info@teachingforchange.org PO Box 73038, Washington, D.C. 20056

#StepUpScholastic Twitter Chat

On February 29, Leslie Mac of Ferguson Response Network hosted a twitter chat on the #StepUpScholastic campaign. There was a rich and lively exchange among educators, parents, authors, and other activists as they weighed in on a series of questions about the campaign. Questions ranged from “why target Scholastic” to “what person(s) or moment(s) from your history …

#StepUpScholastic

Climate Change Missing from Scholastic News Scholastic News’ coverage of Hurricane Harvey says that the storm has acted “strangely,” but doesn’t mention even one word about climate change nor the extensive unregulated development that have contributed to the devastating crisis in Houston. Tell Scholastic our children deserve to know the truth about the weather as part of …

Bad Advice from NPR’s Weekend Edition on Racist Children’s Books

UPDATE The January 31, 2016 NPR Weekend Edition aired a segment, “How Do We Read Books Embedded With Racism?“, in response to critiques (read below) by Teaching for Change and many others of the January 24th segment. NPR posted some of the critiques, including one by former TFC staff member Jhonna Amelia Turner. This confirms that it is worth …

Under Pressure, Scholastic Recalls Racist Children’s Book

By Deborah Menkart A firestorm erupted when Scholastic released a children’s book early this month, A Birthday Cake for George Washington, by Ramin Ganeshram and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, featuring smiling enslaved people baking a cake for George Washington.  The back cover portrayed George Washington and his enslaved chef, Hercules, arm-in-arm, like best buddies. The image …