The first US president was elected in 1789, and while some traditions remain, many voting laws have changed and evolved since then. So, who gets to vote? Why do Americans vote on Tuesdays? And, what’s even on the ballot? Let’s face [...]

Thinking about how to discuss Syria with your students? Here are 4 key ideas that can help kids go beyond the latest headlines: 1. Syria’s cultural significance. For thousands of years, Syria has been a place where human beings lived, [...]

What are facts? Facts are the truthful answers to a reporter’s 5 key questions: who, what, when, where, and how. Facts may include names, numbers, dates, definitions, quotes, locations, research findings, historical events, statistics, survey and poll data, titles and [...]

This is an age of epic political turbulence. From the fracturing of major political parties, to the spread of bottom-up movements like Black Lives Matter, individuals across the political spectrum are reclaiming power. The question that today’s activists have to [...]

In schools everywhere, students are deeply affected by current events. Certain policy changes and related commentary can cause children to experience fear, confusion and anxiety. For example, some kids might fear deportation. Others might be upset about hurtful generalizations they [...]

At the American Civil Liberties Union, privacy researcher Christopher Soghoian (TED Talk: How to avoid surveillance … with the phone in your pocket) spends much of his time thinking about how individuals can protect themselves from spying. Last year, he recorded a Facebook Live [...]

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress,” said Frederick Douglass in 1857. “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and [...]