No History is Illegal: Teach-in

The Network of Teacher Activist Groups (TAG), a national coalition of grassroots teacher organizing groups, has launched No History is Illegal: A Campaign to Save our Stories. The campaign will offer a month of solidarity teach-ins in support of Tucson’s Mexican American Studies (MAS) program.

Arizona politicians recently ruled against the highly successful Mexican American Studies program and removed books from classrooms. (Background info.)

In the month of February, the Teacher Activist Groups (TAG) invites everyone to respond to this attack by teaching lessons from and about the banned MAS program.

On the No History is Illegal website you will find a guide that includes sample lesson plans from the Mexican American Studies curriculum as well as creative ideas and resources for exploring this issue with students.

TAG also invites everyone to sign this pledge:

“In solidarity with the students and teachers in the Mexican America Studies program in Tucson, AZ, I pledge my support to teach and raise awareness about their struggle and to ensure that the perspectives and stories of historically marginalized populations are kept alive in our classrooms and communities.”

Sign on at www.teacheractivistgroups.org/tucson.

Rethinking Columbus Banned in Tucson

By Bill Bigelow

Imagine our surprise.

Rethinking Schools learned today that for the first time in its more-than-20-year history, our book Rethinking Columbus was banned by a school district: Tucson, Arizona. According to journalist Jeff Biggers, officials with the Tucson Unified School District ordered that teachers pull the book from their classrooms, evidently as an outcome of the school board’s 4-1 vote this week to abolish the Mexican American Studies program.

As I mentioned to Biggers when we spoke, the last time a book of mine was outlawed was during the state of emergency in apartheid South Africa in 1986, when the regime there banned the curriculum I’d written, Strangers in Their Own Country, likely because it included excerpts from a speech by then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela. Confronting massive opposition at home and abroad, the white minority government feared for its life in 1986. It’s worth asking what the school authorities in Arizona fear today.

Continue reading full article on the 1/13/2012 Rethinking Schools blog. 

Related Resources

Mexican American Studies Program teacher Curtis Acosta.

Precious Knowledge. Film about the impact of and struggle to save Mexican-American Studies in Tucson.

American Indians in Children’s Literature (AICL). Daily posting of news, analysis, relevant legislation, resolutions, and more on the Mexican American Studies program.

Behind the Curtain in Tucson: A letter from Curtis Acosta. Posted on the Rethinking Schools blog on Jan. 28, 2012.

Arizona Unbound: National Actions on Mexican American Studies Banishment. By Jeff Biggers, Huffington Post. Jan. 25, 2012. More articles by Jeff Biggers on Tucson.

Statement from the American Library Association. Resolution Opposing Restriction of Access to Materials and Open Inquiry in Ethnic and Cultural Studies Programs in Arizona.  Jan. 24th, 2012.

Banning Critical Teaching in Arizona: A Letter From Curtis Acosta. Posted on the Rethinking Schools blog on Jan. 23, 2012.

Progressive Librarians Association Statement on Censorship and the Tucson Unified School District. The Progressive Librarians Guild believes a challenge should be issued regarding not only the onerous situation, but the politics underlying the decision to cut District’s Mexican American Studies program (MAS) program. Jan. 21, 2012.

J. Winter Nightwolf’s WPFW/Pacifica Radio Program. Interviews with Rudy Arredondo, Dr. Roberto Cintli Rodriguez, and Dr. Rudolfo Anaya, Jan. 20, 2012.

Debating Tucson School District’s Book Ban After Suspension of Mexican American Studies Program. Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal and Richard Martinez, the attorney representing teachers and students trying to save the Mexican American Studies program. Democracy Now!,  Jan. 18, 2012.

Teaching Critical Thinking in Arizona: NOT ALLOWED. Article by Debbie Reese, American Indians in Children’s Literature blog, Jan. 15, 2012. (And reading list from Mexican-American Studies program.)

‘Repeat After Me: The United States Is Not an Imperialist Country—Oh, and Don’t Get Emotional About War. Article by Bill Bigelow, Rethinking Schools, about the ruling against Mexican American Studies. Dec. 29, 2011.

Tucson Orders Closure of Mexican-American School Program as Ethnic Studies Faces Nationwide Threat. Democracy Now! Interview on Dec. 29, 2011.

‘Repeat After Me: The United States Is Not an Imperialist Country—Oh, and Don’t Get Emotional About War’

By Bill Bigelow

You may have seen that an administrative law judge in Arizona, Lewis Kowal, just upheld the decree by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction that Tucson’s Mexican American Studies program violates state law. Judge Kowal found that the Tucson program was teaching Latino history and culture “in a biased, political, and emotionally charged manner.” According to CNN, one lesson that the judge objected to taught that the historic treatment of Mexican Americans was “marked by the use of force, fraud and exploitation.”

Try this “history detective” experiment. Ask the next person you encounter to tell you what they know about the U.S. war with Mexico. More than likely, this will be a short conversation, because that war (1846-48) merits barely a footnote in U.S. history textbooks. The most recent textbook I was assigned when I taught high school history in Portland, Ore. was American Odyssey. In 250 pages devoted to pre-20^th century U.S. history, the book includes exactly two paragraphs on this war. (The district’s new adoption, History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals, doubles the coverage to a whopping four paragraphs.)

And yet this is the war that “gave”—in the words of American Odyssey—California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and part of Colorado to the United States of America. And the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, formally ending the war, ratified the annexation of Texas, which had broken away from Mexico largely because of Mexico’s policies against slavery.

Most Mexicans know that the war against Mexico was another chapter in U.S. imperialism—a “North American invasion,” as it’s commemorated in a huge memorial in Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park. But don’t take Mexicans’ word for it. Here’s what Col. Ethan Allan Hitchcock, aide to the commander of U.S. forces Gen. Zachary Taylor, wrote at the time in his journal about the war’s origins: “I have said from the first that the United States are the aggressors. … We have not one particle of right to be here … It looks as if the government sent a small force on purpose to bring on a war, so as to have a pretext for taking California and as much of this country as it chooses.”

Exactly. President James K. Polk, himself a slaveowner, had ordered U.S. troops into an area claimed by Mexico and inhabited by Mexicans and waited for them to be attacked. And when they were, Polk claimed aggression and the U.S. had its war. The invading U.S. Army actually called itself the Army of Occupation.

