Settlement cookbook

The Cooking Classes that Americanized Jewish Immigrants

At the end of the 19th century, a Wisconsin woman named Elizabeth “Lizzie” Black Kander tried to help immigrants assimilate, through the food they ate.
Carlisle Indian Industrial School

How Native Americans Taught Both Assimilation and Resistance at Indian Schools

In the nineteenth century, many Native American children attended “Indian schools” designed to blot out Native cultures in favor of Anglo assimilation.
Christmas classroom

Are Classroom Holiday Parties Constitutional?

Can schools let students and teachers celebrate religions holidays without violating the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause?
Boys fishing in a bayou, Schriever, LA, 1940

Why Our Work Affects How Kids Play

The way we think about the skills kids need—and even how they should play—is deeply tied to the characteristics we expect them to need as adults.
John Green

John Green

John Green spoke with The English Journal about his writing, how English teachers can connect with young readers, advice for young writers, and more.
Vocational class

How Schools Got into the Job-Prep Business

Training skilled workers within a school system was a way to sell ordinary workers on the value of the industrial system and thwart union recruiting.
Siri settings

An App for Autism

For some families, Apple's assistant Siri has become a crucial bridge between their autistic children and the outside world.
World War II Veterans

The Inequality Hidden Within the Race-Neutral GI Bill

While the GI Bill itself was progressive, much of the country still functioned under both covert and blatant segregation.
Carlos Mondragon

Carlos Mondragón

Welcome to Ask a Professor, our series that offers an insider’s view of life in academia. This month: Carlos Mondragón, professor at the Colegio de México.
American middle school

The Invention of Middle School

In the 1960s, one scholar writes, there was no grand vision behind the idea of a middle school. The problem that the model sought to solve was segregation.