I am a 30 year old substitute teacher in the Minneapolis Public Schools. I moved here from Montana where I had the opportunity to speak to young people about feminism. I found there were terribly distorted and vilified impressions of feminism. I was able to address those attitudes and discuss where they came from and how they were inaccurate.

I would like to develop a program supplemental to current curriculums. I am in the process of developing an outline for a "guest speaker/discussion leader" presentation on feminism. I am seeking input from a variety of sources and I was hoping you might be interested in helping. I would like this to be a pilot program informing the development of a nationwide operation. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for your note to Feminist.com and for your ambitious undertaking--certainly a necessary one. I would be happy to help you in your efforts, but first I want to make sure that you know about some existing programs/curriculums. There is an organization (based in New York City)--Educational Equity Concepts. They have developed a number of "gender sensitive curriculums"--most devoted to elementary school ages. There is also Girls, Inc. -- a national organization with several local affiliates around the U.S. Although they don't work directly in the schools, they function as an after-school organizations, they have a number of issue specific curriculums--sports, history, science, money. There is also the Wellsley Center for Research on Women, based at Wellesley College, which has, over the years, developed a few curriculums. And then, there is the Third Wave Foundation, of which I am a co-founder, which has developed a curriculum to use in connection with existing "youth groups." The goal is to add a "feminist" perspective to their existing work in an attempt to inform young women and men (ages 15 to 18) about what feminism is/isn't and how it is already playing out in their lives. The next step is to hopefully inspire them to action.

With all of that said--you may have something entirely different in mind, but before you potentially "reinvented the wheel" I wanted to make sure that you knew about these spokes. If this is not what you had in mind and/or if it is, let me know and I can see how I can help.

Thanks for thinking of me--and, again, for taking the initiative to change young people's attitudes about feminism.

—Amy