| By: Committee for Children The Roots of My Advocacy, Part 2 In the mid-1980s, while remaining deeply committed to the Talking About Touching program, Committee for Children began looking into other areas of prevention.Read More
| By: Committee for Children The Roots of My Advocacy, Part 1 In the mid 1970s, I taught kindergarten to children in a clinical treatment program. These kids had been chronically abused for most of their young lives.Read More
| By: Committee for Children Book Review: My Secret Bully by Trudy Ludwig Reading Level: Grades 1–4 The narrator of My Secret Bully, Monica, doesn’t waste any time. On the very first page, she reveals that she has a secret bully named Katie. And the next sentence sums up the crux of relational aggression, or emotional bullying: “A lot of people would be surprised to know this because they think she’s my…Read More
| By: Committee for Children Book Review: Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen and Howard B. Wigglebottom Listens to His Heart by Howard Binkow Reading level: Preschool–Grade 2 Howard B. Wigglebottom is aptly named, in more ways than one. Not only is he too wiggly to listen to friends and teachers, he is also an awesome dancer. Over the course of two picture books by Howard Binkow, readers learn how this spirited bunny learns to be a good listener and to follow his heart and be proud of who he…Read More
| By: Committee for Children Violence Prevention Activities Upper elementary and middle school violence-prevention activities (adapted from the Second Step and Steps to Respect programs) Read More
| By: Committee for Children Program Sustainability Activities >Elementary and middle school activities to help foster program sustainment (adapted from the Second Step and Steps to Respect programs) Read More
| By: Committee for Children Are Schools Safer Ten Years After the Columbine Shootings? April 20, 2009 SEATTLE—This week marks the tenth anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings. Have all the reports, studies, and extra security measures made our schools safer? Have we learned anything? “Yes and no,” answers Joan Cole Duffell, executive director of Committee for Children, a Seattle-based nonprofit that experienced a “huge surge” of interest after the shootings and…Read More
| By: Committee for Children Book Review: The Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell Reading level: Adult This book is a compilation of diary entries from 150 high school students in Long Beach, California, who call themselves the Freedom Writers. Their English teacher, Erin Gruwell, discovers that her at-risk students have never heard of the Holocaust. She decides to teach a curriculum of tolerance using books such as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and…Read More
| By: Committee for Children Book Review: Yang the Third and Her Impossible Family by Lensey Namioka Reading Level: Grades 3–4 The Story Yingmei (Yang the Third) and her family recently moved to Seattle, Washington, from China. As she tries to fit in, Yingmei changes he name to Mary, keeps a journal of the American words she wants to learn, eats sandwiches made with peanut butter and jelly instead of bean sprouts, and frets that the rest of her family isn't…Read More
| By: Committee for Children Book Review: The Brand New Kid by Katie Couric Reading level: Preschool–Grade 2 Second-grader Lazlo S. Gasky seems different from the other kids at Brookhaven School. His white-blond hair sticks up all over, his vivid blue eyes and super-pink lips stand out against his pale complexion, his accent sounds “strange” to the other students, and he is brand new to his class (perhaps one of the most “different” traits possible in…Read More