The abolition movement regarded the war as a land grab to expand slavery. The great abolitionist Frederick Douglass denounced the Mexican invasion as “a murderous war—as a war against the free states—as a war against freedom, against the Negro, and against the interests of workingmen of this country—and as a means of extending that great evil and damning curse, negro slavery.” Henry David Thoreau coined the term “civil disobedience” in defense of his position that people should not pay taxes to support the war against Mexico. Thoreau argued that a minority can act against an unjust system only when it “clogs by its whole weight.”

Students enrolled in Tucson’s Mexican American Studies program would likely have known this history, because, after all, this is the story of how people living in Tucson no longer live in Mexico. But according to Judge Kowal, the program violates state law. That law bans curriculum that might “promote resentment toward a race or class of people.” And, as mentioned, Kowal complained that the material in Mexican American Studies was presented in “an emotionally charged manner…”

Cover of 6th edition.

I have not seen the full Mexican American Studies curriculum, although I know it includes important texts like Rodolfo Acuña’s classic Occupied America and Paulo Freire’s A Pedagogy of the Oppressed—a book studied in every teacher education program worthy of the name. But I’m wondering how one can teach about the history of the U.S. relationship with Mexico in a manner that is not “emotionally charged.” You want to talk about “bias”? What about the bias of a textbook that can “cover” a war like that waged against Mexico in two paragraphs, or four paragraphs, and fail to so much as quote a Mexican, an abolitionist, a soldier, a woman, an African American, or a Native American—or fail to describe the death or injury of a single human being? What about the bias of a textbook or an entire curriculum that can discuss invasion and war in a manner that is not “emotionally charged”?

Here’s a U.S. infantry lieutenant who wrote his parents after a U.S. officer named Walker was killed in battle, quoted in Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States: “Gen. Lane … told us to ‘avenge the death of the gallant Walker’ … Grog shops were broken open first and then, maddened with liquor, every species of outrage was committed. Old women and girls were stripped of their clothing—many suffered still greater outrages. Men were shot by dozens … their property, churches, stores, and dwelling houses ransacked … It made me for the first time ashamed of my country.” In his memoirs, Ulysses S. Grant wrote that this was “one of the most unjust [wars] ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation …”

The problem with the school curriculum in this country is that it is not emotionally charged enough. Poverty rates are skyrocketing—especially for children of color. People are losing their homes because of the criminal behavior of huge financial institutions—and race has a lot to do with who profits and who suffers. This country’s military is still being sent to invade and occupy—and murder people with silent, invisible drones. The rich and powerful poison our atmosphere, our water, our food, and our children. So, yes, let’s have a curriculum that gets emotional—and that tells a fuller truth than is offered in our textbooks. And let’s stand in solidarity with the teachers and students in Tucson who are demanding to teach and learn about things that matter.

Bill Bigelow ([email protected]) is curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools magazine, and co-directs the Zinn Education Project. He is author of The Line Between Us: Teaching About the Border and Mexican Immigration.

Reprinted from the Rethinking Schools Blog, Dec. 29, 2011.  (c) Rethinking Schools

Related Resources

	The Line Between Us explores the history of U.S-Mexican relations and the roots of Mexican immigration, all in the context of the global economy. And it shows how teachers can help students understand the immigrant experience and the drama of border life. Using role plays, stories, poetry, improvisations, simulations and video, veteran teacher Bill Bigelow demonstrates how to combine lively teaching with critical analysis. See sample teaching activity on the Zinn Education Project website: “U.S. Mexico War: ‘We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God’“
	A People’s History for the Classroom helps teachers introduce students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of U.S. history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula. Teaching articles and lesson plans — drawn from an assortment of Rethinking Schools publications — emphasize the role of working people, women, people of color, and organized social movements in shaping history, and raise important questions about patterns of wealth and power throughout U.S. history.
	Tucson Orders Closure of Mexican-American School Program as Ethnic Studies Faces Nationwide Threat Interview on Democracy Now! on 12/29/2011 with Lorenzo Lopez, Mexican American Studies high school teacher in the Tucson Unified School District; Korina Lopez, Tuscon high school sophomore enrolled in a Mexican-American history class that she may never get to take; and Dr. Rodolfo Acuña, author of Occupied America: A History of Chicanos.
	Background information and how to support the campaign to defend the Mexican American Studies program in Tucson, Arizona can be found on the website and Facebook below:Save Ethnic Studies WebsiteSave Ethnic Studies in Arizona Facebook
	Primary document: decision by Arizona Administrative Law Judge Lewis Kowal regarding the Tucson Mexican American Studies Program. Filed 12/27/2011.

Bread and Roses Strike: One of the Great Silences in the School Curriculum

Lawrence, Mass. strikers parading in NYC, 1911. Photo: Library of Congress.

One of the great silences in the mainstream school curriculum is the role that social movements have played in making this a more fair, more peaceful, more democratic world. Students learn little about the collective efforts and strategies involved in the movements to abolish slavery, to demand women’s rights, to end unjust wars, to fight for civil rights—or for workers to bargain collectively for a living wage and workplace dignity.

One of the most significant struggles for workers’ rights began exactly one hundred years ago, on January 12^th in Lawrence, Mass., when thousands of textile workers began a walkout that would come to be known as the Bread and Roses Strike, as well as the Singing Strike.

You’re unlikely to find much more than a mention of this important strike in a typical high school history textbook, if that. But as Norm Diamond points out in his article for the Zinn Education Project, One Hundred Years After the Singing Strike, this was a remarkable struggle that united mostly young women workers speaking dozens of languages in a dead-of-winter contest with some of the richest men in the United States. And the workers won.

The Zinn Education Project includes valuable teaching materials about the strike. See the role play, Lawrence, 1912: The Singing Strike, by Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond, which is excerpted from their book The Power in Our Hands: A Curriculum on the History of Work and Workers in the United States. See also Bill Bigelow’s The Singing Strike and the Rebel Students: Learning from the Industrial Workers of the World. Bread and Roses, Too is Katherine Paterson’s moving young adult novel about the 1912 strike.

Events for the anniversary year are being coordinated by the Bread and Roses Centennial Committee. Their website offers a comprehensive list of anniversary programs, history, news, and a list of supporters including the Zinn Education Project. They also have launched an online gallery for those that cannot visit the Bread and Roses Centennial Exhibit in person.

