Marymount School

The following is a list of celebrations and resources of diversity-related themes for April 2010, many of which are integrated into the Marymount curriculum. The list will be updated as the year progresses.

April 1, 2010: First day of National Poetry Month

• Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture.
• Brave New Voices is a national poetry slam competition that truly engages everyone involved. The first episode of the HBO series which chronicles the 2008 festival is available online.
• Hip Hop and the Classics for the Classroom by Alan Sitmor and Michael Cirelli. This collection of lesson plans analyzes the poetry of hip-hop and compares its motifs, themes, and general poetic devices to the poems traditionally studied in order to teach the core elements of the poetic craft in an appealing, relevant, and accessible manner.
• The Hip-Hop Education Guidebook Volume 1 (H2ED) by Marcella Runnell Hall and Martha Diaz. The H2ED Guidebook addresses the tenets of critical hip-hop pedagogy, framing the issues of concern and strength within hip-hop culture. The book offers an array of innovative and interdisciplinary lesson plans for teachers by teachers.

April 1, 2010: Birthday of Wangari Maathai

• Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai was born on this day in 1940. In 2004 Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa is an account of the work of Kenyan environmental/political activist Wangari Maathai.
• “TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai.” This film tells the story of Maathai and Kenyaís Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization encouraging rural women and families to plant trees in community groups. The website also hosts multiple lesson plans and resources for taking action.

April 7, 2010: World Health Day

• Health and Healthcare Resources by Radical Math. This is a collection of materials for teaching about health and healthcare through mathematics.
• “Unnatural Causes: Is inequality Making Us Sick” by PBS. This 7-part series exploring race and socioeconomic disparities in health investigates how the social circumstances in which we are born, live, and work can actually get under our skin and disrupt our physiology as much as germs and viruses. The website includes a classroom section, discussion guide and video clips. See also this Youth Guide for more information.

April 10, 2010: 10th Anniversary of Jhumpa Lahiri Winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

• Jhumpa Lahiri was the first Asian American and Indian American to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, for her collection of stories Interpreter of Maladies.
• The South Asian Forum aims to tell the story of South Asians through the lens of its organizations and organizing work.

April 10, 2010: Birthday of Dolores Huerta

• Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers, was born on this day in 1930. Huerta is a Latina labor activist and organizer of farm workers. She is also co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America.
• Dolores Huerta Mini-Unit. This mini-unit teaches about Huerta’s contributions and encourages students to take action to change their own communities.

April 11, 2010: Holocaust Remembrance Day

• Days of Remembrance. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has extensive resources for honoring Holocaust Remembrance Day.
• Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals: Online Exhibition of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This online exhibit provides resources, photographs and more to learn about the Nazis’ persecution of homosexuals.
• “Paper Clips, The Movie.” This documentary shows how students in Tennessee responded to lessons about the Holocaust with a promise to collect a paper clip for each individual killed by the Nazis. The result, a memorial railcar filled with 11 million paper clips stands permanently in their schoolyard. The film shows how a committed group of children and educators can make a difference.

April 12, 2010: Birthday of Florence Reece

• Florence Reece, songwriter, lived from 1900 to 1986. Reece, a white woman who grew up in a coal-mining community, became an activist for miners. She wrote the song “Which Side Are You On?” during the 1931 strike of the United Mine Workers of America.
• Resources for Labor Union Organizing. This organization is designed to support U.S. workers to organize themselves and their co-workers into labor unions.

April 13, 2010: Vaisakhi (Sikh New Year)

• This day is the holiest day of the calendar for over 20 million Sikhs worldwide.
• My Sikh Year: A Year of Religious Festivals by Cath Senker. This book moves chronologically through the calendar year and looks at the typical events, customs, and celebrations celebrated by Sikh children.

April 15, 2010: 50th Anniversary of the Formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

• SNCC, one of the lead organizations in the Civil Rights Movement, played a major role in the sit-ins and freedom rides, voter registration drives, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. It later shifted its focus to Black Power.
• SNCC Project Group. This site covers the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from its formation in 1960 to 1966.

April 16, 2010: National Day of Silence

• During Day of Silence, a project of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), students lead protests against LGBTQ harassment in school.
• Day of Silence Website. This site includes information about the day and its history as well as FAQs, reproducible materials, an organizing manual for students, and more.
• The Trevor Project operates a nationwide crisis and suicide prevention helpline for LGTBQ youth. This site includes educational resources.

