Newsletter from the Campaign for a Commerical Free Childhood

There are some gems in this month's newsletter from CCFC. You can take action, read the newest report on schools and commericalism or get tips for parenting in a consumer culture.

Halloween Tips

Halloween is a tricky holiday for peace loving parents. On the one hand, it is a joyous occasion that fosters creativity and dramatic expression and role playing -- and brings home some much needed chocolate during these shortening days. On the other hand, the increasing number of violent superhero costumes and the pitiful range of roles being marketed to children is of concern.

Hardy Girls, Healthy Women offers a number of tips for helping girls break out of the "must-be-a-pink-princess" trap.

Unicef offers a way to help kids engage in service projects while trick-or-treating.

And, getting a bit punchy, if you're longing for peace and quiet, check out this costume idea!

Sleep for Peace???

New York Magazine published an interesting article arguing that sleep-deprivation causes a myriad of problems for young people -- and adults, I assume. The most interesting bit, for me, was the idea that we process "bad" feelings and memories first, and sometimes wake up before we get to the good ones. This explains the over-tired blues and could probably account for a ton of Postpartum depression. But, it is hard to figure out how to get more sleep in these crazy times... less tv, fewer activities, less homework, later school start times -- these are some of the ideas.

Stirring Up Justice : Writing to Change the World

This book, by Jessica Singer, deserves special mention. It is a fairly small book, that describes in lovely detail a high school English teacher's experience teaching kids about activism. Singer helps students choose books that teach them both about justice/injustice and about activism while also always encouraging them to write about their own experiences with the same. She includes her wonderful hand-outs and exact assignments as a resource, as well as clips of student work. Student also illustrated their stories and shared them with younger children. She also includes an inspiring chapter on protest songs, sharing a bibliography of traditional songs but also including the songs that her students identified as meaningful. Finally, students created service projects as a culminating activity - all the while reading and writing to support their learning.

Singer, Jessica. 2006. Stirring Up Justice : Writing to Change The World. Portsmouth: Heinmann.

Sourcebooks for Diversity and Peace Activities

I recently had the pleasure of planning a mini-social justice workshop for middle school students. I used a lot of the online resources from Teaching Tolerance, but also drew from some books. I did not love any of them, which was a bit disappointing but found gems in each.


Cooperative Learning, Cooperative Lives : A Sourcebook fo Learning Activities for Building a Peaceful World, by Nancy Schniedewind and Ellen Davidson was written in 1987 and it does feel somewhat dated. I also found it hard to know what the right age-group was for the various activities. However, there are tons of ideas in this 538 page book and it is useful as a conceptual prompt. It also draws on multiple intelligences, with a variety of art, music and group projects. The underlying themes clearly focus on progressive politics and social justice issues.


Open Minds to Equality, by the same authors, offers much of the same material in an updated fashion and with a more direct and clear emphasis on issues of equality. The latest edition of this book was published in 2006. The chapters begin with activities to help students build basic group process skills, and then introduce complex ideas about prejudice, discrimination, multiculturalism and social change. Again, I found some of the activities geared toward younger children and some toward older children -- an index would have helped with this. Some of the activities also felt quite contrived - I wondered if middle schoolers would have given themselves over to the role playing without having this format as part of their schooling from the outset. That is, I think this kind of curriculum would make a much bigger difference as an ongoing project rather than a special unit. The resource section in the back is lovely.

Starbright : Meditations for Children by Maureen Garth was a different kind of book. Because so many authors argue that children need to develop the capacity for peace before being asked to take on the challenges of conflict resolution, many strategies for teaching peacemaking begin with yoga. Garth offers guided meditation for children as a means of helping them relax and develop their inner resources. She suggests using them at rest or bedtime as a way of helping kids build imagination and relaxation skills. I couldn't quite get my own children to stick with it but my older daughter does LOVE the sleepy CDs by Jim Weiss that do a similar thing.

Of all the research I did, my favorite book by far was What If All the Kids Are White? Anti-Bias Multicultural Education with Young Children and Families by anti-bias education guru Louise Derman-Sparks and Patricia Ramsey. Although it was more theoretical and academic, the authors put the ideas in a complex context while also offering really age-appropriate and practical suggestions for helping white children a way to think about race, identity, difference and justice while also holding children of color close and maintaining inclusive and loving childcare.

ADL resources

The Anti-Defemation League provides another wonderful online biblography for children's books that deal with themes of diversity and social justice. They also provide the World of Difference Institute which provides on site or online anti-bias training for educators at every level. And, they have e-mail newsletters addressing a variety of topics... so much great information.

"That's Not Fair"

Kids have an innate sense of injustice, especially if they sense that they are less than a sibling. Authors and teachers Ann Pelo and Fran Davidson argue that this moral compass can be a fabulous basis for social activism among preschoolers. In their book That's Not Fair they make a case for including activism as part of the pre-school curriculum.

The book uses case studies and reflective writing to describe how and why to engage in activism with young children. It is not a curriculum but does walk teachers through both the process and some of the challenges of engaging very young children with social change work.

The authors contend that kids need 5 traits as activists :

-- accepting differences
-- Collaborating with others
-- paying attention to other people's feelings, ideas, and needs
-- speaking out about fairness and unfairness
-- taking responsibility for problem solving

One of the strongest chapters addresses strategies for building these traits among parents and in helping adults see the utility of taking children's ability to name injustices seriously.

I did not find the book to be a great resource for digging in, but enjoyed the contemplative tone.

The book is 1/2 price from the publisher (see above link) right now.

Lyrics and MP3s from the book are at SisterChoice