With news breaking at a faster rate than any of us can keep up with, we provide resources to teach about current events — and classes with background for educators. Here are a few examples and there are more on the Zinn Education Project website — including Palestine, reparations, climate justice, Haiti, unions, the Congo, voting rights, McCarthyism, and immigration. We also introduce a collection of primary documents on abortion care. We welcome stories from teachers about how you use or adapt any of these resources.

Reparations and Climate Justice

Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Class on May 6

On Monday, May 6, philosophy professor Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò will discuss his book Reconsidering Reparations, which takes on reparations, the legacy of colonialism, and climate change policy.

“If we don’t intervene powerfully,” Táíwò writes, climate change “will reverse the gains toward justice that our ancestors fought so bitterly for.” Join us for this free, dynamic class.

ASL interpretation provided.

Professional development credit certificate provided upon request.

Teach Climate Justice Classroom Resources

Check out the Teach Climate Justice campaign with free classroom-tested environmental justice lessons, a climate crisis timeline, and a sample school board climate justice resolution. Send us a climate justice teaching story, and we’ll send you a free book.

Haiti

Art by Ricardo Levins Morales

We welcome teaching stories about how you use this collection of primary documents on the history of abortion care.

Labor History

Art by Ricardo Levins Morales

University presidents are using “outside agitators” as their rationale for calling the police against student encampments.

“Outside agitators” is a trope used throughout history in response to slave resistance, Reconstruction, the labor movement, the anti-apartheid movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and more to dismiss and repress the legitimate agency, intellect, and concerns of local people. It is a form of McCarthyism.

We offer lessons and recommended books, films, podcasts, and readings on:

Congo

Immigration

McCarthyism

Palestine and Israel

Student Protests

Voting Rights

And more.

Defend the Freedom to Learn

Teach Truth Day of Action

People in more than 60 cities have signed up to host Teach Truth / Freedom to Learn events on June 8, 2024, to speak out against anti-history education bills, book bans, and anti-LGBTQ+ attacks.

Co-sponsors for this 4th-annual event include the Abolitionist Teaching Network, African American Policy Forum, American Library Association, GLSEN, HEAL Together / Race Forward, Institute for Common Power, Learning for Justice, Monument Lab, National Education Association (NEA), The New Republic, Red Wine & Blue, TeachRock, Who We Are Project, and 60+ more organizations.

Plan an activity of any size — from 1 to 100+. Or host an information table, and we’ll send you display materials. Add your city to the map.

Conferences and Classes

Check out events hosted by the Zinn Education Project and our colleagues, including the Teach the Black Freedom Struggle classes, SNCC and Grassroots Organizing Series, Rethinking Schools’ Teach Palestine (May 15) the 4th annual Teach Truth Day and Freedom to Learn Day of Action (June 8), and more.

We Need Your Help

Teachers are under attack for teaching truthfully about U.S. history and the climate crisis. Please donate so that we can continue to offer free lessons and resources, and defend teachers’ right to use them.