Full House for Zinn Education Project Hosted Talk by James Loewen at NCSS Conference

“Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States made me want to be a history teacher and James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me gave me the drive to want to teach beyond the classic textbook-driven curriculum. Loewen’s work has profoundly affected my teaching practice by cementing the commitment to instructing students to question and inquire as they ‘do’ history. I will share what I learned today about the Zinn Education Project and Loewen’s new book.” —Maureen Andreadis, Social Studies Department Chair at the School for Creative and Performing Arts,
Cincinnati, Ohio

“James Loewen has changed the way I approach teaching history. For this reason I had to see him speak at NCSS.” —William Newell, high school history teacher and social studies methods professor,
Tampa, Florida

Historian and author James Loewen spoke to a standing room only audience in a session hosted by the Zinn Education Project at the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) conference in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 3, 2011. More than 140 educators filled a room with an official capacity of 80 to hear about his latest book The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The “Great Truth” about the “Lost Cause.”

Deborah Menkart welcomed the attendees on behalf of the Zinn Education Project and thanked NCSS for their support. She described how over 16,000 educators are registered on the Zinn Education Project website to get free downloadable lessons on teaching people’s history. Deborah also encouraged everyone to support the Zinn Education Project by voting on the Working Assets/CREDO donations ballot.

After a brief introduction, James Loewen began his presentation began by asking for a show of hands as to the primary cause of the U.S. Civil War: slavery, states’ rights, taxes and tariffs, or the election of Lincoln. The attendees’ majority response of “slavery” impressively contradicted a troublesome national trend crediting states’ rights and other national economic and political issues as the causes. To highlight the misleading and inaccurate textbook analyses supporting these myths, Loewen read directly from the declarations of secession which explicitly cited the debate over slavery as their primary complaint. He advocated that classroom teachers reject attempts to reshape the Civil War narrative given his belief that “there is a reciprocal relationship between knowledge of the past and justice in the present.”

Following the formal presentation, attendees asked questions and made comments about a range of topics, including their frustration with state standards and tests that perpetuate textbook inaccuracies. Jim, a teacher from Virginia, read an excerpt of the Virginia Standards of Learning that included attributing the Civil War to a debate over states’ rights. Loewen’s recommendation was to instruct students how to answer the question on the test, and then ask them to write their state representatives to inform them of the errors. He also advised that U.S. history teachers abandon the compulsion to “teach everything” and instead try to thoughtfully address 30-50 topics that “touch base with the standards” rather than have the textbooks dictate a chronological race to the finish line.

The last question came from Brittany, a teacher who wondered if there was any hope for salvaging textbooks. Loewen took to task the committees who adopt books without reading them and historians for lending their names to books they clearly have not written or, as he asserted, have unlikely even read. “These poor eleventh graders are the only ones actually reading these books,” he remarked. He then made a case for publishers to produce 300-page paperbacks that would belong to individual students. “There is no excuse today for heavy, hardback textbooks over 1,000 pages long with the web’s digitized documents and resources like the Zinn Education Project.”

The session ended with a book signing. Many participants said they hoped to see Loewen at the 2012 NCSS conference in Seattle and thanked the Zinn Education Project for bringing Loewen to the 2011 conference.

More photos from the event.

List of books by James W. Loewen.

More news about the Zinn Education Project at NCSS.

This story prepared by Katy Swalwell and also appears in NCSS Connected.

Video Highlights from the Howard Zinn Room Dedication

We are pleased to share video highlights from the special event on Sept. 21 to celebrate International Peace Day, dedicate the Howard Zinn Room at Busboys and Poets, and raise funds for the Zinn Education Project.

More than 300 people were inspired by the words of Jeff Zinn, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Cornel West, Dave Zirin, Beverly Daniel Tatum, Barbara Ehrenreich, and many more.

This set the tone for an evening of action, solidarity, and inspiration. Now you can hear the moving presentations too.

The evening was hosted by Howard Zinn’s son Jeff Wolf Zinn and Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal. We thank Busboys and Poets, the speakers, staff, volunteers, supporters who helped make the night sparkle with hope and possibility.

Video excerpts

Refresh your browser if YouTube videos aren’t visible.

	Part I Part II

Event photos by Jack Gordon and Rick Reinhard. The event audio, video, and technical direction by Bobby Marshall, RCM Productions. Video editing and production by Lauren Cooper. Read more.

Zinn Education Project Lessons Take on New Meaning for Occupy Students

Seattle’s Garfield High School teacher Jesse Hagopian was arrested during an “Occupy the Capitol” protest last week about school funding. In response, 500 students at Garfield walked out and have been organizing ever since. Hagopian was interviewed on Nov. 30 on Countdown with Keith Olbermann about the protests. This was his second time on the national news. He was in Haiti when the 2010 earthquake caused massive destruction. Hagopian threw himself into the relief efforts.

We were honored when Hagopian wrote to us this week to say: “We are doing the Abolition movement role play by Bill Bigelow in class. Today my students wrote their own imagined biographies that were very powerful. It is far different than it has ever been to teach this lesson, because these students already know why people would want to get together for a cause they believe in and risk something to fight for their beliefs.

“The students at Garfield have started a city-wide organization and are working on a city-wide action for next week that could be a very big deal. . . It’s just amazing to see the kids, who were in my class last year when I used the entire Zinn Education Project website, now leading a social movement!”

For more news about the protests by the Garfield students, visit Students of Washington for Change.

The role play by Bill Bigelow, ‘If There Is No Struggle…’: Teaching a People’s History of the Abolition Movement, was originally published in Rethinking Schools.

Zinn Education Project at the 2011 National Council for the Social Studies Conference

William Harris was one of over a hundred teachers who registered for the Zinn Education Project website at our NCSS booth.

The Zinn Education Project booth had a constant stream of visitors at the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) 2011 Conference in early December in Washington, D.C.

The booth became a gathering place for people to share stories about teaching people’s history, memories of Howard Zinn, and concerns about the obstacles to teaching outside the textbook. Almost every visitor to the booth signed up for the Zinn Education Project website (if they weren’t already registered), voted for the Zinn Education Project on the CREDO/Working Assets donations ballot, and completed a survey to help us plan for 2012. We also had information about the project co-coordinators Teaching for Change and Rethinking Schools and our partners at  Democracy Now! and StoryCorps’ National Teachers Initiative. Key people’s history titles were on display including Voices of a People’s History and A Young People’s History of the United States from Seven Stories Press and The People Speak DVD.

