Current Issues

In this critical thinking activity, students research how different constituencies (such as U.S. athletes or corporate sponsors) have responded to the controversy over Russia's anti-gay laws, evaluate those responses, and propose how they would respond if they were in that role. 

Two lessons use a Championship Game conflict between the Seahawks' Richard Sherman and 49ers player Michael Crabtree as a taking off point. In Lesson 1, students consider emotional triggers and how to handle them.  In Lesson 2, students look critically at how the public and the media reacted to the...

Some preliminary ideas for remembering the life of the remarkable folk singer and activist Pete Seeger, who died on January 27.

Benefits have just been cut for the one in seven Americans who receive food stamps, and more cuts may be on the way. In two readings, students learn about the debate over food stamps and the effect of cuts, and compare the US approach to hunger to that of other countries. 

This lesson focuses on a less well-known part of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, but one that is extremely relevant today: the Poor People’s Campaign that Dr. King led over 40 years ago. The lesson links this campaign to current struggles to combat poverty in the US, including efforts by workers at...

Students learn about the history and importance of play, and consider games, good and bad.

When disaster strikes, we want to help. But how? In this lesson, students learn about the factors that contribute to natural disasters, and consider what we might do about them. 

Students consider the leadership of Nelson Mandela by reading and discussing quotes about and by him.

Two student readings examine the history of stop and frisk and the debate surrounding this policing practice.

Students learn about  and discuss the history of apartheid in South Africa, the long struggle against it, and Nelson Mandela’s legacy as a leader in that struggle.