Thanks to You, More Students Will Learn People’s History in 2016

I donate to the Zinn Education Project so that my daughter will not have to wait until she is an adult, as I did, to learn people's history. —Katherine Gray
Katherine Gray is one of dozens of people who have donated to the Zinn Education Project during our year-end campaign so that we can provide free people's history lessons to teachers across the country in 2016.
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Let’s Transform the Teaching of History

Dear Zinn Education Project friend, As you may know, we launched our People's History Organizer Campaign last month, and the response has been encouraging. Please join the campaign to raise the final third—$40,000—of our goal.
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Check Your Curriculum: Are Native Americans in the Past Tense?

For Native American Heritage Month, we highly recommend the article “‘All Indians Are Dead?’ At Least That’s What Most Schools Teach Children,” based on a study called "Manifesting Destiny: Re/presentations of Indigenous Peoples in K–12 U.S. History Standards." The article can inspire an examination of the curriculum and books in our schools.
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Let's transform the teaching of history—Donate! | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

People’s History Organizer for People’s History Teachers

Recently, a remarkable thing happened. A longtime Zinn Education Project (ZEP) supporter—a retired social studies teacher and teacher union activist—came to us with a proposal: "I want to help the Zinn Education Project reach hundreds of thousands more students. We need to provide every teacher with a people's history alternative to their textbook."
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Call to “Abolish Columbus Day” Has Unprecedented Reach

The recent If We Knew Our History article, “Time to Abolish Columbus Day,” has gone viral, as the call to change the name to Indigenous Peoples’ Day gains support across the country. The article has received more than 140K Facebook likes on Common Dreams and the Huffington Post. It has also been referenced in national news media, including MSNBC, The Washington Post, Nonprofit Quarterly, and Common Dreams, and was posted on AlterNet.
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A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis (Teaching Guide) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Pope Francis: System Change, Not Climate Change

With every passing day, the climate crisis announces itself with greater urgency. The drought in California. The wildfires in the West. The summer of 2015 was the hottest ever recorded. What's next? The good news is that activism is on the rise, too. The movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground is growing by leaps and bounds.
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A People’s History of Muslims in the United States (Article) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

A People’s History of Muslims in the United States

With all the hate speech and misinformation from presidential candidates about Muslims, we revisit the Zinn Education Project article by Alison Kysia, "A People's History of Muslims in the United States." Kysia writes, "Most of my students reference 9/11 as the first time they heard of Muslims. Mainstream textbooks do little to correct or supplement the biases that students learn from the media. These books distort the rich and complex place of Muslims throughout U.S. history."
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Seattle Teachers on Strike

As educators in Seattle lead the city’s first teacher strike in 30 years, we share this interview with Rethinking Schools associate editor and history teacher Jesse Hagopian and Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant.
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Bree Newsome: I Refused to Be Ruled by Fear

In June, while politicians continued to debate about the implications of taking down the Confederate flag after the shooting of nine people at Emmanuel AME Church and several arson fires on Black churches in the South that followed, Bree Newsome scaled the South Carolina state flag pole and took the flag down herself. She did not organized this effort alone.
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It’s Not Just the Confederate Flag

By William Loren Katz The Confederate flag represents a threat to citizens of color, a symbol of treason against the United States, and a war fought on behalf of slaveholders. But there are other equally offensive symbols that have not attracted the attention they should. For example, a statue of former South Carolina governor and U.S. Senator Ben Tillman stands in the state Capitol.
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Spring 2015 Update

The Zinn Education Project has engaged more people than ever with quality, thought-provoking people's history lessons for students and stimulating articles that challenge myths about our history. With your continued support, we can reach more classrooms. We bring you a quick snapshot of 2015 so far.
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Rethinking Cinco de Mayo (Article) - 1901 poster for Cinco de Mayo by Jose Guadalupe Posada | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Rethinking Cinco de Mayo

This month we feature the very popular article on how the commercialization of Cinco de Mayo perpetuates stereotypes and misconceptions of this holiday that commemorates the defeat of Napoleon III, not Mexico’s Independence Day. Published on the Huffington Post and the Zinn Education Project websites.

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By Sudie Hofmann I recently came across a flier in an old backpack of my daughter’s: Wanted: Committee Chairs for this Spring’s Cinco de Mayo All School Celebration. The flier was replete with cultural props including a sombrero, cactus tree, donkey, taco, maracas, and chili peppers. Seeing this again brought back the moment when, years earlier, my daughter had handed the flier to me, and I’d thought, “Oh, no.” The local K-6 elementary school’s Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) was sponsoring a stereotypical Mexican American event. There were no Chicana/o students, parents, or staff members who I was aware of in the school community and I was concerned about the event’s authenticity. I presumed the PTSA meant well, and was attempting to provide a multicultural experience for students and families, but it seemed they were likely to get it wrong. Continue reading.
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