On Saturday afternoon we hosted a special information session called “Teaching a People’s History and Challenging Myths About the Civil War” with guest speaker James W. Loewen. Loewen, well-known for his best-selling Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong, offered an informative and engaging presentation called “Challenging Myths About the Civil War to a standing room only audience. Loewen’s latest book, The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The “Great Truths” about the “Lost Cause”, examines the original reasoning behind secession and subsequent myth-making in defense of slavery and white supremacy.

There is an album on the Zinn Education Project Facebook with images and stories from many of the booth visitors. We have also posted photos and a story about the session with James W. Loewen.

People’s History Across the Country, and Around the World

The Zinn Education Project is pleased to have more than 15,000 registered users from every U.S. state and territory; 921 of whom are from countries, territories, and regions around the world. From Kansas to Kuwait, from North Dakota to South Africa, teachers around the globe are bringing a people’s history to the classroom.

Help us reach 20,000 in 2011 by continuing to spread the word by sharing the link to the Zinn Education Project website with colleagues, “liking” us on Facebook, and taking bookmarks and booklets to conferences.

Click to view larger image.

Click to view larger image.

Find the Zinn Education Project at Upcoming Conferences

The Zinn Education Project will play a role in the conferences listed below. We will either have handouts, a booth where you can meet a representative from one of our coordinating organizations (Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change), or have representatives offering a workshop on teaching a people’s history. These conferences can provide a great opportunity to meet other progressive educators. Stop by to say hello.

March 24 New York		New York Collective of Radical Educators
Oct. 18, 2012 New Britain, CT		New England Conference on Multicultural Education
Nov. 16-18 Seattle		National Council for the Social Studies

If you are going to other education conferences and can distribute Zinn Education Project bookmarks and booklets, send a note to [email protected] with the conference name, conference date, your mailing address, and the date of when you need to receive materials.

Occupy the Curriculum

New Jersey Teacher Activist Group stages Teach-In at Occupy Wall Street in October, 2011.

By Bill Bigelow

The other day on the Zinn Education Project’s Facebook page, we asked “What period in history—or theme in history—are you teaching this month?”

The responses were fascinating.

Chris Conkling is teaching about “Forced removal of Native Americans/Andrew Jackson.”

Ariela Rothstein is teaching about the “Haitian revolution and the effects of colonialism on the Caribbean.”

Samantha Manchac is teaching about “the early women’s movement” from Chapter 6, “The Intimately Oppressed,” in Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.

Melanie Lichtenstein is teaching about Afghanistan, before and after 2001.

Mustafa Miroku Nemeth is using the film The Corporation to teach about the development of corporate “personhood” with the manifold consequences we see today.

Ian Martin is teaching about industrialization and imperialism and how they are inseparable.

Ruth Razo is teaching about the U.S. war with Mexico and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

I found people’s responses enormously encouraging. In this age of standardized, scripted curriculum and corporate-produced textbooks, it looks like not everyone is following the script. Teachers are “teaching outside the textbook,” in the slogan of the Zinn Education Project.

This kind of defiant “We’ll decide what our students need to learn, not some distant corporation” needs to happen in schools across the country. We don’t need to take tents and sleeping bags to our town squares to participate in the Occupy Movement—although it would be great if more of us did. We can also “occupy” our classrooms, “occupy” the curriculum. At this time of mass revulsion at how our country—our world—has been bought and bullied by the one percent, let’s join this gathering movement to demand a curriculum that serves humanity and nature, not the rich.

Reprinted from the rethinkingschoolsblog ♦ November 7, 2011 ♦ Occupy the Curriculum

Democracy Now! Invites Your Students to Visit the Studio

Democracy Now! hosts educational class visits to their green studio in New York.

The award-winning news program Democracy Now! has launched a Teaching Democracy Now! initiative which includes hosting high school and college class visits to its green studio in New York.

Seniors from Benjamin Banneker Academy in Brooklyn talk with Amy Goodman during a visit to Democracy Now! studio in earlier November, 2011.

The teachers and students have the opportunity to enter the control room of this live daily radio-TV-Internet broadcast minutes before going on air, watch the broadcast, and go on a behind-the-scenes tour where they will be introduced to the daily process and demands of producing a live news program.

Afterward students participate in a custom-tailored workshop led by Democracy Now!’s experienced staff, where the need for independent news, investigative reporting and alternative media are discussed.

In addition to having a first-hand learning experience, students leave with practical knowledge of how they can use Democracy Now!’s extensive audio/video on-line historic archive as a research tool in their studies.

For more information about this free opportunity, or to schedule your class visit, email [email protected] and include the information listed below. There is a lot of interest in these tours so not all requests can be accommodated.

• Full name and contact information
• School name
• Class subject
• Class year
• Number of students
• Date(s) and time(s) available
• Would you like to view a live broadcast? (students must arrive at 7:30am)
• In order for the students to get the most out of their experience, write a few sentences about the topics they are currently studying.

Thank You for Your Support

The voting for the 2011 CREDO Donations Ballot is now closed.

However, you can still support the Zinn Education Project in other ways. Learn how on the Support Teaching a People’s History page.

The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the use of Howard Zinn’s best-selling book A People’s History of the United States and other materials for teaching a people’s history in middle and high school classrooms across the country. The website offers more than 100 free, downloadable lessons and articles organized by theme, time period, and reading level. More than 16,500 teachers are registered for the website and more register every day.

Read what teachers are saying about teaching people’s history.

Special Issue of the Rethinking Schools journal on the School-to-Prison Pipeline.

The Zinn Education Project is coordinated by Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change.

Check out the Winter 2011-2012 Rethinking Schools journal, a special issue on the School-to-Prison Pipeline with an exclusive interview with Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness.

When you are in D.C., visit Teaching for Change’s bookstore and author events at Busboys and Poets.

