Each of us has a unique way of experiencing the world, but one thing that doesn’t change is our desire to be treated with respect and kindness! Learn more about neurodiversity with our playlist of kid-friendly videos discussing the experiences of those with different neurotypes! 🌈
You can also find more resources on how to support young people in your life from the Neurodiversity Celebration Week Resource Hub.
I’ve always been passionate about making the world a better place. I knew at an early age that I wanted to spend my life helping others. Important figures, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired me to stand up for what I believe in and speak truth to power.
But their legacies also cast a long shadow. As I grew up, I began to feel less and less sure of my ability to effect change. I thought it would be impossible to make a real difference if I didn’t have the charisma, the fearlessness, the ability to build a movement of my own.
That fear kept me frozen. I felt like nothing I did was enough. If the impact wasn’t massive, I thought, why do it at all?
“We don’t have to head a march of 100,000 people in order to be leaders in our own communities and make changes that make the lives of those around us a little safer, easier, fairer.”
A mentor of mine eventually sat me down and told me, “Jamayka, your hands are not big enough to hold the whole world. Focus on what you can change right now, right here, today.”
Like most teenagers, I rolled my eyes at that advice, and continued to let my fear of failure prevent me from seeing the real impact everyday people, like my mentor, were having on the people in our community— one hot meal, or ride to a townhall, or enlightening conversation at a time.
It wasn’t until I had the chance to really learn about the history of the Civil Rights Movement and the hundreds of thousands of regular people that changed the world, that my mentor’s advice made sense to me. Dr. King’s words and actions were inspiring and impactful, but the movement we identify him with existed long before he was born and continues to this day.
We don’t have to head a march of 100,000 people in order to be leaders in our own communities and make changes that make the lives of those around us a little safer, easier, fairer.
This MLK Day, let us all remember that each one of us is a critical part of the movement to create a just and equitable education system for every child. We all have a role to play, and each of us, when we come together with our community members, can make a real difference.
What actions will you take this MLK Day in support of students, educators, and schools? Let us know by taking our MLK Day Pledge to Act.
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Hana Terpstra is a current senior in high school with a focus in art and design and a love for storytelling. She believes community and learning how to learn are vital, and hopes that all future students get to learn these values.
Making sure all kids get to learn important topics like these, as well as skills like connection and a desire to learn, is a message I’d love to help spread. My main interest is in the arts; Almost all of them, from sewing to writing to painting to drawing. Recently, I have been looking into art applications for colleges and art-based scholarships, and I came to realization that I don’t really know which art I want to focus in. The whole college search is a very anxiety-causing process, but this specific fear, that I have to make decisions about my future when I don’t even know what I want to do yet, was the most looming of all.
Then I thought about one of the most defining books for me- Scott Mccloud’s “Understanding Comics”. In it, he describes the art of making comics like an apple- (though perhaps an onion is more accurate) with different layers. From the outside in, it goes surface, craft, structure, idiom, form, idea/purpose. The metaphor works for the entirety of art as well; Starting out, most people’s art is “surface level”, then as their craft develops they begin to play with structure, genre, what form the art takes, and the central idea of the whole thing. I am fascinated with that last one; the question of “Why am I doing this?” Though my art is just “surface”, the concept of a reason is appealing.
Taking this idea in mind, and my anxiety over looming portfolio requirements, I created an experiment. I would try and find my “reason” the best way I knew how – through research – and then use that new information in my art. A piece of visual art advice I always get is “draw from real life, not from others art – at least to start.” This is given because learning how to see the world and communicate it through your own lens is critical in defining your style – but perhaps, it also could be critical in find an interest, a reason.
So I took to the internet and began to research, putting what I found into a slideshow presentation. Then, I came to another realization. The skills I had learned in school, from reading material to advice from my art teachers, even from science projects and English reports – they were vital for this project. I used my friend, a fellow art student, to keep me on track to my goal. Even the purpose of my search- curiosity, questioning- was something taught in school! I was using these skills to my benefit in my craft, something I hadn’t noticed before. I am very lucky. If I didn’t have the opportunities I had in middle and high school, my visual library, skills, and connections would be much worse. I wouldn’t have had the interest in learning, in reading books, in finding advice, in keeping motivation to stick through a big project like this – if I didn’t have the desire to learn.
And that is something education instilled in me. Heck, even now, writing this, I am using foreshadowing and formatting in an essay-like structure. It’s not just about the topics in school – though those are certainly helpful as well – but the skills. And just now, going into my last year of high school, I’m starting to understand what my teachers have been saying all along – the skills you build here will help carry you through life later. Carrying this knowledge with me makes me feel a little more prepared for life. Even if I don’t know where I’m going, I know I have the skills to get there.
