Parents can help children learn to stand up to hate. Here’s how.
“‘The first time I got called the ‘n-word’ I was standing outside my sixth-grade classroom exchanging a book from the lockers,” says Kimu Elolia. He wasn’t prepared for the weight of the word or how it would leave him feeling paralyzed and isolated for weeks but says he “didn’t have language to explain what I was experiencing.” Elolia, 29, is the creative producer for Sonic Union and now creates podcasts for children designed to foster empathy for the Black experience, which he says will incentivize them to stand up for one another.
Helping our children understand how and why to stand up for one another is becoming more and more important.”
“‘The first time I got called the ‘n-word’ I was standing outside my sixth-grade classroom exchanging a book from the lockers,’ says Kimu Elolia. He wasn’t prepared for the weight of the word or how it would leave him feeling paralyzed and isolated for weeks but says he “didn’t have language to explain what I was experiencing.” Elolia, 29, is the creative producer for Sonic Union and now creates podcasts for children designed to foster empathy for the Black experience, which he says will incentivize them to stand up for one another.
Helping our children understand how and why to stand up for one another is becoming more and more important. According to a 2021 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, roughly 1 in 4 students between ages 12 and 18 who experienced bullying during the 2018-2019 school year were targeted because of their race, national origin, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation. In 2021, the FBI reported an 11.6 percent increase in hate crime incidents in the United States compared with the year before.
For tweens and teens actively exploring their identities, the spike in bias incidents is particularly significant. “Hate speech impacts the way you anticipate the world is going to see you and can begin to influence how you see yourself,” said psychologist Ryan DeLapp, director of the REACH (Racial, Ethnic and Cultural Health) Program at the Ross Center in New York City.”
Keep reading at The Washington Post.
Generations later, Mainers confront a genocide that still remains overlooked
“Dawn Neptune Adams dreams of being hunted.
For much of her life, the nightmare remained the same: Adams runs in the woods, chased by unseen captors.
“It is intergenerational trauma,” Adams explained, “from my ancestors being hunted and tortured.”
Adams is a member of the Penobscot Nation and the bounty that was placed on her Indigenous ancestors more than 250 years ago still torments her sleep and her waking hours.”
“Dawn Neptune Adams dreams of being hunted.
For much of her life, the nightmare remained the same: Adams runs in the woods, chased by unseen captors.
“It is intergenerational trauma,” Adams explained, “from my ancestors being hunted and tortured.”
Adams is a member of the Penobscot Nation and the bounty that was placed on her Indigenous ancestors more than 250 years ago still torments her sleep and her waking hours.
In November 1755, Lt. Governor Spencer Phips of Massachusetts Bay Colony offered rewards for hunting, killing and scalping Penobscot men, women and children living in what is now known as New England.
The brutal murders of her people, Adams said, runs through her blood and the blood of many other tribal members. The trauma of one generation, she said, is passed onto the next.”
Continue reading at The Maine Monitor.
Teaching Indigenous Peoples' Day with the Documentary Dawnland
“About a year ago, a mesh orange fence showed up in a section of a park my family frequents. A tree near the mesh fencing was adorned with stuffed animals at its base; signs offered the explanation. The mesh fence was there to demarcate sacred land. This end of the park was a burial site of children who once attended an expansive Indian school in this part of Albuquerque. The school sprawled across acres. A street crossing through the area still reflects this past: Indian School Road.”
“About a year ago, a mesh orange fence showed up in a section of a park my family frequents. A tree near the mesh fencing was adorned with stuffed animals at its base; signs offered the explanation. The mesh fence was there to demarcate sacred land. This end of the park was a burial site of children who once attended an expansive Indian school in this part of Albuquerque. The school sprawled across acres. A street crossing through the area still reflects this past: Indian School Road.
The city is involved in an extensive process to determine what will be done on this land; how the city will commemorate the lives lost there, but the more complicated reality for our community and for many others across North America is how to navigate an ugly past in which Native American and First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families to be raised in boarding schools or in white families. In both cases, being forcefully separated from their families, heritage, language, and traditions.”
Continue reading at Video Librarian.
Maulian Dana interviewed on Downton with Rich Kimball
Listen to filmmaker Maulian Dana talk with Rich Kimball about Bounty and other Upstander Project films.
“Maulian Dana joined us on today’s show to discuss the new documentary, BOUNTY.”
Listen at WZON.
Upstander Project Presents at Harvard Graduate School of Education
Participants at the Upstander Project workshop at HGSE studied First Light learning resources and historical texts.
Upstander Project Learning Director Dr. Mishy Lesser
Upstander Academy Registration Now Open
We hope you plan to join us for the Upstander Academy and take advantage of the discounted registration fee before space runs out.
We hope you plan to join us for the Upstander Academy and take advantage of the discounted registration fee before space runs out.
The Upstander Project and the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut are proud to present an inquiry-based professional development opportunity for secondary teachers using genocide and human rights education to address complex historical and current issues. Middle and high school teachers helped design the Academy to ensure its relevancy.
Teachers interested in themes such as post-genocide Rwanda and cultural genocide against Native Americans are encouraged to join us. These content areas provide a helpful framework for strengthening social emotional competencies and learning about the importance of upstanders.
Early Registration Deadline: Monday, February 15th
Upstander Academy 2016
Monday, August 1st - Friday, August 5th
Dodd Center at the University of Connecticut
To register click here. A $25 deposit is required to secure your spot. The $100 balance is due on or before June 30th.
Peace Studies between Tradition and Innovation
Authored by US and Canadian academics, educators, and activists, the chapters in this book demonstrate, how scholars and practitioners in the field are using the important knowledge, skills and values of their foremothers and forefathers to address new issues, integrate new technologies, and make new partners in their efforts to create a more just and humane world.
“The field of peace and conflict studies is rich in secular and faith traditions. At the same time, as a relatively new and interdisciplinary field, it is ripe with innovation. This volume, the first in the series Peace Studies: Edges and Innovations, edited by Michael Minch and Laura Finley of the Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA), is edited by top Canadian and US scholars in the field and captures both those traditions and innovations, focusing on enduring questions, organizing and activism, peace pedagogy, and practical applications.”
Continue reading at Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Building the Coexist team at one high school
Today is the final workshop with the 25 faculty and staff members before we bring the students in to join this new team we're forming at East Hartford High School (CT). The educators have spent this school year deepening their understanding of genocide and othering, bystanding and upstanding, retaliation and forgiveness, and practicing new skills (Guided Visualization, Talking Circles, Walk the Wall, Snowball). In the process our Upstander Project team is supporting social emotional learning, cultivating interdisciplinary collaboration among teachers from distinct disciplines, and creating a safe space for learning and discussion that can benefit students. This is all leading up to April 3rd when over twenty students join the Coexist Team. In September 2013 the Upstander Project launched a yearlong pilot project in partnership with EHHS. The plan: work with the adults in the fall/winter months and invite the students to join us in the spring. The vision: use our documentary film Coexist and the activities in the Teacher's Guide to help the school strengthen its leadership culture with an eye toward making othering socially unacceptable.
What ideas would you like to share that support social emotional learning at your school or in your life?