It's Thoughtful Thursday, and in honor of International Woman's Day (which is tomorrow, March 8), today we are featuring a diverse slate of fantastic women poets. From June Jordan we have "Oughta Be a Woman", a poem that pays special tribute to mothers of color but is an ode to mothers everywhere. Chilean poet and visual artist Celia Vicuña gives [...]
Looking for ways to help your children stay motivated and succeed in school? Check out these resources we've recently discovered: Code.org. It is no secret that knowing how to code will put children at a huge advantage when they reach the job market. Jobs that require coding make up 58% of all projected new jobs in STEM fields, and [...]
As it is the last day of Black History Month, today's Thoughtful Thursday features several poems celebrating notable Black figures in American history and one in commemorating the history of Black people in America. GCP hopes that parents share Black American history with their sons and daughters throughout the year, (not just for one month, every month), but we are not [...]
As you've probably heard, this year's Best Picture Oscar went to the film “Green Book” on Sunday. This is the story of a white limo driver who discovers the existence of racism when he drives a touring black classical pianist around the Jim Crow era South. (A collective groan went up around our TV when this award was announced, [...]
Fifty four years ago today, on February 21, 1965, activist and religious leader Malcolm X was assassinated by a member of the Nation of Islam while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. Today's Thoughtful Thursday pays tribute to Malcolm X, first with the stirring eulogy Ossie Davis delivered at his funeral. Then, [...]
On Tuesday, the Obama Foundation’s first national My Brother’s Keeper Alliance convening, MBK Rising!, began in Oakland, CA. This two-day event brought together civic leaders, young men of color and representatives of the MBK organizations that are supporting these young men nationwide. The opening session of the convening featured a session with President Obama and Steph Curry answering questions [...]
A recent NY Times column highlights an initiative from the College Board (the folks who create and produce the SATs and AP Exams) in which the Board determined that mastering two codes--computer science and the U.S. Constitution--were the most important skills (among the skills they test) for achieving success in college and in life. They explain their clunky-but-cleverly named [...]
Baseball legend Frank Robinson passed away this week at 83. Robinson broke records throughout his long illustrious career. As a player, he was National League Rookie of the Year for the Cincinnati Reds. He was the only winner of the Most Valuable Player Award in both the National League (when playing with the Cincinnati Reds in 1956) and the American [...]
New logo, new look, but the same focus on parenting boys of color (but with lots of tips that girls can benefit from as well), the same focus on issues of education and identity, and the same dedication to providing parenting tips, resources, support and inspiration. Hope you like the changes. Thoughtful Thursdays now has its own section on [...]
For today’s Thoughtful Thursday we celebrate a wonderful African American poet whom we at GCP have only recently discovered: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911). In addition to being a poet, Harper was a journalist, fiction writer and activist. Born in Baltimore to free African American parents, she learned to read and write at the Academy for Negro Youth run [...]