Fresh notebooks, pumpkin spice, and action opportunities for education champions! For students and grownups alike this time of year can be a great chance to reset and hit the ground running this fall. Prepare for a successful autumn with our back-to-school checklist!
Get back into the swing of things with some back-to-school reading! Hear from Stand for Children Oregon’s Beat the Odds Scholarship winner, Teryn about the importance of pride!
Break out the markers and crayons and learn about important figures in Asian American History with the fun and informative coloring sheets designed by our friends at Make Us Visible– an organization dedicated to uplifting the stories and contributions of Asian Americans in the classroom!
Find community with people across the country who care about access to public education for all students, and want to take action to make a difference.
Start your morning off right with some uplifting tunes! Check out Stand’s Spotify playlist for some motivational tunes and educational podcasts!
Check out the work of our Featured Student Voice, Naavya J. from Stand Student Voices: a platform for young people to share their creative work in response to the pressing education issues impacting students today!
Stay up-to-date with ways you can get plugged into the work we are doing to support students, educators, and schools!
Naavya J. is a current senior in high school, and is fond of computer science, biology, and different topics that pique her interest. She wishes to see a change in educational systems that will equip future generations of learners with the skills to transform the world in unimaginable ways.
The enormous arched doors of school open wide everyday,
Promises of integrity and empowerment sweep the halls.
Chittering students discussing and debating,
A vision so strong that a brand new future calls.
Education used to be a haven of democracy,
A place for citizenship and competency, one could see.
Alas, snapping back to reality, it’s clear,
The only haven that exists is filled with anxiety.
It’s not only test scores, and grades that scare,
But also the lack of intellectual stimulation and preparation in trust.
School should be a forum of open debate and discourse,
Allowing ideals, issues, and great works to be discussed
Everything revolves around perfection and mastery,
Everything in a school system looks great in writing.
Boasting immense funding with a large list of clubs and activities,
But what about a curriculum filled with intellect that is uniting?
What if we dreamt of a world where curiosity was prized?
What if we believed contradiction was a blessing, not a curse?
What if we opened the floor to open discovery and research?
What if we finally believed in innovation and the power to converse?
An expansive universe sits in anticipation,
A million secrets left to unfurl, waiting for recovery.
A new generation of potential born every year, a new wave of solutions,
But the universe waits in the forefront of discovery, just for a voice.
In this current moment, LGBTQ students are facing increasingly escalating legal, social, and even physical attacks from extreme political actors. We, as education advocates, must use our voices and platforms to uplift and center the voices and stories of LGBTQ students and young people. In 2022, we sat down with 2022 Stand for Children Oregon Beat the Odds Scholarship winner and then high school senior Teryn to discuss what pride means to them. We want to revisit their story as we continue to work to support the safety and inclusion of every student.
What does Pride mean to you? Share your story learning from and supporting LGBT students.
Q: Do you feel like LGBT+ students are celebrated in your school?
Actually yes!! At my school we had a huge Pride celebration! my school’s GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) put it on, they included the middle schools and even had a LGBT staff/ community member panel to ask questions and interact with beforehand. The celebration was held on the football field, and as you walked under this giant rainbow inflatable archway, you got a name tag to put your name and pronouns on. There was a clothing exchange, local artists showcasing and selling their work, drag queens getting ready and preforming, community resources, food trucks, you name it! It was such an incredible event, and it was all put on by the lovely advisors of our GSA.
Q: What is a message you think parents, teachers, and other adults need to hear from LGBT students?
We want you to listen without judgement, and we don’t want your critique. You may have misconceptions from something you learned in your past, but times are changing, and I please ask you to consider change as good, we are growing human beings, and we just want love and acceptance the same as any other human does.
Q: What is a message you would share with a young LGBT student who is just coming into their identity?
Whether its fighting for freedom from physical and emotional harm, or ensuring every child feels welcomed and included in the classroom, student safety is the core of our mission at Stand for Children. Stay informed and find ways to get involved with our work supporting student safety in and out of the classroom by joining us, here.
In May of 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill requiring the teaching of Asian American and Pacific Islander history in K-12 curriculums in Florida public schools. This came right on the heels of DeSantis barring public schools from participating in a pilot of the College Board’s course on African American Studies.
In response to the Florida Governor’s decisions, many activists were rightly outraged and spoke out in opposition to the educational and social-emotional harm this decision would have on Black students in Florida, not to mention the rippling effects it could have on local and state policies in other parts of the country.
