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Planning to Change the World is a plan book for teachers who believe their students can create meaningful social change It is the product of a collaboration between two education networks—the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE) and the Education for Liberation Network. The information and ideas featured on its pages come from teachers, college students and activists who, like you, struggle daily to put their values into practice. Our first edition was for the  2008-2009 school year.

This plan book is designed to help teachers translate their vision of a just education into concrete classroom activities. Planning to Change the World is packed with important social justice birthdays and historical events, words of wisdom from visionary leaders, lesson plans, resources, social justice education happenings and more.

It also connects you to a national community of educators who are interested in social justice teaching. In this book we hear from teachers like you who care about their students, respect them and think they can and will change the world. Teachers who believe it is their job to help them learn how to do that. This plan book was created to make that job just a little easier by helping you turn your daily lesson planning into strategy for teaching toward democracy, fairness and peace.

The 10 Year Rule

There are so many events and people that could be featured in a planner like this, we had to find a way to narrow the possibilities. So we established the 10 year rule which generally means that (with a few exceptions) anniversaries/birthdays must fall on a 10 year mark to be included (e.g., the 10th anniversary/birthday, the 20th, 40th, 80th, 120th etc.). That means each calendar has a different  set of dates.

 Here's a sample of dates from the 2012-2013 edition:

Jan. 1, 1863          150th anniversary the Emancipation Proclamation. On this day in 1863, in the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued an executive order freeing all slaves in Confederate states (the order did not apply to slaving-holding states in the Union). The Proclamation made abolition a central goal of the war.

Jan. 14, 1963         50th anniversary of Governor George Wallace's infamous "Segregation Now" address. Incoming Alabama governor George Wallace was an ardent supporter of racial segregation who fought against federal efforts to integrate Alabama schools. In his inaugural address he used the phrase, "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever," which became a rallying cry for those opposed to integration and the Civil Rights Movement.

Jan. 22, 1973         40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. This landmark US Supreme Court decision determined that women had a constitutional right to an abortion. Only eight years earlier abortion had been illegal in every state except in limited circumstances, leading more than a million women each year to seek illegal, unsafe procedures. This controversial decision has been at the center of an ongoing debate about the morality of abortion and the rights of women.

Feb. 4, 1913          Rosa Parks, civil rights activist, born (1913-2005). Parks was an African American civil rights activist whose decision not to give up her seat on a public bus to a White person when asked to by the driver helped launch the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, widely considered the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Parks became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation.

Mar. 20, 2003         10th anniversary of the Iraq War. The US invaded Iraq, supported by a few international allies, claiming Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The WMD were never found. After toppling the Iraqi government, the US occupied Iraq for nearly a decade, battling an anti-US insurgency as sectarian violence wracked the country. Combat troops were withdrawn from Iraq at the end of 2012.

Apr. 19, 1943         70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II fought back against the Nazis' efforts to transport the remaining ghetto population to the Treblinka extermination camp. The insurgents were eventually defeated. It was the largest single revolt by the Jews during the Holocaust.

May 1, 2003          10th anniversary of the US Navy closure of Camp Garcia firing zone in Vieques, Puerto Rico. The US Navy withdraws from Vieques, Puerto Rico, following four years of protests. Vieques was bombed an average of 180 days per year, and studies concluded that the area had higher incidences of cancer, infant mortality, and toxic contamination than other areas of Puerto Rico.

Jun. 1, 1843          170th anniversary of Isabella Baumfree changing her name to Sojourner Truth. Truth, an Africa American activist and former slave, spoke out against slavery and in favor of women's rights. Truth said she changed her name because it reflected her calling to travel around the country and speak the truth about slavery.

Jun. 26, 2003         10th anniversary of  Lawrence v. Texas, a landmark gay rights case. In Lawrence v. Texas the Supreme Court struck down Texas' anti-sodomy law, reversing a ruling on a similar Georgia law almost 20 years earlier. It was a landmark case in the struggle for gay rights.

Aug. 5, 1962          50th anniversary of the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela. Mandela, an anti-Apartheid activist in South Africa, was arrested and convicted of sabotage and other charges, for which he served more than a quarter century in prison. After his release he helped bring about the end of Apartheid and served as the first president of post-Apartheid South Africa.

Sep. 3, 1882          130th anniversary of the first Labor Day Celebration. The first Labor Day celebration took place in New York City in 1882. An estimated 10,000 workers marched in the parade. The holiday emerged from the ranks of organized labor at a time when they wanted to demonstrate the strength of their burgeoning movement and inspire improvements in their working conditions. 

Nov. 3, 1962          40th anniversary of the Trail of Broken Treaties march on Washington DC. In an effort to bring attention to Native America issues, the American Indian Movement and other groups organized a car caravan from the West Coast to DC to present a set of demands. After a few demonstrations they occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs national office building for a week.

Dec. 5, 1942          70th anniversary of the Manzanar Riot. The Manzanar Riot was one of the most significant acts of resistance in the Japanese internment camps. Thousands of prisoners protested after one prisoner was arrested on suspicion of beating another prisoner who was believed to be too friendly to the prison administration. Two people were killed after guards fired on the protesters.

About Our Organizations

Planning to Change the World was created by the New York Collective of Radical Educators and the Education for Liberation Network  with the support of Rethinking Schools. Proceeds from the sale of the plan book support the work NYCoRE and the network. Questions about the book? Email Tara Mack: tara@edliberation.org.

The Education for Liberation Network (www.edliberation.org) is a national coalition of teachers, community activists, youth, researchers and parents who believe a good education should teach people—particularly low-income youth and youth of color—to understand and challenge the injustices their communities face. The network aims to help improve the practice of Education for Liberation by bringing people together to learn from each other’s experiences. If you would like to join this community of educators, you can sign up for our listserv on www.edliberation.org/join-us.

Looking for social justice teaching materials? Check out the Education for Liberation Network’s online database (www.edliberation.org/resources). Called the EdLib Lab, the database is a collection of hundreds of lesson plans and other resources from teachers, organizations and researchers across the country. The Lab allows you both to search for materials and to post your own.

The New York Collective of Radical Educators (www.nycore.org) is a group of public school educators in New York committed to fighting for social justice in our school system and society at large by organizing and mobilizing teachers, developing curriculum and working with community, parent and student organizations. We are educators who believe that education is an integral part of social change and that we must work both inside and outside the classroom because the struggle for justice does not end when the school bell rings. Please visit our website to learn more about or to join our organizing groups on issues such as high stakes testing, military recruitment and supporting queer youth. Also available are announcements about upcoming events and NYCoRE created curricula, including our first book, Camouflaged: Investigating How the U.S. Military Affects You and Your Community.

 The book is edited by Tara Mack and Bree Picower. Tara is the Director of the Education for Liberation Network. Bree is a professor at Montclair State University and core member of the New York Collective of Radical Educators.