Use this article:

Stearns, Peter N. “Goals in History Teaching.” In Learning and reasoning in history, edited by James F. Voss and Mario Carretero. London ; Portland, OR: Woburn Press, 1998
alongside the introduction to the 1994 history standards. His critique of the standards is quite interesting (and from inside the discipline as opposed to from a political standpoint) and would provoke a solid conversation.
Funny line: “A colleague who recommended, tongue in cheek, that the responsibility for defending Western values be given for the next ten years to biology courses, to let history off the hook, was not entirely off the mark.” p.286.

Use this as a text in all of your classes — have students bring it to RICA, to Social Studies Methods, to the Secondary Student Teaching Seminar.

they ought to be able to re-write it but these should become public documents at the beginning of the semester.

“I know if I had to pick one thing that my parents — I was very lucky to have two great parents — I was never afraid to go fail, because I knew that I would always come home to a home of love,” Woods said early last week. “My parents loved me unconditionally, no matter what. If I went out there and I gave it my best and I screwed up, it didn’t matter.

“My parents always told me they loved me every night, every time we said goodbye,” he added. “That was just something that I was never afraid to go out there and push myself to the limit. And if I failed, so what? I always had them to pick me up. I think that’s something that not all people have, but I was lucky to have that my entire life.”

Dave Anderson, “Woods Chases Nicklaus as Father,” New York Times, June 21,2007.

Advertisin' signs that con you
Into thinkin' you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.

Don't know why, but so it goes.

The Times featured excerpts from a number of commencement speakers. I found this quote from John Lewis to be exceptional:

Sometimes I hear some young people say nothing has changed. I feel like saying, come and walk in my shoes. In 1956, at the age of 16, being so inspired by Dr. King along with some of my brothers and sisters and first cousins, we went to the little library in Pike County, Alabama, a public library in the little town of Troy trying to get library cards, trying to check out some books. And we were told by the librarian that the library was for whites only and not for coloreds.

I never went back to that library until July 5, 1998. By that time I was a member of Congress, and I went there for a book signing of my book. Hundreds of blacks and white citizens showed up. I signed many books. In the end, they gave me a library card. It says something about the distance we’ve come and the progress we’ve made in laying down the burden of race.

“If you’re not dreadfully concerned with how you’re going to turn out,” he put it, “you’ll probably turn out fine.”

From a Samuel Freedman article here;my only question for this kid is who was advising him on different college options.  GW is a great school, but it’s a great, expensive school and surely this kid could have gotten into one of the better state schools, e.g., Michigan or Wisconsin.

Great article here

One striking quote:

In 49 out of 50 states, the average annual cost of day care for a 4-year-old in an urban area is more than the average annual public college tuition.

The other striking statistic — one that strikes close to home — 35% of kids eligible for Headstart in Pennsylvania are not enrolled.

“FENAME”=’Broad’ OR “FENAME” =’Market’ OR “FENAME” = ‘Roosevelt’ OR “FENAME”=’Cottman’ OR “FENAME”=’Lehigh’ OR “FENAME” = ‘Lancaster’ OR “FENAME”=’Elmwood’ OR “FENAME”=’Ridge’

“No one I know is placing any blame on the university for how they have done things,” Mr. Williams said. “I don’t think we should be blamed for not kicking him out for odd behavior, because if you went by that, there would be people kicked out every day. No one could have predicted what he did.” Student quoted in NYT article here. A thoughtful understanding…let’s see if the adults can match it.

restrictive clause: clause that shapes the meaning of a noun/clause/
non-restrictive clause: can be deleted without shaping the independent clause

commas for non-restrictive, none for restrictive.