Resources for Teachers
• Book Recommendation:
  
  Rethinking Early Childhood Education