Sensitive Issues

Students use the case of Ray Rice — the professional football player seen physically abusing his fiancé — as a starting point to learn about domestic violence.

Our age-appropriate classroom lessons and activities for grades K-12 aim to deepen your students' understanding of September 11 and develop their critical thinking skills. The guide, written by Morningside Center executive director Tom Roderick, also includes recommended books and other teaching...

Our guidelines for talking with children about sensitive issues and suggestions for countering anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bias may be helpful in the wake of the Boston Marathon attack.

Jinnie Spiegler, a parent and education activist, offers suggestions for parents who want to talk with their children about what happened in Newtown.

We're deeply saddened by the tragic killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Here are resources aimed at helping families and educators comfort young ones and help explain this violent event.

Talking with children about current events can be rough terrain but it's important because it provides a way to build compassion and critical thinking and, at the same time, address their most important questions.  

Student readings explore the morality and legality of President Obama's controversial "kill list" and consider arguments for and against drone warfare. Questions for student discussion follow each reading.

Two readings and accompanying activities explore whether the torture of prisoners is the result of a few individuals acting alone or of broader government decisions.

Have U.S. forces violated international law in their treatment of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, & Guantanamo? Has that treatment amounted to torture or war crimes? If so, who should be held responsible? Here, we assemble a wide collection of excerpts from original materials to use as a basis for...

The Torture Issue (with a DBQ) A student reading includes examples of U.S. treatment of prisoners as revealed in investigations and excerpts from the Geneva Convention and UN Convention Against Torture. A DBQ (document-based question) includes diverse points of view on the efficacy and morality of...