Articles and news stories are constantly pushing me to consider something new, broaden my perspective, or change the way I look at an issue. My husband likes to joke that my brain explodes with something new on a daily basis. These articles – and the brain explosions that result from them – are so beneficial for me that I wanted to create a place where I could share them, in case you might want to read them, too. Learn more about Things that Made My Brain Explode – and see past posts – here. 

Here’s a recent batch of Things that Made my Brain Explode:

• Here are 7 ‘Schools of Opportunity’ that ‘show us a way forward’.
• Heavily Decorated Classrooms Disrupt Attention and Learning In Young Children.

• Women Did Everything Right. Then Work Got ‘Greedy.’ How America’s obsession with long hours has widened the gender gap. 

• “Her latest study, published in March in the journal Social Sciences, analyzed 63 princess drawings from girls in Fiji, India and Sweden. In this sample, nearly every drawing — 61 out of 63 — depicted a light-skinned princess. […] Not one girl drew a princess in her country’s traditional garb. Additionally, some girls from non-Western nations — India, Fiji and China — said in their interviews with Uppal that they could not be a princess because their skin was too dark and they were not beautiful enough.” How Disney Princesses Influence Girls Around The World.
• “You don’t have to aspire to just be the wind beneath someone’s wing…Prioritize yourself.” What Michelle Obama taught us about become more than just somebody’s wife.
• New Gillette ad features dad teaching his trans son to shave for the first time. Grab tissues.

• Lawmakers push to require librarians in public schools. Way to go, Michigan. Your students – and future leaders – will thank you.

• Colorado offered free birth control — and teen abortions fell by 42 percent. “This initiative has saved Colorado millions of dollars,” Gov. John Hickenlooper said in a July 2014 statement. “But more importantly, it has helped thousands of young Colorado women continue their education, pursue their professional goals and postpone pregnancy until they are ready to start a family.”

• ‘Arthur’ Character Comes Out As Gay, Marries And Is Flooded With Twitter Love. I LOVED Arthur as a kid. This really made me smile.

• Netflix, Forest Whitaker Team for ‘Hello, Universe’ Movie Based on Novel. The film will be adapted from Erin Entrada Kelly’s best-selling novel of the same name.

• Designer Releases 3D-Printed Stamp to Put Harriet Tubman on the $20 Bill. If you’d like to print one yourself, you can find the downloadable .STL file on Thingiverse here.
• Little Girl Says Princess Jasmine Shouldn’t Need Aladdin to See the World. Welcome to the team, little lady.

• “While there’s still work to be done to ensure more representation in both the pages and authorship of books for kids, we’ve never before lived in a time with greater access to inclusive stories written specifically for young people. To ignore or dismiss those titles as being PC or “too edgy” is educational malpractice.” Where are the “Normal” books? As a librarian, I’ve gotten this question more times than I can count – at least ten times each school year.

• The Time is NOW: Affirming Black Queer Youth. If you see this and think “I’ll just skip this one, it doesn’t apply to me or to my students”, let me clear up any misconceptions: NO YOU SHOULDN’T, BECAUSE YES IT DOES. (See above link.)

• On April 30, PBS aired a NewsHour segment on dyslexia. Scholars, teachers, parents, and other members of the dyslexia community found it problematic and sent this letter in response.

• When Schools Cause Trauma. “Trauma-sensitive and trauma-informed schools are spreading around the country. But if they don’t start with how schools themselves can induce trauma, they won’t work.“

• Author Marc Boston wants you to be more courageous. We’re lucky to have Marc Boston in our local author scene.

• “Books and movies about children and teens who looked like me were read and viewed out of duty, to learn something about the past. Books and movies that showcased the pleasures of dreaming, imagination, and escape were stories about people who did not look like me. And yet I was most drawn to those magical stories, for I longed to dream.” Why We Need More Black Characters in Fantasy.

• If you haven’t seen Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk mentioned in the article above, you should absolutely go watch it now – it’s the most worthwhile 18 minutes you’ll spend on the internet all week. The Danger of a Single Story.

• Naomi Shihab Nye is first Arab American author named Young People’s Poet Laureate. Her poetry is so beautiful – I can’t wait to see what she does with this position, and how many young poets she inspires.

• Research (and librarians everywhere) will tell you that the only successful way to reward childrens’ reading is with more reading. So kudos to Barnes and Noble for rewarding summer reading with free books! Follow those easy instructions to help your kiddo earn a meaningful prize that will help them grow as a reader.

• An Antiracist Reading List, from the New York Times.