It’s been over a year since President Donald Trump was elected, and the effects of his presidency continue to be far-ranging and, in many cases, deleterious. I am still haunted by the video that went viral on November 10, 2016, reportedly showing the lunchroom at Royal Oak Middle School in…
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On Monday, May 22, the world was yet again rocked by a terrorist attack. The attack followed a script we have become all too familiar with — a terrorist set off a bomb in a crowded public place, killing and wounding dozens of people. This latest attack was at an…
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Remember the clock kid, Ahmed? He was honored by President Obama for his ingenuity and scholastic achievement after he was put in handcuffs and arrested at his own school for the same. He lives with his family in Qatar now, because of safety concerns after he became a target of…
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My kids’ best friends and their mom, one of my best mom friends, are Jehovah’s Witnesses. There are a lot of things I love about that. At my kids’ preschool, parents often talked over the unexpected challenges of parenting. I quickly found that I could relate best to Melinda (not…
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This election cycle has been difficult to experience, even for adults. Civil conversations and respect for diversity have been sidelined, and the loudest voices in politics and on television now are frighteningly extreme. Unsurprisingly the hateful rhetoric has filtered into American schools. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has just…
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Are you part of the 9/11 or are you ISIS?” “Did you ever kill anyone?” “Are you going to bomb this place?” These are some typical questions that 12-year-old Abdu Rrahman Mohamed says he’s been asked by his non-Muslim classmates week after week in his Long Beach, California, school, he…
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As a parent, I feel it is vital to build up your children’s self worth, for it is self worth that will allow children to prosper in life. Furthermore, children with a positive self worth are more likely to recognize when someone is threatening their true value as an individual….
Read MoreA few days ago, my kindergartner came up to me and, as usual, relayed the happenings of her day. I patiently listened to her stories as I prepared dinner, until she started to tell one that demanded more immediate attention. “Mommy,” she said, “Kayla told Emma today that she is ugly, but Rachel and I told Emma she is beautiful and that we needed to have a talk with Kayla.” “Wow,” I thought to myself. “Does it really start this early?”
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