School activities surrounding Christmas can have unintentional negative consequences like reinforcing commercialism, focusing on "good" and "bad" behavior and isolating students who don't celebrate the holiday.
Invariably, issues are raised in classrooms that bring charged responses from students. How can educators set the stage for safe, respectful dialogue and learning?
Shelton is a first-grade teacher and author of Child of the Civil Rights Movement. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and three sons. She is dedicated to spreading the truth about our American history.
When Idaho Rep. Brent Crane characterized Rosa Parks as a champion of states’ rights in a recent debate, it was a troubling sign of what happens when a nation doesn’t work hard to remember its history.