The Power of Words curriculum is about the language that captures the multiethnic temper of our times.

Its lessons encourage us to explore the words used in the United States to label ethnic groups, women and sexual minorities and to examine the ways in which these words reveal our nation's social landscape.

The Power of Words offers standards-based lesson plans for use in language arts and social studies classrooms; most are appropriate for use in grades 9 and up. Many can be adapted for lower grades and across subject areas.

The curriculum is based on cultural anthropologist Philip Herbst's groundbreaking dictionaries, The Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States and Wimmin, Wimps and Wallflowers: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Gender and Sexual Orientation Bias in the United States.

These books, published by Intercultural Press, are no longer in print. The books are not needed to complete the lessons presented here.