If, as we do in my house, you go through a lot of markers, you might consider buying a class set, which costs considerably less per pen than the individual pack of markers.

If you prefer pencils or crayons in a variety of skin tones, you might check out these instead:

Quiz!

You must take–and encourage others to take–this eye-opening quiz from EdChange. To get a sense of it, check out the first three questions:

1. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, what is the percentage of U.S. schools with no teachers of color on staff?

2. Compared with White women, how likely are African American women in the U.S. to die during childbirth due to a lack of access to prenatal care, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality?

3. According to a study by the American Association of Physicians for Human Rights, what percentage of physicians report witnessing a colleague giving reduced care or refusing care to lesbian, gay, or bisexual patients?

If the answers don’t get you energized to work toward social justice and a better world for your children or students, I don’t know what will.

Photos!

If you’re into Barbie dolls or multicultural dolls, you definitely want to visit Sage’s photos of her multicultural Barbie doll collection.

I’m not usually a huge Barbie fan, but I must say I’m quite taken with distinctive face and hair of the Incan Barbie:

Event!

The National Association for Multicultural Education is promoting a week of awareness of the discrimination underlying, and the harm caused by, name-calling.  No Name-Calling Week runs from January 25-29, 2010.  On a personal note, I was the kid in my elementary and junior high school classes who bore the brunt of many assumptions, catty remarks, and flat-out name calling, and I can attest to the long-term psychic damage of such taunts.

Social justice!

There’s a terrific story circulating through the media this week about Arkansas fifth-grader Will Phillips, who is refusing to say, or even stand up for, the Pledge of Allegiance until that part about “liberty and justice for all” is actually, you know, true.  Specifically, Will is advocating for civil rights for gays and lesbians, and as you can imagine, he’s taking a lot of flak from his fellow students.  From an article in the Arkansas Times:

Though many of his friends at school have told him they support his decision, those who don’t have been unkind, and louder.

“They [the kids who don't support him] are much more crazy, and out of control and vocal about it than supporters are.”

Given that his protest is over the rights of gays and lesbians, the taunts have taken a predictable bent. “In the lunchroom and in the hallway, they’ve been making comments and doing pranks, and calling me gay,” he said. “It’s always the same people, walking up and calling me a gaywad.”

Even so, Will said that he can’t foresee anything in the near future that will make him stand for the pledge. To help him deal with the peer pressure, his parents have printed off posts in his support on blogs and websites. “We’ve told him that people here might not support you, but we’ve shown him there are people all over that support you,” Phillips said. “It’s really frustrating to him that people are being so immature.”

Check out this fabulous and very funny video about Will’s stance from The Daily Show:

What were your favorite things this week? Share them in the comments!