Bias, discrimination, harassment and bullying based on weight and size are prevalent in our schools, yet rarely discussed. The National Education Association’s (NEA) report on size discrimination concluded, “For fat students, the school experience is one of ongoing prejudice, unnoticed discrimination, and almost constant harassment. From nursery school through college, fat students experience ostracism, discouragement, and sometimes violence.” According to the Centers for…
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Bullying is a major problem in our schools. When it targets aspects of a person’s identity, it is called identity-based bullying, and may include bias about appearance, race, culture, gender and gender expression, language, religion, socioeconomic status, disability and sexual orientation. According to GLSEN’s 2012 report Playground and Prejudice: Elementary School Climate in the United States, two-thirds of elementary students attribute the bullying and name‐calling that…
Over the past several years, there has been a dramatic increase in the visibility of transgender people and the understanding of transgender issues. Polls show that most Americans believe they know what being transgender means and overwhelmingly feel that our laws should protect transgender people. At the same time, transgender and gender non-conforming people face injustice in every aspect of their lives: at home, in schools, in workplaces, in doctors’ offices and emergency rooms and in…
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides an opportunity to teach and learn more about the history of discrimination and racism in the United States, the struggle for civil rights, the Civil Rights Act, and the strides we have made as well as the work that remains to be done. ADL presents these seven ideas for teaching about the Civil Rights Act in your classroom.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964. The Act prohibited discrimination in…
What is the DREAM Act?
The DREAM Act (short for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act) was a bill in Congress that would have granted legal status to certain undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children and went to school here. Although several versions of the bill have been introduced in Congress since 2001, it has never passed.
Who are the Dreamers?
In the last few years the term “DREAMer” has been used to describe young…
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening “We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” These are the words of the landmark Supreme Court decision on May 17, 1954 that declared segregated schools unconstitutional. Sixty years later, even though much progress has been made, there are still great…
Donald Sterling is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, a National Basketball Association (N.B.A.) team in Los Angeles, California. Recently, TMZ Sports obtained an audio recording of Sterling’s comments (viewed as racist) about black people that were made during an argument with a woman named V. Stiviano. There has been a great deal of response and reaction about these comments from fans, players and other people connected to the NBA and the news media.
In this lesson, students…
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language Using Poetry to Teach about Identity
Reading and writing poetry can provide an opening for young people to explore the various aspects of their identity, including their name, race and ethnicity, physical characteristics and more.
April is National Poetry Month, a good opportunity to explore poetry with your students. Because poetry does not require strict sentence structure or the usual grammar rules…
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening César Chávez was a Mexican American labor activist, civil rights advocate and leader of the United Farm Workers. During the 1960s and 70s, he was a leading voice for migrant farm workers. His leadership focused national attention on these laborers’ working conditions, which eventually led to improvements. In 2008, President Obama proclaimed March 31 Cé…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language What are Microaggressions?
“Microaggression” is a term that was coined in the 1970s and more recently used by Derald Wing Sue, a Columbia University professor, to describe the “brief and commonplace verbal, behavioral or environmental indignities—whether intentional or unintentional—which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults to people from…
Derrick Coleman, a football player with the Seattle Seahawks, is the only legally deaf athlete in professional football history to play offense. In early January 2014, he made a commercial* where he talks about the impact his hearing impairment has had on his life. The video went viral and in less than a week, had 5.5 million views. Coleman’s story provides an excellent teaching opportunity to discuss disabilities and the importance of safeguarding the rights and dignity of people with…
[Updated]On June 26, 2015, in a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court of the United States held that that the 14th Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize marriages lawfully performed in other jurisdictions. This means that marriage equality is now the law of the land in all 50 states. Prior to this historic day, 37 states plus the District of Columbia had legalized marriage for same-sex couples.
This lesson provides an…
In celebration and memory of the life of Nelson Mandela, this special edition of the Current Events Classroom provides students the opportunity to learn, in several ways, more about Nelson Mandela and his extraordinary life.
In November 2013, the FBI released the Hate Crime Statistics, 2012, a report that has been compiled every year since the early 1990s. This lesson provides an opportunity for students to learn more about hate crimes, the annual report and background on the 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA). Students will also explore possible actions they can take to prevent hate crimes. For more information, see ADL’s webpage on Hate Crimes Law and the No Place…
Holiday season is a time of year when children and families think about buying toys for children. In our society, very few toys are free of gender packaging and most toys are either associated with girls or boys. Often, those associations are stereotyped, so that “girl toys” tend to focus on domesticity, nurturing and appearance whereas “boy toys” emphasize building, action and aggressive play. This lesson will give students the opportunity to learn about and reflect on…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening, Language Arts This lesson provides an opportunity for students to discuss the homicide of Renisha McBride, who was shot to death while seeking help after being in a car accident. Similar to Trayvon Martin, both victims were black and in both cases, the shooter was white. Also similar was the perpetrator’s claim of self-defense. Students will learn more about these cases and analyze the role of…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language Arts This lesson provides an opportunity for students to reflect on the news story about two Miami Dolphins football players in a situation involving bullying and bias, and which resulted in one player leaving the team and the other player’s suspension. The situation has launched a national conversation about bullying, hazing, masculinity, physical and verbal abuse and locker room behavior. ADL has…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, ADL brings together classroom resources for this special curriculum unit to reinforce the significance of this act, signed by President Ronald Reagan on August 10, 1988. This law issued a formal apology and gave reparations to the 60,000 surviving Japanese Americans who were a part of the 120,000 Japanese Americans…
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language In response to the lack of representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in school curricula and disproportionate incidents of bullying and violence against LGBT youth, ADL, GLSEN and StoryCorps collaborated to create Unheard Voices, an oral history and curriculum project that will help educators to integrate LGBT history, people and issues into their…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language Since its contrivance at the turn of the twentieth century by the Russian secret police, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion (or The Protocols of the Elders of Zion) has taken root in bigoted and uneducated minds around the world. The booklet’s twenty-four sections spell out the alleged confidential plans of a Jewish conclave seeking to attain world domination. They represent…