In 2006 an Xavier High School English teacher named Ms. Lockwood gave her students an assignment: write a letter to a famous author. The instructions were to discuss the author's work and ask for advice....
Although technically not over yet, summer is behind us.
And with September comes students and teachers back at school.
But this year might be different for America's traditionally underappreciated educators.
After teachers in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, North Carolina,...
Many may have been assigned in high school the legendary science fiction author Ray Bradbury's inimitable 1953 dystopic novel Fahrenheit 451.
If not, briefly, it's a story about a future America in which books are banned, and...
In America, we believe everyone should be educated.
An educated populace is the backbone of democracy.
To that end, we promise to all children the right to a free public education, regardless of socioeconomic status, disability, or...
This past spring, while COVID-19 ripped through mostly Democratic states like New York, Washington, and New Jersey, the American South had yet to feel its full brunt.
Later that season, though, into the summer, everything began...
Christianity has commingled with secular institutions throughout American history. For decades, that special privilege allowed practitioners of Christianity near unfettered access to public education. According to Pew Research, Christian influence has waned in America while...
Jason Kenney has recently been elected leader of the Progressive Conservative party in Alberta, Canada. He has already courted controversy with remarks about informing parents of their children's membership of groups such as the Gay-Straight Alliance.
Kenney...
Taking a stand against bad governance is quite easy. All that's needed to spark demonstrations is for government to repeal positive policies enacted by previous governments and in their places, enact unfriendly laws.
However, what happens when...
After every school shooting, we do our lip-service assessment of gun control, school safety, and what freedom truly means. The NRA argues that if the "good guys" had more guns, fewer people would have died....
America is really screwed at the moment, staring down the barrel of a gun it pointed at its own head. The problem isn't merely the racists, the science deniers, the Religious Right, or the modern...
In fewer than 100 days in office, President Donald Trump has managed to get himself a personal FBI investigation, a tepid-at-best relationship with allies Germany and Australia, not one but two federal court blockages of his Muslim...
For-profit colleges are like Encyclopedia Britannica -- stupidly expensive, practically useless, and only obtained through exploitative means. The recruiter of, say, the University of Phoenix may as well be dressed in a brown tweed suit...
During his debate last night with the Creation Museum president, Ken Ham, science educator Bill Nye made a simple yet profound response to an audience member's question. His answer: "I don't know."
The question was how...
New Mexico has passed a law outlawing the act of shaming children for not having enough money for lunch.
One child in Alabama actually got a stamp on his arm saying, "I need lunch money."
The father...
Did you know that Humans are the only species that produce tears when emotional? Tears are not just superficial expressions of emotion, however. They also serve a very necessary purpose. There are 3 types of...
Mill Plain Elementary, a public school in Vancouver, Washington, is making headlines this week due to?an unorthodox classroom policy that resulted in two 9-year-old students wetting themselves during class because they couldn't use the toilet...
Earlier this week, over 100 presidents and chancellors of historically black colleges and universities spent two days meeting with Donald Trump and congressional leaders. Trump made a big deal of the gathering, promising that he...
A lot of religious right leaders have remained loyal to Donald Trump in the face of the almost daily outrages from his administration. That includes perhaps the biggest outrage of all that isn't Russia-related--his equivocating stand...
We've all heard stories about kids literally being hounded to suicide by long and sustained campaigns of bullying. But The Washington Post recently uncovered a scary phenomenon in which bullying can kill--literally. In recent years,...
It seems that, once again, the state of Florida is on pace to establish itself as a leader in America's growing authoritarian movement.
Banning schools from teaching anything that might resemble an appreciation for racial diversity...
