Looking for a wonderful picture book celebrating culture and diversity that your sons (and your daughters) will love? Rice & Rocks introduces us to the delightful young Giovanni, who is looking forward to another great Sunday of hanging out with his pet parrot Jasper and playing with his friends who are coming to dinner, until he learns that his [...]
Excitement is in the air!! The Cubs win the World Series! America will soon elect a new president! All the goings on this week has led today's Thoughtful Thursday to be a bit of a hodge-podge, but with a bit of brain-wracking we have come up with a unifying theme for the quotes and poems of the week: perseverance. [...]
Earlier this week, I represented GCP on a panel at a fascinating conference called Children and Authenticity. Held at Teacher’s College in NYC, it was convened by the Children’s Art Guild, which helps children discover the joy and excitement of learning through creativity education (which includes visual arts, storytelling, woodworking, and expressive movement). The conference looked at how children [...]
As we wind down this contentious political season, we at GCP want to make sure that everyone remembers to VOTE on November 8th. We also must be sure to talk to our sons and daughters about how important it is to exercise this right that our ancestors fought so hard to give us. It has never been more critical [...]
Today's NYTimes features an article by Topher Sanders, a Black dad who, while watching his four year old son play in the playground, overheard a little girl tell his son "only white people can play" where he was playing. As his son happily ignores the girl and continues to play, the father struggles with balancing his instinctive angry reaction [...]
On Tuesday October 11, at 10pm EST, ESPN will present "A Conversation with The President: Sports, Race and Achievement". In conversation with students from North Carolina A&T State University, President Barack Obama will discuss a variety of issues including the "My Brother's Keeper" Initiative (which addresses opportunity gaps for boys and young men of color), athletes and social activism, [...]
"Tell us about your first relative to come to the United States. Where did he or she come from?" A third grader had this question for homework the other day. His dad called me in a panic: "We haven't told him about slavery yet--he's too young. How is he supposed to answer this?" After commiserating with the dad about [...]
Common Sense Media, that great website for all things kids and tech, is encouraging families to join their latest campaign: Device Free Dinners. It is a simple concept: families commit to spending time at the dinner table focused upon each other rather than their devices. As Common Sense founder and CEO James P. Steyer explains, "Everything from better grades [...]
We at GCP were so excited to see poetry included in the opening ceremonies of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, we just had to make this the subject of this week's Thoughtful Thursday. Oprah Winfrey (who funded the museum's auditorium) and Will Smith gifted us with some mighty thoughts in a poetry battle. You can [...]
Here's disturbing news from researchers at Yale University: Teachers may be more inclined to expect bad behavior from black preschoolers--especially black boys--than from white preschoolers. As reported recently in a Washington Post article found here, in a recent study over 130 preschool teachers were asked to view video clips of young children in classrooms and were told to look [...]