History Steps Out of the Photograph: John Carlos Speaks to Students

“John Carlos was just so inspiring. Out of all the important people that have come to speak to us—he’s the only one who kept me awake. After hearing him speak and his story, I want to be somebody better in life. I don’t even really like to read, but I want to read his book, and capture all the important parts of it, and rethink myself, how I can be a better person, and how I can make a change.” —Gwendolyn, 11th grade

Gwendolyn’s enthusiasm was echoed by the more than 100 students and teachers at Capital City Public Charter School who had the opportunity to hear from 1968 Olympic icon and political activist John Carlos and sportswriter Dave Zirin on Oct. 3, 2011. As part of the national book tour to launch The John Carlos Story (Haymarket Books, 2011), Carlos and Zirin spoke to the students about that moment in history, the limited explanations given in textbooks, and its continued significance.

Dave Zirin began the 60-minute session at the school with a description of the demands made by the Olympic Project for Human Rights, the symbolism of the photo, and the threats faced by John Carlos and Tommie Smith during and after the Olympics due to the stand they took. John Carlos followed with stories from his life and encouraged students to learn the true history of the United States and the world.

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. They would never express the why, where, and whats, and the necessity of this demonstration. So that’s why it’s imperative that you guys push yourselves to learn your history. . . .Because this world, I’m leaving it to you. I did mine. It’s time for you guys to get ready to step up and do yours. Remember, I wasn’t 57 or 58 or 60. I had just turned 23 years old.”

After the presentation, students had the opportunity to ask questions.

John Carlos speaks with students following the presentation.

Why did you do it?

“Why did I do it? Because it was so many individuals that were in positions of power that chose just to lay back. I heard individuals make statements like, ‘It’s just the way it is.’ But because it’s just the way it is, is that the right way? I could never accept it. I could never accept that fact that some of my fellow students didn’t have food in their iceboxes or didn’t have clothes to go to school. Or the fact that their fathers was dope fiends because somebody came and put dope on them. . . . Those things were totally wrong and somebody had to step up to the plate and say we have to deal with this as a society. What I’m saying is, you students, you have to really get a chance to observe something and look at it from every perspective. Turn it upside down, turn it sideways, turn it backwards and look at it, because you have a right to come to your own conclusions, and then what you do is you sit down and have some sort of intellectual discussion about it and find out who the shakers and the bakers are.”

Who did you look up to?

“First and foremost was my father. My father taught me quite a bit. Paul Robeson. . . . Paul Robeson and my father, they were the two biggest role models for me. And then once I started getting into school, I had a lot of admiration and respect for Frederick Douglass. These individuals kind of molded me. I had the opportunity to meet Malcolm X—went down the street, jogged down the street—as he would be tearing to the next location, I’d be jogging with him, trying to pick his brain, get the knowledge. I always had admiration for any individual who said, ‘Man, I’m going against the grain,’ because it didn’t seem like they were hypnotized going downstream not knowing the prize was really upstream, so I admire all of those individuals. . . . But my dad is probably the biggest inspiration in my life.”

To the left is the video clip of Gwendolyn, quoted at the top of this page. More student reflections on the presentation: Tiffany and Raymond.

This school visit was coordinated by 11th-grade U.S. history teacher Julian Hipkins III, Dave Zirin of Edge of Sports, and Teaching for Change. Thanks to intern Jozi T. Zwerdling for the transcription.

A full tape of the presentations and Q&A will be posted online as soon as it is available.

For more information about the book and national tour, visit: The John Carlos Story.

Educators and Activists Celebrate the Legacy of Howard Zinn and the Zinn Education Project

Bill Fletcher, Jr. reads Eugene Debs.

Two students and their teacher speak about "A People's History" and the Zinn Education Project.

Dave Zirin, from Edge of Sports, was the emcee.

Full house for this special event.

Dr. Cornel West on Zinn as a "public intellectual." See YouTube clip below.

Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon captivated the audience with her words and songs.

There was a standing-room-only crowd at the new Busboys and Poets in Hyattsville, Md., for the special event on Sept. 21 to celebrate International Peace Day, dedicate the Zinn Room, and raise funds for the Zinn Education Project.

The date ended up being more significant than could have been imagined. An extraordinary group of people spoke, sang, and read to honor the memory of historian and activist Howard Zinn and to support the Zinn Education Project‘s efforts to promote teaching people’s history in middle and high school classrooms.

The 300-plus attendees were inspired by the words of Jeff Zinn, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Cornel West, Dave Zirin, Beverly Daniel Tatum, Marian Wright Edelman, Barbara Ehrenreich, Medea Benjamin, Craig and Cindy Corrie, and more.

The pall of the impending execution of death row inmate Troy Davis hung in the air. Emcee-for-the-evening Dave Zirin, wearing an “I Am Troy Davis” T-shirt, said it most bluntly. While acknowledging how far the struggle for justice has come, he decried “the legal lynching going on in Georgia.” He then led a heartfelt call of “They say death row” and the room resounded with the response of “We say hell no!”

Emma’s Revolution played shortly after that statement, beginning with “Bound for Freedom,” which they sang at the memorial when Howard Zinn died in 2010, and which they dedicated on Wednesday night to Troy Davis and his sister Martina Correia.

The evening was hosted by Howard Zinn’s son and theater director Jeff Wolf Zinn and Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal. The speakers addressed their memories of Howard Zinn and the importance of teaching people’s history.

Dave Zirin said: “Howard taught us that it was the masses of people who are actually the engine of history, and that’s what the Zinn Education Project is now fighting to preserve for our classrooms. Nowadays the textbooks are being written by corporations, with Texas dominating the market and narrative. It’s as if Rick Perry is your child’s history teacher. Who would you rather have teaching the children of America, Rick Perry or Howard Zinn?” The audience responded, “Howard Zinn.” “This is why,” Dave explained, “we are here tonight to support the Zinn Education Project so teachers have access to resources for ‘teaching outside the textbook.’”

This sentiment was echoed by two high school students (Jonah and Jared) and their teacher Mr. Julian Hipkins III. Jared shared how Zinn sparked his interest in learning history so much that when his Mom sends him to bed, he waits until he hears that she has gone to sleep and then “I turn on my lamp and start reading A People’s History.” Hipkins related how when he first read A People’s History of the United States: “I felt betrayed by our education system. I couldn’t believe that I had never heard of [these stories] before, especially as a man in his mid-20s. From that point forward I decided that I would use this book as the classroom textbook.” He credited the Zinn Education Project for making this possible. “Even though A People’s History can be a bit difficult for some students, the activities on the Zinn Education Project website makes the content accessible regardless of their reading level.”