While the pair of policies may appear contradictory to many observers, this would not be the first time unsavory political actors have attempted to pit Asian Americans against other minority groups in the US.
The model minority myth was invented and continues to be perpetuated to block those seeking to end the educational, economic, and social disparities facing marginalized communities and hurts everyone including Asian American students and community members.
Unfortunately, often lost in the intentionally drummed up outrage is space for conversations about the harm being used as political pawns has on Asian American communities, along with the near complete lack of Asian American History or Pacific Islander history being taught in public schools. Just 11 states require K-12 students to learn any AAPI history. Clearly, we have a real need for a thorough and accurate Asian American History and Pacific Islander Education in our schools.
First popularized amid the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, the model minority myth was created to define Asian Americans in opposition to other racial/ethnic minority groups.
Relying on stereotypes and out-of-context data, this myth paints Asian Americans collectively as financially well-off, hardworking, and socially and politically docile. The model minority myth creates a monolithic story of over 26 million Americans with family ties to nearly 50 countries, erasing the vastly different backgrounds, histories, and lived experiences of dozens of different communities.
Like many marginalized communities in the US, most of us could sum up what we learn about Asian Americans into a few pages in our US history textbooks— if we’re lucky. For most American public school students, that might look like a brief discussion of Japanese internment during WWII, the red scare and rise of communist China, a blip about the Vietnam war, and for current students and recent graduates, possibly a lesson on the War on Terror. That is, if they make it that far before the end of year exams.
In these limited conversations, the stories, contributions of, and impacts on Asian Americans are rarely mentioned, if at all. In all these historical moments, Asian Americans are painted as “the foreign other” to be suspicious of, never as fellow Americans. This serves to isolate Asian American students and educators in the classroom and Asian parents and families in the broader community.
Discussions of the histories of Pacific Islanders in the US are even rarer. Few students in the US learn anything about the histories of the state of Hawai’i, US territories of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and American Samoa, and millions of Americans with ancestry from the islands of the Pacific. These gaps in our textbooks end up disappearing the voices and contributions of Pacific Islander communities in the US.
The way we currently teach AAPI histories (when we do) leads to real world harm. When Asian American and Pacific Islander students see their community members exclusively painted as a threat when mentioned, and otherwise disappeared from the rest of their textbooks, that causes serious mental and emotional harm. And it has major impacts on these students’ social and educational outcomes.
Paired with the pressure of unattainable standards perpetuated by the model minority myth, Asian students report experiencing adverse mental health conditions, including alarmingly high reports of thoughts of or attempted self-harm. Pacific Islander communities similarly experience erasure of their histories from textbooks along with high rates of young people reporting mental health issues.
This also manifests into violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders from people who have spent their whole lives being taught to distrust their peers and neighbors.
When we teach an inaccurate and incomplete American history and refuse to be honest about the ways that shapes the present, all students are harmed as they are robbed of a quality education and the opportunity to learn about the contribution of Asian American communities. And Asian American and Pacific Islander students take the brunt of this harm— mentally, socially, and academically.
1. Resist the Bait.
Politicians have long used Asian Americans and Pacific Islander as a wedge between communities of color looking to advance goals of equity and freedom. We must avoid allowing ourselves to be distracted by these attempts to separate those of us pushing for change, and instead form relationships and find spaces of shared struggle and solidarity with everyone in the fight for educational equity for all students.
2. Get Educated.
It is critical to educate ourselves and the people in our lives on the impacts Asian Americans have had on this country, issues facing Asian American and Pacific Islander students and communities today, and the need to join in the fight for safe, equitable education for every child.
3. Push for Change.
We have to continue to push for more opportunities for teaching Asian American and Pacific Islander history both in specialized classed but also as mandatory parts of a comprehensive US history and civics education.
What was your experience learning about Asian American and Pacific Islander History? Let us know in the comments below or by sharing your story here.
National Library Week is here, and the time to rally behind our libraries is now. As extreme politicians seek to attack education and defund libraries through harmful policies, our support during this week is more critical than ever.
That’s why we joined our partners at We Believe, PEN America, and EveryLibrary to sign the joint open Love Letter to the librarians who support our schools and communities. And now, it’s your turn!
1. Sign the Library Love Letter. Join Stand and our partners from We Believe, PEN America, EveryLibrary, and other organizations in showing your support to libraries and their staff as hubs of knowledge and community by signing onto this Library Love Letter!
2. Sign up for a library card. Sign up for a card to get access to a multitude of books, movies, and other resources all while supporting continued funding for your local library.