April 19, 2010: Birthday of Arnita Young Boswell

• Arnita Boswell, social worker and activist, lived from 1920 to 2002. Boswell was a professor of social work in Chicago who helped organize Dr. King’s civil rights march in Chicago and founded Chicago’s League of Black Women. She was also the first national director of project Head Start.
• The Face of Our Past: Images of Black Women from Colonial America to the Present edited by Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson, with an introduction by Darlene Clark-Hine. This comprehensive pictorial history tells the story of Black women (including Boswell) in nine parts: Family Life, Work, Hair, Resistance, Class, Education, Religion, Community, and Inner Life.

April 19, 2010: First day of TV Turnoff Week (Spring)

• National TV Turnoff Week is a nationwide effort to encourage people to reassess the role TV plays in their daily lives as entertainer, pacifier, babysitter, time filler, and background noise.
• Turn Off TV/Turn on the Possibilities by Pat Degracia from Kitsap County Health District. This resource describes the significance of TV Turnoff Day. It includes a log that students and families can use to report how many hours of television they watched during this week compared to a normal week.
• Organizer’s Kit. This includes kits that you can purchase as well as fact sheets about children’s television viewing habits.

April 22, 2010: 120th Anniversary of the Founding of the Black Town of Langston, Oklahoma

• Langston was founded as a black town as part of an effort to create a majority-black state in what was then the Territory of Oklahoma. The town was named for John Mercer Langston, a black member of the United States Congress from Virginia.
• Oklahoma Historical Society’s Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. A brief history of Oklahoma’s All-Black Towns.

April 22, 2010: 10th Anniversary of the First Victory in the Nationally Coordinated Justice for Janitors Campaign

• The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) campaign successfully sought to raise standards for janitors in Los Angeles. This was the first in a series of janitor strikes across the country in 2000. The strike won important gains, including increased wages, expanded health care benefits and more full-time jobs.
• Si Se Puede by Diana Cohn. This is a bilingual picture book about Carlos, a young boy whose mother is a janitor in the strike. He organizes his class to support his mother’s union in their struggle. For more information see the related Lesson Plans.
• “Bread and Roses.” This film chronicles the Justice for Janitors strike in the 1990s which saw an army of exploited cleaners, predominately Latino immigrants, take to the streets to protest for basic workers’ rights.

April 22, 2010: Earth Day (40th anniversary)

• Earth Day was started by Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) in 1970 as a national teach-in about environmental issues.
• Environmental Protection Activities and Online Games by the Institute for Humane Education. Among other great resources and lesson plans, this website hosts several online games that help students explore issues of environmental sustainability.
• Race, Poverty and the Environment. This journal links issues of racism and poverty with environmental justice.

April 22, 2010: 10th Anniversary of the Elian Gonzalez Raid

• US federal agents seized Elian Gonzalez from his relatives in Miami, Florida and flew him to his father in Washington, DC. He eventually returned to Cuba with his father, ending the long custody battle that ensued after Elian escaped Cuba with his mother, who died before reaching the US.
• The U.S. Trade Embargo on Cuba from NOW with Bill Moyers, PBS. This lesson allows students to explore the historical context of the plight of Elian Gonzalez by examining the U.S. blockade of Cuba. Students examine perspectives for and against the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, investigate its historical background, develop a position, and articulate viewpoints in a public forum.

April 24, 2010: Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

• This observance is held annually to commemorate the victims of the massacre and deportation of Armenians by the government of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923.
• Teacher’s Guide for COBBLESTONE Armenian-Americans by Lucine Kasbarian. This teacher and classroom guide provides lessons to teach about the Armenian genocide, genocide denial, social justice, ethnic preservation and ethnic identity. This guide accompanies the May 2000 edition of Cobblestone children’s magazine.
• Crimes Against Humanity and Civilization: The Genocide of the Armenians. This resource provides students with the latest scholarship on the genocide.

• Beyondmedia Education. Beyondmedia Education’s mission is to collaborate with under-served and under-represented women, youth, and communities to tell their stories, connect their stories to the world around us, and organize for social justice through the creation and distribution of media arts. Videos available for viewing and purchasing.
• 230th anniversary of the enactment of the first slavery abolition law. Pennsylvania’s “Gradual Abolition” act did not actually free any slaves. It stated that all slaves born before the law came into effect would remain slaves and children born after that date would remain slaves until they were 28.
• The Abolition of the Slave Trade by the New York Public Library. This extensive multimedia website explores the history and events leading up to the abolition of the slave trade.