When 7 p.m. passed and the delay of Troy Davis’ execution was announced, a wave of relief, surprise, and elation filled the room. Bernice Johnson Reagon got everyone singing “This Little Light of Mine,” “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho,” and more freedom songs.

Cornel West gave an impassioned talk about Zinn as a public intellectual: “He fundamentally believed that the life of the mind matters, that ideas make a difference, and it’s important that you commit yourself not just to reading, but to thinking critically about what you’re reading.”

Cindy and Craig Corrie spoke of how Zinn wrote to them personally after the killing of their daughter, Rachel Corrie, and the friendship they developed with this man whom they had revered and who so respected their daughter’s activism.

Beverly Daniel Tatum explained that soon after she became president of Spelman she learned that Howard Zinn had been fired from the college in 1963 because of his activism. “That was a piece of history that needed cleaning up,” she said, “so I invited Howard Zinn to be the 2005 commencement speaker.” Tatum quoted from Zinn’s words of encouragement to the graduates in his speech: ”You don’t have to do something heroic, just something, to join with millions of others who will just do something, because all of those somethings, at certain points in history, come together, and make the world better.” She closed by acknowledging two former Spelman students among the evening’s speakers—Marian Wright Edelman and Bernice Johnson Reagon.

The second half of the evening began with a musical performance by Chelsey Green, followed by dramatic readings from Voices of a People’s History. There were many readers and voice combinations of note, including labor activist Bill Fletcher Jr. reading the words of Eugene Debs; Iraq Veterans Against the War member Geoff Millard reading the words of Smedley Butler; IPS New Internationalism Project Director Phyllis Bennis reading an anti-war statement by Helen Keller; Mary Beth Tinker reading from her own free speech case in front of the Supreme Court when she was 13 years old; SNCC veteran Judy Richardson reading the words of James Forman about Freedom Schools; Cindy Corrie reading a letter from her daughter Rachel Corrie; and J. Winter Nightwolf, host of the weekly WPFW show “The American Indian’s Truths – Nightwolf – the Most Dangerous Show on Radio,” reading the words of Leonard Peltier.

There are many more photos (on Flickr and on Facebook), film clips, and quotes from the presentations online.

The ticket sales and raffles generated almost $8,000 to continue the work of the Zinn Education Project. This amount will be matched by an anonymous donor.

In addition to everyone who purchased tickets, there are many people and organizations to thank for making the evening such a success, including:

• Busboys and Poets staff for organizing and hosting the event.
• WPFW 89.3 Pacifica for promoting and broadcasting the event.
• Voices of a People’s History for permission and guidance for the People Speak Live! reading.
• Jack Gordon and Rick Reinhard for professional photography.
• Joe’s Movement Emporium for ushers.
• Americans Who Tell the Truth and Robert Shetterly for banner-sized painting of Howard Zinn.
• The organizations for their contribution to the gift bags and raffle, including: Beacon Press, City Lights, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap, The Feminist Press, Haymarket Books, Just Seeds Artists’ Cooperative, The New Press, PM Press, The Progressive Magazine, and Seven Stories Press. Full list and contributions.
• The host committee (not all present) included the presenters and Myla Kabat-Zinn, Alice Walker, Barbara Lee, Bill Moyers, Stephen M. Kohn, Clarence Lusane, Brenda Coughlin, Anthony Arnove, Knox Tull, Makani Themba-Nixon, Don Murray, Heather C. McGhee, and more.
• Jonathan B. Tucker for the slide presentations and table volunteers Jhonna Turner, Katy Swalwell, Yasmine Taylor-Hart, and Jozi Zwerdling.
• Those people who literally went the extra mile to participate, including Cornel West who drove in just for the event and drove four hours back the same evening; Craig and Cindy Corrie (Rachel Corrie Foundation) from the West Coast; Dennis Mueller (co-producer of You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train) from Vermont; Judy Richardson (Eyes on the Prize co-producer and co-editor of Hands on the Freedom Plow) from Cambridge; Beverly Daniel Tatum (Spelman College) from Atlanta; and Bill Bigelow (Rethinking Schools editor and co-director of the Zinn Education Project) from Portland.
• All the speakers and performers: Bernice Johnson Reagon, Cornel West, Dave Zirin, Beverly Daniel Tatum, Laura Flanders, Marian Wright Edelman, Medea Benjamin, Regie Cabico, Judy Richardson, Craig and Cindy Corrie, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Mary Beth Tinker, Phyllis Bennis, Barbara Ehrenreich, David Swanson, Kevin Zeese, J. Winter Nightwolf, Andy Shallal, Geoff Millard, Gloria Minott, William Holtzman, Lauren Cooper, Julian Hipkins III, Jared, Jonah, Kymone Freeman, and more.

This description of the event was adapted with permission from an article by Emma’s Revolution.

Rethinking Columbus

One of the most popular teaching activities on the Zinn Education Project website is The People vs. Columbus, et al. which challenges student to critically examine the motivations for and impact of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in Hispaniola. The lesson is a role play in the form of a trial to determine who is responsible for the death of millions of Tainos on the island of Hispaniola in the late 15th century.

This activity was originally published by Rethinking Schools in Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years.

Download the The People vs. Columbus, et al. teaching activity. More resources for rethinking Columbus. Resources on Native American history. Critique of current textbooks: The New (and Improved?) Textbook Columbus by Bill Bigelow.

What Teachers are Saying About The People vs. Columbus, et al.

“I always begin my U.S. history course with The People vs. Columbus, et al.”

It is amazing how engaged students become to not only learn the truth but also be able to defend themselves using the evidence provided. Students love creativity and this case allows students to come to their own conclusions.”
—Miroslaba “Lili” Velo, U.S. and world history teacher, Tennyson High School, Hayward, Calif.

“The students love it.”

“The People vs. Columbus is the most interactive lesson that my class has ever used. The students love it and become enlightened about a perspective on history they have never heard of before.”
—Larry Johns, social studies teacher, Denman Junior High, McComb, Miss.

Students Are Inspired to Share What They Learned

Student Film Critiques Textbook Accounts and Hero Worshipping

D.C. high school teacher Julian Hipkins III used The People vs. Columbus, et al. lesson with his 11th grade U.S. history class at Capital City Public Charter School and introduced them to Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. Four of his students (Jared, Ana Marie, Jonah, and Mayra) were inspired to make a film called Columbus—The Real Story. Using feature film clips and interviews with school staff, the film critiques and analyzes textbook accounts of Columbus. Columbus—The Real Story was selected as a D.C. citywide entry for the 2011 National History Day competition.

