Other Organizations

Our work with children reaches beyond the schoolyard.
Take a look at these groups we use and promote....We are not alone!

The American Library Association  "Banned Books" Link focuses on children's and adult titles that have been challenged by various parties interested in limiting access to ideas. The ALA is a staunch supporter of intellectual freedom, and its vast website offers many outstanding resources for readers of all ages and interests.

Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance Project is the educational publishing arm of  this civil rights advocacy group. In 1996, the classroom of Giddens (then still called Happy Medium) teacher Debra Goldsbury was profiled in their their Starting Small text-and-video curriculum described exemplary early-childhood education practices that promote anti-racist tolerance. The SPLC home page links to their many legal and informational activities directed against hate groups throughout the US.

The Giraffe Project   is a social studies curriculum that we use at Giddens that encourages students to identify and emulate everyday people who "stick their neck out" for social change and justice. Through true stories of children and adults who saw problems, took a risk and organized people to take steps to solve it, the program encourages children to engage in community service that addresses needs they identify in their own communities.

Committee for Children is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of social-emotional learning, and the prevention of bullying, child abuse and youth violence through the development of educational curricula. Happy Medium School (now Giddens) was an early pilot site for (and continuing user of)  their "Second Step" violence prevention curriculum.