Visual Arts,
The legal and historic background of copyright, public domain and provenance — encouragement to create in the arts and sciences and to be rewarded — are introduced against the historic and current examples of looting of art, book banning and burning, and banishment and firing of those who make literature and arts accessible. Weekly means for inspiration and access to the arts, books and culture are also explored in Post Arts, Style and Entertainment.
Maps tell the past and present story of a land and people. Through video and dispatches we meet The Post’s eyewitnesses who are not embedded, yet send daily news reports, photographs and videos from across the country to tell the story of Ukrainians under siege. We also listen to experts and leaders to gain perspective.
Beginning with 5,558 congressmen who had served in the U.S. Congress and were born before 1840, The Post created the first database of lawmakers confirmed to be enslavers — 1,739 and increasing as readers help in the search of records. Students explore the database, learn about cartograms, search for “unknowns” and conduct their own family history search. Articles tell of families and Sen. Tim Kaine facing legacies with irony and openness.
From animals, sweat bees and monarch butterflies to horseshoe crabs, manatees and white sharks to veterinary careers and zoos, articles and activities provide students with many examples of tracking movement and tracing survival. Students read and write a photo essay on a theme.
Attention is turned to the unexpected, unusual and rare on land, in the air and within the waters of the world. KidsPost and World articles capture students’ imaginations and a beach sand lab stimulates discoveries. Students use venery, study an elephant’s trunk and vampire bats’ kindness, and meet an octopus teacher. They delve into sea snot, ghost nets and dark splotches.
Three stories of summer 2021 — creation of a federal holiday, commemoration of a city’s race massacre and a cheerleader’s Supreme Court case — provide case studies of race relations, a nation’s values and rights of students outside of the school campus.
The 2020 Census will impact the 118th Congress, taxation, allocation of federal funding and public policy. Since 1790 conducting a census has reflected the representative government and face of the American people.
The articles and suggested activities in this guide focus on the content and challenges in today’s children’s literature and the content of the character and challenges to Dreamers to remain in America, the only home they have known.
Students are introduced to five countries that form North Africa as that region reflects on the ten years after the Tunisian Jasmine Revolution and the beginning of Arab Spring and evaluates its success. Western Sahara provides a case study as the Biden administration faces foreign policy challenges.
There is always change, but 2020 was a year of extraordinary changes — global deaths due to a pandemic, marches for racial equality and justice, name changes of schools and teams, a woman of Indian and Jamaican heritage on the Democratic ticket, NASA’s return to space shuttles — and mundane curtailments that influenced culture. Students read, discuss and debate, and write about these changes and those who made a difference.
