Everyday Advocacy – We’re here to support your students’ freedom to learn

Whatever our politics or educational philosophies, all of us in the education world know we are living through a time of turmoil and uncertainty for our schools and classrooms. This affects universities, school district budgets, libraries, classroom lessons and discussions, even posters on our walls.

It can seem daunting in this atmosphere to advocate for resistance to harmful limitations on students' reading, writing or speech. So we at www.everydayadvocacy.org offer thinking, strategies, and powerful stories from authors and educators to help make action possible. We’ve found that successful advocacy needs to be:

• Smart: being well-informed  

• Safe: forming a community so you aren’t alone and vulnerable.

• Savvy: learning strategic ways to inform others 

• Sustainable : finding ways to take care of yourself through the process 

You might find the teacher stories we share especially helpful as you learn how educators across the country have made change—from defending students’ freedom to read and to write about issues in their lives to proactively shifting community perspectives on teaching and learning. We’ve also gathered stories from authors who tell how their books enriched and sometimes even saved the lives of young readers.

Fortunately, many advocacy organizations are stepping up to help defend our rights, just as we are at Everyday Advocacy – groups such as the ACLU, the American Library Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the National Council of Teachers of English, NWP’s Write Now Teacher Studio, PEN America, People for the American Way, and many more.

Do you have a story you’d like to share, whether successful or challenging?  We’d love to hear from you. And we hope you’ll explore our resources at www.everdayadvocacy.org, visit our Facebook blog, “Everyday Advocacy for Teachers in Politically Divided Times,” and follow us on Instagram and YouTube.

Know that there are many caring and thoughtful people in your community and across the country ready to support you in your teaching and your advocacy for your students. There have been many challenges to our rights and freedoms across our history. Now it’s our turn to defend them.