New Teaching Activities on Foreign Policy, Civil Rights, and Economics

From Brussels to Lahore, from Syria to the Trump campaign, the world can seem an increasingly chaotic and scary place. More than ever, teachers need people’s history resources to help students ask deep and critical questions—and to surface the grassroots activism for justice that is always there, but too often buried in the official curriculum.

The Zinn Education Project is pleased to announce the posting of five articles originally published in Rethinking Schools magazine that help to bring history and current events to life, and that help equip students to make sense of their world.

Two of these, by Rethinking Schools editor Adam Sanchez, are role plays that explore the roots of global crisis. “Greed as a Weapon: Teaching the Other Iraq War” examines the neglected economic war the United States waged on Iraq—a war that helps explain so much of today’s chaos there. “Tè Tremblé: An Unnatural Disaster” is a trial role play that shows how the impact of the devastating 2010 Haitian earthquake can only be understood historically.

“Plotting Inequalities, Building Resistance” is a story of how teachers at June Jordan School for Equity in San Francisco helped students describe and understand the growing inequality of their city as they developed academic skills. Similarly, teacher Brian Gibbs shows how he used his own East Los Angeles school, Roosevelt High School, as his “textbook,” and helped students learn the stirring history of the 1968 Chicano Student Blowouts.

Elementary teacher Willow McCormick also connects her students to the hidden local stories of the Civil Rights Rights Movement in a teaching article that tells how she draws on the knowledge of students’ own grandparents.

Please download these, use them, and share with colleagues.

	Greed as a Weapon: Teaching the Other Iraq War By Adam Sanchez A role play investigating the economic consequences of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
	Tè Tremblé: An Unnatural Disaster: A Trial Role Play Probes the Roots of Devastation in Haiti By Adam Sanchez A trial role play asks students to question the role played by the U.S. government and other international actors in the 2010 earthquake.
	Our Grandparents’ Civil Rights Era: Family Letters Bring History to Life By Willow McCormick An elementary school teacher connects the Civil Rights Movement to students’ family history by asking their grandparents to share their memories of the Movement.
	The History All Around Us: Roosevelt High School and the 1968 Eastside Blowouts By Brian C. Gibbs A teacher uses the activist history of Theodore Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles to pose students the question: “What would you be willing to do to create change?”
	Plotting Inequalities, Building Resistance: High School Students Use Math to Reflect on Social Inequality By Adam Renner, Bridget Brew, and Crystal Proctor An article describing how math teachers in a San Francisco high school shed light on the ways economics and racism affect education, housing, and job opportunities.