Talking to others about your mental health isn’t an easy feat, especially if that person is your parent. Zion Williams, a high school student and Season 1 host of PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs’ On Our Minds alongside Noah Konevitch during the 2020-21 school year, and her mother, Gwen Littles-Williams, don’t have that problem at all. Zion regularly opens up to her mother about her mental health.
While the pandemic may have kept many teachers and students off-balance the past two years — with both online and in-person instruction — Elise Knable embraced the challenge, supporting her students and giving them a sense of self-worth when they needed it most.
For her efforts, the Caesar Rodney High School career and technology teacher was honored by the National Society of High School Scholars as a finalist for the 2021 Educator of the Year award.
The pandemic has upended the lives of just about everyone, including high school students. But despite a lot of talk about remote versus in-person school, mask mandates and the rest, the perspectives of young people themselves often go unheard.
In the recent PBS NewsHour special, “Our New Normal: How Teens Are Redefining School Life,” the voices of students and student journalists took center stage.
Since the start of last year, more than half of all states have introduced bills banning the teaching of CRT in public schools. It is political backlash from conservatives, who are casting frank conversations about race as divisive or anti-white.
The NewsHour spoke to four high school students about their experiences learning about Black history amid the new restrictions and political pressure.