New York Teacher Helps Students Probe Beliefs

Publication: Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
Date: January 6, 2010

Summary: Inspired by a writing project workshop she attended, teacher-consultant and seventh-grade language arts teacher Danielle Norton-Hippert assigned her class to write about what exactly they believe.

Excerpt from Article

I peeked at her assignment. Indeed, it was a hard one, an essay that adults have grappled with for decades.

If you listen to National Public Radio, you are then familiar with the "This I Believe" series, a renewal of an idea that began in the 1950s by pioneering broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow.

Although I could understand my daughter's angst, this assignment could not have come at a more appropriate time in her life. As she and her peers come of age in this age of 24-hour news cycles, texting, sexting and social networking, just what do they believe?