To open up the school year, I started with Teaching the Seeds of Violence in Palestine-Israel, and I highly recommend other teachers use this lesson. Students especially appreciated the intra-Jewish debates on Zionism. They were able to see that the current genocide has roots long before October 7, 2023. — Terry Fitzgibbons, High School Teacher, New Jersey
I highly recommend “Founding” Documents We Don’t Learn Aboutif you want to move beyond the typical founding documents, dive into the perspectives of those who were critical of the ideals of the founding and American “Revolution,” and engage your students!
—Deana Forbes, High School Teacher, Lilburn, Georgia
I used the lesson Why Did the United States Invade Venezuela? Student Inquiry to enhance our unit on U.S. imperialism and foreign policy. Pushing back on the exceptionalism narrative is imperative to imagining a more humanistic future for generations to come. — Alicia Saxe, High School Curriculum Specialist, Denver, Colorado
For our Reconstruction unit this year in U.S. History, I searched for resources to reflect Black power, leadership, and political influence in the era of Reconstruction. I found the resources in Reconstructing the South: What Really Happened to be highly impactful on student understanding, especially the graphic organizer for analyzing primary sources. — Victoria Pierce, Middle School Teacher, Aiken, South Carolina
I hope Legalize Black Education: The Long Fight for the Right to Learn will inspire my students to rise up and fight for their own lives and the right to continue to equip themselves with the knowledge of true U.S. history. I hope they will know how to fight the system and the pipeline that led them to prison. — Orissa Babauta, High School Teacher, Columbus, Georgia
#TeachTruth at No Kings
At the No Kings rally on March 28, we ask for your help to raise awareness about the attacks on public education and the need to defend the freedom to learn. This year we are focused on teaching truthfully about the American Revolution on this 250th anniversary.
Download posters or make your own. Send us photos or post them on social media and tag #TeachTruth.
Our Prentiss Charney Fellowship offers a cohort of people’s history educators the opportunity to study, learn, and organize together. Meet one of our fellows, DC Public Schools elementary school assistant principal of mathematics, Dr. Tamyka Morant.
Tamyka Morant is an elementary instructional leader and scholar-activist committed to building justice-centered learning spaces, where children engage in complex, critical thinking about the world around them.
Grounded in Black feminist pedagogy and the tradition of fugitive teaching, she has worked for more than 25 years as an educator to cultivate critical consciousness, communal responsibility, and collective agency in elementary classrooms.
Each year, Tamyka Morant and her colleagues facilitate in depth, schoolwide studies of Central America and Black Lives Matter at School that culminate in family and community celebrations of learning. Students visit each other’s classes to learn from their research.
Friends in the D.C. area are welcome to see this work in action at the Black Lives Matter at School Marketplace of Knowledge on Thursday, March 26 and Friday, March 27.
Events
Check out these events hosted by the Zinn Education Project and our colleagues. Online unless noted otherwise.
Friends in the Washington, D.C., area, don′t miss the people′s history trivia night in person on Wednesday, March 25. A fun-filled and educational evening, with prizes for all. The event is hosted by Teaching for Change and Busboys and Poets as part of the Beyond Heroes and Holidays series. RSVP.
Latinx Freedom Conference, a rare and powerful gathering on Latinos in the civil rights movement, to be held in person at the CUNY Grad Center in New York onApril 9–10.Learn more and register.
The conference is part of the Latinx Freedom Movement Archive & Exhibition Project, a national initiative that will bring large-scale outdoor exhibitions to five cities as a public intervention marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
OnMonday, April 13, join historian Matthew Delmont and Rethinking Schools executive director Cierra Kaler-Jones for a discussion of Delmont’s latest book, Until the Last Gun Is Silent: A Story of Patriotism, the Vietnam War, and the Fight to Save America’s Soul. The book tells the story of the Vietnam War through the lives of Coretta Scott King and Dwight “Skip” Johnson and includes the history of SNCC, the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and more.
ASL interpretation and professional development certificates provided.
On Tuesday, April 21, join Zinn Education Project program manager Mimi Eisen and Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian to pilot a new high school lesson for teaching the people’s history of the American Revolution.
Through a mixer activity, participants will surface choices and outcomes navigated by an array of Indigenous and Black people in the Revolutionary period — and examine what freedom meant to those excluded from it at the U.S. founding.
Join us this summer for a virtual Teaching for Black Lives study group. Each participant receives a Teaching for Black Lives book and a one-year subscription to Rethinking Schools magazine.
Pre-K–12 educators will explore how to teach about racism, resistance, and joy. We will meet at 4 pm PT/ 7 pm ET on Tuesdays: June 23, June 30, July 14, and July 21.
Teachers are under attack for teaching truthfully about U.S. history. Please donate so we can continue to offer free people’s history lessons and resources, and defend teachers’ right to use them.
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