Education
Great minds lead to great solutions. Our education section features solutions and innovations directed at strengthening educational systems around the world.
This Chicago artist is bringing music education back to public schools
When governments make budget cuts, all too often it is schools and their creative programs that pay the price. Such is the case in Chicago, where many elementary schools are without any music programs, which is a crying shame considering music education has been found to benefit a child’s memory, Read More...
Janelle Lynch’s photographs are a reminder to find beauty in everyday nature
If you were to see Janelle Lynch photographing out in nature, you would likely see her crouched down beside plants, flanked by her dogs, deliberately taking her time to craft her images. Her photography is mostly still shots of small snippets of nature but it is more than the twigs and flowers that Read More...
Why you need to make positive discipline a part of your parenting style
Picture this scene: Your child comes running into your room in tears. They’ve done something they know they shouldn’t have, and now they fear they’ll be in trouble. They’re clearly already wracked with guilt, and they’re admitting their misstep to you. How do you respond? What do you do? Read More...
The film industry is starting to clean up its act—beyond award shows
It’s nice and all that, that award shows such as the Golden Globes and the Oscars are serving plant-based foods and forgoing plastic water bottles, but it's on the sets of films where the movie industry can actually make a big environmental impact. After all, producing a film is akin to a Read More...
Here are some big milestones the Oscars did achieve this year
The Academy has infamously struggled to make the Oscars representative of achievement in film from diverse actors, producers, and directors, but this year, the event did achieve some new milestones for their long 92-year history. First and foremost, Parasite became the first non-English language Read More...
New research shows Americans still love libraries
In December, we shared the news that Los Angeles had joined Chicago and San Francisco in eliminating late fees in city libraries. This change will have a big impact, especially considering new research that shows visiting libraries is still the most common cultural activity for Americans. Even Read More...
At this internship, students earn scholarships and learn to build homes
The average internship for high school students typically involves unpaid time spent completing mindless tasks such as filing papers, making copies, or taking coffee orders. But unCommon Construction offers a unique alternative that's better preparing young adults for life beyond the classroom. Read More...
Optimist View - Movie Review: Honeyland
How an Oscar-nominated documentary illustrates the power of resilience BY AMELIA BUCKLEY Wild honey smells of freedom. The dust - of sunlight. The mouth of a young girl, like a violet. But gold - smells of nothing. -Anna Akhmatova Our first introduction to Hatidze Muratova is watching her Read More...
These students are building guitars to learn engineering skills
Activities and skills that kids practice in school can have a lifelong impact on their careers, interests, and educational aspirations. Professor of mechanical engineering, Mark French, is hoping to instill a love for engineering in young minds by teaching them how to build guitars. As part of Read More...
5 ways to generate more positivity in the online world
Here at the Optimist Daily, our mission is to be a beacon of light in a world that seems to dwell too much on the doom and gloom. We don’t bring you stories about solutions and positive development because of some naive conception of how our world is. Rather, we bring you these stories because we Read More...