High school student filmmakers Jared, Ana Marie, Jonah, and Mayra (not pictured) made "Columbus - The Hidden Story" for the 2011 National History Day competition.

Columbus – The Hidden History on Vimeo.

10% More: 10 New Teaching Activities Now Available

We have just posted 10 new teaching resources at our website! These include a dramatic role play about the little-known Japanese Latin American internment during World War II; an article on working with Lewis Hine’s photos of child labor; activities on the first-ever Indigenous People’s Summit on Climate Change; and a role play that puts students in the position of being members of the American Anti-Slavery Society, who must choose the most effective ways to fight slavery.

	Five Years After the Levees Broke: Bearing Witness Through Poetry By Renée Watson. 7 pages. A teacher’s reflection on the power of poetry to spark critical discussion and reflection on current issues of inequality surrounding disaster response in the United States.
	Learning About the Unfairgrounds: A 4th-Grade Teacher Introduces Her Students to Executive Order 9066 By Katie Baydo-Reed. 10 pages. Students hold a “tea party” and a mock trial to connect with a challenging novel.
	Lewis Hine’s Photographs By Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson. 4 pages. Using photographs to spark creative writing and critical thinking about child labor issues and social justice.
	Stenciling Dissent: A Student Project Draws on the Language of the Streets By Andrew Reed. 5 pages. Teaching activity connects students to history of art as a means of protest and gives them opportunity and skills to create their own stencil with a powerful message.
	The Other Internment: Teaching the Hidden Story of Japanese Latin Americans During WWII By Moé Yonamine. 18 pages. Poetry, photography, and text are used in this role play to teach about the often untold history of Japanese Latin American internment during WWII.
	‘Don’t Take Our Voices Away’: A Role Play on the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change By Julie Treick O’Neill and Tim Swinehart. 16 pages. A role play on the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change that asks students to develop a list of demands to present to the rest of the world at the U.N. climate change treaty meeting.
	The Coming of Pink Cheeks By Chief Kabongo as told to Richard St. Barbe Baker. 7 pages. Story of what happened to the Kikuyu people of Kenya when Europeans took control of their land.
	Remembering Mahmoud Darwish By Naomi Shihab Nye and Linda Christensen. 4 pages. A teaching idea utilizing famous Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s work to inspire students.
	Unleashing Sorrow and Joy: Writing Poetry from History and Literature By Linda Christensen. 10 pages. Teacher reflection on different ways to effectively incorporate poetry into history or literature classes.
	‘If There Is No Struggle…’: Teaching a People’s History of the Abolition Movement By Bill Bigelow. 16 pages. A role play putting students in the position of abolitionist groups working together to end slavery.

Zinn Education Project Partners with StoryCorps’ National Teachers Initiative

The Zinn Education Project is teaming up with StoryCorps, the national nonprofit oral history project, for their National Teachers Initiative. This initiative seeks to honor and celebrate the impact of public school teachers by recording, sharing, and preserving their stories. We are excited at this opportunity to introduce StoryCorps to teachers in the Zinn Education Project community. As one of five national partners, the Zinn Education Project will host a podcast station with stories honoring teachers and highlighting stories of bringing a people’s history to the classroom.

Learn more about the National Teachers Initiative, or email [email protected].

12,000 Teachers Teaching Outside the Textbook

We now have more than 12,000 registered teachers teaching outside the textbook.

People come across the Zinn Education Project in all sorts of ways. Jill Stevens from Massachusetts says she found a bookmark in a desk she inherited.

Hector Perez, Mountain View, Calif.: “Mining the net in search of gold nuggets. Found one!”

Grace Mason, Brighton, Mich.: “Through CREDO and some of its supported causes. I’ve read Howard Zinn in my education classes, but no one has ever mentioned an entire project devoted to bettering teaching techniques.”

Some of you, like Rob Haworth, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, are simply “In the know!!!”

However, the strongest form of outreach is word of mouth between colleagues, teachers, professors, school administrators, and parents—thank you for sharing. Mary Naman, from Portland, Ore., says she heard about the Zinn Education Project “from our daughter’s high school social studies teacher.” On the other hand, Carlton Ackerman, Washington, D.C., says he heard about the Zinn Education Project in “an email from an interested and concerned parent.” Katherine Marx, Boca Raton, Fla., says, “I saw the link from a friend whose open-mindedness and kindness I admire.” Susie Adams, a middle school teacher in Columbia, Mo., registered for the Zinn Education Project website because “I was participating in a Missouri Writing Project workshop and a fellow class member showed us this website. It was just what I was looking for.”

Help us reach 20,000 in 2011 by continuing to share the site information, taking booklets and bookmarks to your school meetings and education conferences, and “liking” us on Facebook.

Why Do the Pentagon Papers Matter Now? An Invitation to Share Your Ideas

On the 40th anniversary of the Pentagon Papers release, Daniel Ellsberg published an essay: Why the Pentagon Papers Matter Now. The producers of the Academy Award-nominated documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers want to get your opinion on this topic. They want know:

• What do YOU think?
• Why do the Pentagon Papers matter now?

They have launched an online dialog, called “The ‘Most Dangerous’ Wall.” They invite you to post your personal comments, video, audio, or photos, share your ideas, and respond to others.

In appreciation to those who “get the dialog going,” the producers will send a free copy of Daniel Ellsberg’s book, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, to the first 100 people who post to the site. They also invite you to rate the other postings. One grand prize winner (as ranked highest on the site) will receive dinner with Daniel Ellsberg.

Visit the special link for the Zinn Education Project — http://bit.ly/mRCwdg — and share this offer widely with friends and colleagues.

In today’s world of hackers and secrecy, combined with the ongoing need for oversight of our elected offices and public engagement, this could be a very important conversation.

To help your students explore the history and relevance of the Pentagon Papers, check out the teaching guide developed by the Zinn Education Project, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers Teaching Guide.

Teaching Against War, for Humanity

The latest issue of the War Resisters League magazine (Winter 2011), Living the Lesson, features an article by Rethinking Schools editor Bill Bigelow called “Teaching Against War, for Humanity.” Here is an excerpt:

. . . As columnist Gary Younge commented in The Nation, “The American people, it seems, are bored with war. Like a reality show that’s gone on too long, it ceases to shock, shame, or even interest.”