3. Get Connected. Explore We Believe, PEN America, and EveryLibrary’s National Library Week Action Guide for a range of activities at various levels of engagement, from sharing virtual stickers to urging Congress to protect the freedom to read.
One of the most effective ways we can all support libraries and library staff this National Book Week is by signing up for a library card and visiting our local library branches!
Need some suggestions on your next read? We asked our staff members what books they’re reading. Here are 5 reads they can’t stop raving about:
What books are you reading this National Library Week? Let us know in the comments below or join the conversation on social!
On January 20, 1969, eleven school children sat down for breakfast in the St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in Oakland, California, free of charge. The children ate eggs, grits, fruit, and milk donated by local grocery stores, planned by nutritionists, and prepared by community volunteers. This was the start of one of the most impactful grassroots social welfare programs in national history, organized and operated by the Black Panther Party, a Black power political organization operating at the height of the 20th century Black Liberation Movement.
The BPP’s Free Breakfast Program was a collaborative effort of community members coming together to address a need in their community— namely, children’s lack of consistent access to nutritious food. By the end of the first week, that group of eleven children had ballooned into over 130. And by New Years Day of 1970, the BPP had served breakfast to over 20,000 school children across the country. At its peak, the Free Breakfast Program was responsible for providing breakfast to thousands of children every day across 45 different cities, regardless of their race.
The program immediately showed positive results. “The school principal came down and told us how different the children were,” recalls Ruth Beckford, a volunteer with the Free Breakfast Program. “They weren’t falling asleep in class, they weren’t crying with stomach cramps.”
And the BPP didn’t end their social welfare programming at breakfast, expanding to providing dozens of other programs at no cost to the community. In response to anti-Black policies that left Black, low-income, and urban communities to fend for themselves, BPP ran grassroots programs like their free health clinics, ambulance services, senior support services, and even free pest control for urban housing often left in dilapidated conditions by local governments.
While the popularity of the program quickly skyrocketed, everyone wasn’t quite so happy about children getting free food. The radical liberation group had long been a thorn in the side of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, which saw the Free Breakfast Program as a threat that built trust between Black and urban communities and local Black Panther Party chapters. The FBI director feared this community building would lead to a further expansion of BPP’s ideas. But despite open, and often violent hostility from federal and local officers, the program continued to grow as thousands of children showed up to eat breakfast before school each day.
This popularity put pressure on politicians to create their own program to feed children before school. In 1975, the federal government implemented a permanent School Breakfast Program. Today, the SBP feeds over 14.5 million children before school. The implementation of a federal school breakfast program was a direct result of the community organizing of the Black Panther Party and serves as proof that local actions can have massive ripples. The work we do with our neighbors today has the ability to impact generations to come.
5 Ways You Can Make A Difference For Students Today
If there’s one lesson from last year, it’s that good things happen when we come together. As we step into the new year, let’s continue leveraging the power of community. Regardless of your advocacy role, here are 5 ways you can make a difference for students this year:
1. Amid ongoing book bans, consider taking action outside of the classroom. Visit your local library with your student to help expose your student to more diverse stories and improve their literacy. Signing up for a library card can go a long way in supporting your library system. Look to our library friend @mychal3ts for recommendations and inspiration.
Amid ongoing book bans, consider taking action outside of the classroom. Visit your local library with your student to help expose your student to more diverse stories and improve their literacy.
— Stand for Children (@Stand4Children) January 4, 2024
Look to our library friend @mychal3ts for recommendations and inspiration ✨📚 pic.twitter.com/0cfrsYmtul
2. Harness the power of community! Collaborate with local organizations, educators, and parents to create a supportive network for students. By working together, we can address challenges, foster inclusivity, and create a nurturing environment for learning. Join our Education Champions Facebook group to find like-minded education advocates and resources.
3. Commit to actively supporting & advocating for students. Whether it’s providing mentorship or amplifying student voices, let’s ensure they feel seen & supported. Check out Rose from Concrete, an organization working to support students in their community.
4. Think globally, act locally. Advocate for policies that prioritize student well-being and education at the community level. Together, we can build a supportive environment that fosters growth, learning, and success for EVERY student. Get involved here.
5. Stay Connected! Follow us on social media and join our email list to receive updates, resources, and action opportunities all 2024!
If there's one lesson from last year, it's that good things happen when we come together.
— Stand for Children (@Stand4Children) January 4, 2024
As we step into the new year, let's continue leveraging the power of community.
Regardless of your advocacy role, here are some tips and resources to guide your journey this year 🧵
What are some ways you are planning to be an advocate for students in 2024? What are some tips you would give to others who want to make a difference for students? Let us know in the comments below!
