Alabama. Yesterday Alabama governor Kay Ivey signed into law a bill that outlaws almost all abortions performed in the state. Doctors who perform abortions in Alabama now run the risk of arrest, felony conviction, and a sentence of up to 99 years in prison. As the New York Times recently noted, this sets up a direct challenge to Roe [...]
Today DonorsChoose.org, the crowdfunding non-profit that supports public school teacher's classroom requests, announced their latest campaign: #ISeeMe, which is designed to mobilize support for teachers of color and inclusive learning materials in public school classrooms. Research has indicated that children learn best when they see themselves in the classroom materials as well as in the teachers leading their classes. [...]
Happy Mother's Day! It's been a minute since the last post (a series of trips across and out of the country temporarily disrupted the posting schedule) but I wanted to be sure to check in today to wish all the GCP mom's, grandmoms, godmoms and aunties a very happy day. Moms and Surrogate Moms, please be sure to take [...]
New month, new celebration: did you know that May is National Mental Health Awareness Month? Yep, since 1949 May has been designated Mental Health Month in the U.S. to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and to erase the stigma associated with mental health disorders. And a good thing, too, since we as a people (especially we [...]
We've all heard about parenting styles that can hinder children's success: the over involved parent, the distracted parent, the super protective parent. But are there parenting styles that can help children become highly successful adults? According to Harvard economist Ronald Ferguson and journalist Tatsha Robertson's new book The Formula: Unlocking the Secrets to Raising Highly Successful Children, there are, and we [...]
Did you know that April is Financial Literary Month? (So many themes, only 12 months, some months have to do double duty.) In 2004 the U.S. Senate designated April as Financial Literary Month in an effort to encourage Americans to establish and maintain healthy financial habits. Since it is Financial Literacy Month, today's Thoughtful Thursday features poems about money. But [...]
April is National Poetry Month! National Poetry Month was established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets to increase America's awareness and appreciation of poetry. Our first Thoughtful Thursday of National Poetry Month begins with a beautiful poem about poetry from Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982), whose career over the course of his long life included being a lawyer, Fortune [...]
On our last Thoughtful Thursday in Women's History Month we celebrate the work of three wonderful poets: the wonderfully accomplished and prolific June Jordan (1936–2002); the brilliant British poet and activist Warsan Shire (b.1988), who is most widely known as the poet whose work was featured in Beyonce's visual album Lemonade; and the young talented poet and writer Alexandra [...]
We were all heartened to learn how 8 year old Tanitoluwa Adewumi became a state wide chess champion while living with his family in a homeless shelter. And now the news gets even better. Nicholas Kristof, the New York Times columnist who broke Tani's story, reports in a recent update that thanks to the generosity of people who read [...]
Have you heard about the 8 year old Nigerian refugee living in a NYC homeless shelter who took first place in the NYS Scholastic Chess Championship for his age bracket? This is a story of hard work, perseverance, and kindness to share with your sons and daughters. Eight year old Tanitoluwa Adewumi, who is known as Tani, came with [...]