Penn GSE News Archive
GOP state lawmakers file 56 bills to ban critical race theory
Jonathan Zimmerman said that bills banning the teaching of so-called “critical race theory” in schools could create more problems for conservatives than they solve. “I understand the danger of indoctrination in our schools, about race and everything else,” he said. “But the solution to that problem is to present multiple perspectives in our classrooms, not to bar certain perspectives from them.”
Opinion: When students stumble, colleges should turn to restorative justice before expulsion
Jonathan Zimmerman opined that the role of an educational institution is to make its students more aware, informed and thoughtful adults through structured dialogue – not necessarily to discipline them for words spoken and actions taken in the past.
![A professor wearing a white shirt and striped tie addresses a classroom of students who are listening and taking notes. The screen in the background has a large pi symbol] [Photo caption] Dr. Zachary Hermann is executive director of Penn GSE’s Center for Professional Learning, which offers virtual programs to support educators at various levels in the face of changing educational environments.](https://www.gse.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/penngse_supporting_educational_leaders_main_0.jpg)
Higher ed’s evolutionary — not revolutionary — pandemic response
Drawing on pre-pandemic data, Robert Zemsky predicted that 20% of higher education institutions were in danger of shuttering.
Detained protestors in Cuba detail torture amid trials
Amalia Daché spoke about the mistreatment of protesters in Cuba. “Cuba is a political apartheid. There is definitely racial discrimination happening in Cuba,” she said. “When Cuba gets a cold, Afro-Cubans get the flu, and they die.”
You can't teach what you don't know
Jonathan Zimmerman posed tough questions about who will instruct students about the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Most of our history teachers, he says, are not adequately educated for that task.
Groups seek to boost the number of Black men teaching
Tina Fletcher figured out her life’s purpose when she met her ninth-grade civics teacher. Mrs. Payne was Black, like Fletcher, and was one of the first teachers of color Fletcher had in her rural Arkansas town. “I knew from that point forward I had to be a social studies teacher,” Fletcher said. “I could see myself.”