My Middle School Students Can’t Vote, But They Think You Should

Government is not a static entity to be studied. It is a living, breathing being, which young people can learn to understand and influence. Never…

The Kids Aren’t Here for Half-Baked Schoolwork and Shady Politics

Outrage: If They Don’t Believe In Them, They Shouldn’t Be Teaching Them This was my story entering freshman year of college. Many students are earning…

I’m a Teacher in Florida and I’m Afraid of Going Back to School This Fall

I am a seventh-grade civics teacher at a public school in Dade County, Florida, and I am afraid to go back to teaching in the…

Meet the Student Activists Fighting Against Gun Violence

They’ve been all over the news since February, walking out of class, marching for their lives in the streets and dunking on the president of…

Want Safer Schools? Listen to the Wave of Student Voices.

In recent months, hundreds of thousands of students from across the United States made it clear that they are a force to be reckoned with.…

What Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America’ Has to Do With School Shootings

I know there are a lot of interpretations of Childish Gambino’s new single “This is America” and what it all means, but here’s how I think…

I’m Sick of Being a Token, It’s Time for Some Real Student Voice

With the surge of student activism after the Parkland, Florida, mass shooting, such as student walkouts, students have entered a critical moment: Are decision-makers finally…

Harsher School Discipline Isn’t the Answer to School Shootings

In the 19 years since the shooting at Columbine High School took the lives of 12 students and one teacher, more than 187,000 students in…

My Chicago Neighborhood Is Still Scarred 50 Years After MLK’s Assassination, But My Students Give Me Hope

Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, leading to an uprising in Chicago. The North Lawndale and East Garfield Park…

The World Is Threatened by Our Students’ Voices and We Have to Teach Them to Be Brave

I talk a lot about how our students can change the world. And I mean it. Glance at the headlines any day this week, and…