March 5, 2010: 40th Anniversary of the Ratification of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

• Understanding the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by Educators for Social Responsibility. This lesson will help students understand the purpose, structure, and nature of the treaty. You will have to create a free account to access the lesson.

March 8, 2010: International Women’s Day

• In 1910 German socialist Clara Zetkin proposed March 8th as a working-class women’s holiday to celebrate past victories and carry the fight forward.
• MADRE. As a human rights organization, MADRE works internationally with women who are affected by violations to help them win justice and change the conditions that gave rise to human rights abuses. Website includes videos, blogs, papers and other resources that can be used in the classroom.
• Three Women’s Stories of Another Color. This site provides three lesson plans with audio downloads of women storytellers. 1) Nepantla: Caught Between Two Worlds: Growing up Mexican American in Los Angeles. 2) The Spirit Survives: The American Indian Boarding School Experience: Then and Now. 3) Hidden Memory: Internment: Knowing Your Family’s Story and Why It Matters.

March 12, 2010: 20th Anniversary of Wheels of Justice Protest in DC for Disability Rights

• During this protest, then the largest disability demonstration of its kind, hundreds of disability rights activists filled the Capitol rotunda to demand passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. When they refused to disperse, Capitol police arrested them.
• The DisAbility Project. This theater production company focuses on issues of disability. Their website includes a long list of lesson plans and resources related to different disabilities.

March 20, 2010: 7th Anniversary of the Iraq War

• On this day organizations and individuals around the country hold vigils for peace, justice and human rights in Iraq.
• The Cost of War in Iraq: How Does it Affect My Community? This math project examines how much the war in Iraq costs and what alternatives there are to spending that money (for example, on social services).
• Camouflaged: Investigating How the U.S. Military Affects You and Your Community by NYCoRE. This resource collection is a tool for educators to help students explore the role of the military in their lives and in their communities.
• Survey of Latino Attitudes on the War in Iraq. This survey examines the attitudes of U.S. born and foreign-born Latinos and their perspectives on the War in Iraq.

March 21, 2010: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

• The United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination commemorates the lives of the anti-apartheid demonstrators killed on March 21, 1960 in Sharpeville, South Africa.
• Know Your Rights on Campus: A Guide on Racial Profiling, and Hate Crime for International Students in the United States by Harvard’s Civil Rights Project. This guide provides students with the facts they need to protect themselves in school. Written with college students in mind, this is also a helpful resource for high-schoolers.
• Choices and Decisions: Dealing with Racism, Modern Issues that Affect You by Pete Sanders and Steve Meyers. This comic-book narrative about a young girl who is the target of racism examines the roots of hate in history and in individuals, and how it affects everyone.

March 22, 2010: World Water Day

• World Water Day is an international day of observance and action designated by the UN in 1992 to draw attention to the plight of the more than 1 billion people world wide that lack access to clean, safe drinking water.
• Measuring Water with Justice. This article discusses several strategies to teach about the costs of producing water. It explores areas such as who should have rights to drinking water and how oil spills affect ecosystems and communities.

March 24, 2010: 30th Anniversary of the Assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador

• Oscar Romero promised history that life, not death, would have the last word. “I do not believe in death without resurrection,” he said. “If they kill me, I will be resurrected in the Salvadoran people.”

March 25, 2010: 25th Anniversary of Haing S. Ngor Winning an Oscar

• Ngor was the first Asian American and Cambodian American to win an Oscar. He received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the film, The Killing Fields.
• The Cambodian Genocide Program. This website hosts bibliographic records, photographs, documents, translations, maps, and an interactive Cambodian Geographic Database about the Cambodian genocide that occurred between 1975 and 1979.
• Refugee: Revisiting the Killing Fields. The film follows three young Cambodian American men on their journey to Cambodia to find family members. Students evaluate the sacrifices and benefits of becoming a refugee in another country.
• Independent Lens: Refugee.

March 27, 2010: Earth Hour

• Earth Hour is an international event that asks households and businesses to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour from 8:30 p.m. local time until 9:30 p.m. to promote electricity conservation and lower carbon emissions.
• Earth Hour Website. This site provides information about Earth Hour and what else people can do to protect the environment.