Regrettably, the school curriculum mirrors this lack of curiosity about the impact of U.S. military intervention thousands of miles from home. One of the most widely used high school global studies texts, McDougal Littell’s Modern World History, includes a propagandistic two pages on the Iraq War. The textbook includes no mention of the massive antiwar protests that preceded the U.S. invasion. The result of the war, according to McDougal Littell: “With the help of U.S. officials, Iraqis began rebuilding their nation.” The book gives George W. Bush the last words: “Free nations will press on to victory.” . . .

By contrast, Zinn Education Project materials describe how teachers engage students in a “people’s pedagogy” of role plays, simulations, and imaginative writing activities that place students in the position of organizers, rebels, and peacemakers throughout history. More . . .

History Awards for The Most Dangerous Man in America

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers received a 70th Annual Peabody Award, the 2010 John E. O’Connor Film Award from the American Historical Association, the 2011 History Makers Award for Best History Production, and the Organization of American Historians (OAH) 2011 Erik Barnouw Award. Howard Zinn, who played a key role in the history of the Pentagon Papers, is interviewed in the film. Zinn had stored a copy of the Pentagon Papers for the Ellsbergs, had served as an expert witness at Ellsberg’s trial to explain to the jury the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam from World War II to 1963, and had been an active member of the antiwar movement. As WikiLeaks continues to gain attention — playing a role in the protests in Tunisia and Egypt — the story of Daniel Ellsberg can illuminate the crucial role of whistleblowers, their risks and motivations, and the tactics used in attempts to silence them. To bring this history to the classroom, the Zinn Education Project developed a free downloadable 100-page teaching guide for the film with eight lessons for middle, high school, and college students on the Vietnam War and whistleblowing.

Teaching About the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

March 25, 2011, is the 100th anniversary of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that took the lives of 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women. The Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition explains what happened next: “There was a trial, but the owners, long known for their anti-union activities, got off. The fire became a rallying cry for the international labor movement. Many of our fire safety laws were created in response to this tragic event.”

Thankfully, there is literature and websites with primary documents for teaching about the Triangle Factory Fire and another major event in textile workers’ history — the Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, Mass.

There are also resources to make contemporary connections. For example, there is a moving scene in the film Made in L.A. where three sweatshop workers visit the Tenement Museum in the Lower East Side of New York and realize that their own struggle for decent working conditions and wages has a long history in the United States. The Zinn Education Project is pleased to offer a list of resources for teaching about labor and welcomes your stories about how you have used them and/or suggestions for titles to consider for the website.

New Handbook for Whistleblowers

The Zinn Education Project was proud to co-sponsor the book launch on March 1, 2011, for The Whistleblower’s Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Doing What’s Right and Protecting Yourself. The first consumer’s guide to whistleblowing, the Handbook was written by National Whistleblowers Center Executive Director Stephen M. Kohn. Last summer the Zinn Education Project produced a teaching guide for the film about the very famous whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. The Whistleblower’s Handbook will be a key resource for teachers who are motivated by the film and teaching guide to learn more about whistleblowing and/or who are inspired to become whistleblowers themselves.

Stephen M. Kohn shares highlights from the book at the launch.

The Zinn Education Project is named for Howard Zinn who had a personal connection to both Daniel Ellsberg and the National Whistleblowers Center. Zinn recognized the importance of putting the truth about the history of the Vietnam War on the public record, so he assisted Ellsberg in the disclosure of the Pentagon Papers. After ferrying the Pentagon Papers, Zinn continued his guiding role in the whistleblower movement. He was a teacher and mentor to Stephen M. Kohn and wrote a preface for Kohn’s Jailed for Peace: The History of American Draft Law Violators, 1658-1985. When Stephen Kohn, his brother Michael Kohn, and David Colapinto decided to form the National Whistleblowers Center, Zinn joined them (as did South African poet and activist Dennis Brutus). Zinn remained a board member of NWC for the remainder of his life, just as he supported whistleblowers throughout his professional life.

Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo speaks about the NWC.

As Stephen Kohn said, “Howard Zinn’s writing, speaking and activism have inspired generations to desire peace, work for justice and shine the light of truth wherever it is needed.”

The book launch was held at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., with a standing room only audience. (Event photos.) The author was introduced by whistleblower Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo. She spoke of the importance of the National Whistleblowers Center in her own case as an EPA employee when she blew the whistle regarding the vanadium mines in South Africa. Stephen Kohn spoke about the history of whistleblowing in the United States, starting with a 1777 case involving sailors on the Warren. The conclusion of The Whistleblower’s Handbook describes how the whistleblowing sailors received support and protection from the newly formed U.S. government. Kohn looks forward to the day when those rights are accorded to citizens, including Bradley Manning, in the 21st century. In the meantime, The Whistleblower’s Handbook will be a vital resource for activists and their allies.

Teachable Moment: Wisconsin Workers Unite

Tens of thousands protest at the Wisconsin state capital in Madison, Wisconsin on February 17, 2011 as the legislature debates Gov. Scott Walker's plan to destroy public sector unions. Photo (c) Barbara J. Miner, used with permission. Click on photo for more (must be logged into Facebook).

According to labor historian Mark Naison, the movement of workers that began in Wisconsin and is now spreading to other states is “the most important labor struggle in the United States in the 21st century.” Naison explains, “With the state legislature in Wisconsion occupied and surrounded by thousands of state workers and their supporters, and with schools closed throughout the state because of teachers calling in sick, I cannot help but think of the greatest strike and building occupation in the history of the American labor movement — the Flint Sit Down Strikes of 1936-37.”

These events present a powerful opportunity to teach about labor history and the current economic and political situation. Rethinking Schools (co-coordinator of the Zinn Education Project) is located in Milwaukee and has been at the center of the protests in Wisconsin. The editors of Rethinking Schools have prepared a web page with suggested resources, articles (for children and adults), and an invitation to share ideas for teaching about the protests in Wisconsin and beyond.

The Zinn Education Project offers dozens of lessons, books, films, posters, and websites under the themes of labor and organizing. Use the lower section of the right-hand side bar to narrow the list to the reading/grade level of your students. As you teach about labor in light of the current protests, please share your experiences, comments, and questions on the Rethinking Schools website.