Halloween: A Mystic and Eerie Significance
Despite the prevalence of tricks and spooky spirits in earlier years, the American commercial holiday didn’t develop until the middle of the twentieth century.
Don’t Dress Your Whale in Galoshes
Free to Be... You and Me was meant to help rear a generation free of sexist stereotypes. Fifty years on, some of its well-intentioned messages are worn around the edges.
Like Tomatoes? Join the Club
Organizers of girls’ tomato clubs hoped that members would learn not only how to grow tomatoes, but how to build a better future for themselves.
Filler Words and Floor Holders: The Sounds Our Thoughts Make
So, well, okay, um, like, you know, right?
A Legendary Filmmaker’s Notes on Teaching
Experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer was also a teacher, and wrote about how she kept the "artist-self" alive while working her day job.
3 Questions to Ask About Online Fandom (and Teen Fans)
The internet has played a large role in fostering intense fan communities. But are these high-octane, super-specific interests healthy? Or...interesting?
What Should Schools Teach?
American schools produce graduates that have learned to memorize facts, but lack direction in ethics, social skills, adaptability, or knowing how to be happy.
Robert Reich: How to Resurrect the Common Good
Reich talks justice for Wall Street malfeasance, the importance of faith-based communities, the threat of demagoguery, and finding hope in today's youth.
Under Victorian Microscopes, an Enchanted World
When it came time to describe what they saw under microscopes, Victorians couldn’t help but perceive a real-life fairyland.
Facing Ourselves Online
The photographic pressure to curate our faces is inextricable from the online pressure to curate our lives; to present and perform.