March 31, 2010: César Chávez Day

• Viva La Causa: The Story of Cesar Chavez and a Great Movement for Social Justice by Teaching Tolerance. This short documentary and accompanying teacherís guide explores the Grape Strike and Boycott led by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta. The free teaching kit includes a 39-minute film on DVD and a teacher’s guide.
• Model Curriculum and Resources for Teachers. This curriculum on the life and work of César E. Chávez from the California Department of Education includes biographies, pictures, and other resources to help teachers prepare lessons for this holiday.

Haiti Resources: Teaching for Change

February 2010: Black/African American History Month

• The Do’s and Don’ts of Celebrating Black History
• The History Behind Black History Month
• The African American Experience and Issues of Race and Racism in US Schools—Working to Improve Education (WISE) has compiled a list of resources.
• African American Odyssey by the Library of Congress is a comprehensive online display of materials and primary sources.
• US History—African American: Lesson Plans by EDSITEment

February 3, 2010: 140th anniversary of the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution

• The 15th Amendment prohibits the government from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen’s “race, color or previous condition of servitude.” Check out this information on Voting Rights.

February 6, 2010: 190th anniversary of the first emigration of black Americans to Africa

• On this day the ship Elizabeth, nicknamed The Mayflower of Liberia, set sail for Liberia with eighty-six freed African Americans. Check out this website for more information.

February 11, 2010: 20th anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela

• On this day in 1990, Nelson Mandela, future leader of South Africa, was released from jail after having spent twenty-seven years as a political prisoner. Check out this website for more information.

February 12, 2010: 110th anniversary of the first performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”

• The performance took place at a black school as part of a celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. The poem was written by James Weldon Johnson and then set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson. It is popularly known as the Black National Anthem.
• Sweet Chariot: The Story of Spirituals
• Lift Every Voice and Sing

February 14, 2010: Chinese New Year/Tet-Vietnamese New Year—The year of the Tiger.

• Lunar New Year books reviewed by the Asian American Curriculum project. This is a review of children’s books from several Asian cultures about the Lunar New Year.
• Vietnamese Americans Interdisciplinary Curriculum Guide by Teaching Tolerance.

February 14, 2010: Valentine’s Day

• Valentine’s Day in the Classroom by the International Labor Rights Forum (LRF). This lesson plan initiates discussions about workers rights in the cut-flower industry and encourages students to think about consumerism on Valentine’s Day.

February 15, 2010: Birthday of Susan B. Anthony

• Susan B. Anthony, promoter of women’s rights, was born in 1820 and died in 1906.
• Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony.

February 2, 2010: World Day of Social Justice

• United Nations General Assembly video

February 27, 2010: Dominican Republic Independence Day

• My American Girls by P.O.V.

January 9, 2010: 125th Anniversary of Tape v. Hurley

• The case of Tape v. Hurley established the law that public schools cannot exclude Chinese American students. In 1884, Mamie Tape, then eight years old, was denied admission to a public school because she was Chinese. Her parents sued the San Francisco Board of Education.
• Becoming American: The Chinese Experience (PBS curriculum and documentary).

January 18, 2010: Martin Luther King Day

• The “Do”s and “Don’t”s of Celebrating MLK Day.
• Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching.
• Liberation Curriculum lesson plans.

January 25, 2010: First Day of No Name-Calling Week

• No Name-Calling Week is organized by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).
• The Power of Words: Examining the Language of Gender, Ethnic, and Sexual Orientation Bias.

• Bodhi Day commemorates the day that the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, or Siddartha Gotama experienced enlightenment after sitting and meditating under a pipul tree.

December 10, 2009: Human Rights Day

• Human Rights in Action is the UN’s cyber-school-bus page for students to explore the history of human rights and ways to advocate for human rights.
• Human Rights and Service Learning Manual by Amnesty International-USA and Human Rights Education Associates.
• The Human Rights Education Program of Amnesty International.

December 11-19, 2009: Hanukkah

• Chanukah, Hanukkah, Festival of Lights.
• See also the BBC’s website on Hanukkah in education.

December 26, 2009: First Day of Kwanzaa

• The official Kwanzaa website maintained by Dr. Maulana Karenga.