In keeping with our recent theme, Karen Thompson suggested the following Colorlines article: How to Be a Racial Justice Hero, on MLK Day and All Year Long. It includes an infographic on being a “Racial Transformer.”
Have you marked your calendar yet for the LBCC-hosted conversation project, Why are there so few Black people in Oregon? September 7 is quickly approaching.
In her Learning the Language blog, Lesli Maxwell writes about demographic projections related to English language learners: ELLs to Keep Increasing as K-12 Schools Cross ‘Majority-Minority’ Threshold. The 2014-15 school year is projected to be the year that White students fall below 50% of the U.S. K-12 population. As Maxwell also reports, “By 2050, 34 percent of U.S. children younger than 17 will either be immigrants themselves or the children of at least one parent who is an immigrant, according to projections from the Pew Research Center.”
Need a good laugh about this? Check out comedian Hari Kandabolu’s video on Upworthy about the majority-minority shift.
I just recently came across this 2013 Rethinking Schools article: Paradise Lost: Introducing Students to Climate Change through Story. Author Brady Bennon describes how he taught a high school unit on climate change—first for a freshman global studies class and later to a senior humanities class. He and his students had some remarkable insights that make this a worthwhile read. My favorite quote comes at the end…“The places where we live have a profound effect on our lives. They influence our ideas, beliefs, and how we see the world. Places give us meaning. Our memories make us who we are and are inseparable from the places where they are made. So what happens when our place gets destroyed? What happens to the people who are uprooted, ripped from their homes, torn from their place?”
We came across two excellent book lists recently. The Institute for Humane Education created an annotated list of 14 Children’s Picture Books Exploring Race and Racism. KQED’s Mind/Shift published 25 Books that Diversity Kids’ Reading Lists this Summer. As Mind/Shift reports, a Cooperative Children’s Book Center study found that in 2012, “…the total number of books about people of color—regardless of quality, regardless of accuracy or authenticity—was less than eight percent of the total number of titles we received.” NPR’s Code Switch reported in June on the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign at BookCon.
Did you hear Karen Thompson (OSU College of Education Assistant Professor) on the radio this morning? KLCC interviewed her about the federal grant she received for work with the Oregon Department of Education and WestEd on studying academic achievement of all Oregon K-12 students who enter school as English language learners. A full news release is online.