A person's hand drawing a Big Mac hamburger on a sheet of lined paper

Are Students Just Telling Us What We Want to Hear?

Students tend to fill out end-of-year evaluations so as to describe a “narrative of progress.” For teachers, this is fast food of the mind.
Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein, Teacher

Leonard Bernstein was a famous composer, conductor, and pianist. But by some accounts, his favorite accomplishment was teaching children about music.
laptops in class

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.
dancing happy woman yellow

Teaching Happiness

According to one scholar, we're inundated with ways to pursue pleasure, which we conflate with happiness, to our own detriment.
Riverdale Cast

How Archie Got His Groove Back

The setup of Archie Comics was straightforward, as was its protagonist. But the success of Riverdale speaks to the Archieverse's surprising fluidity.
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.
Clarence Darrow

How African Americans Supported Evolution in the 1925 Scopes Trial

Dayton, Tennessee has a new statue of Clarence Darrow, the evolutionist and criminal defense attorney of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial.
Margaret Haley

The 19th-Century Activist Who Tried to Transform Teaching

Margaret Haley argued for unionization, insisting that “there is no possible conflict between the interest of the child and the interest of the teacher.”
Jay Z on stage

Can Jay Z Help Students Read James Joyce?

Rapper Jay Z recently released his 13th studio album 4:44. Could this be used in the classroom to enlighten and educate students in secondary schools?
DC African-American classroom, 1942

One Weird Trick for Raising Teachers’ Credentials

What's behind a drop in secondary school teachers' credentials? The profession has widened, but neither the its prestige, nor its pay has kept up.