Education
Great minds lead to great solutions. Our education section features solutions and innovations directed at strengthening educational systems around the world.
New in the US: Resistance schools teaching people how to create a better world
Many people feel lost in the current political climate in the U.S. and Europe. However, the widespread frustration is also leading to an outpouring of interest in engaging with politics and social movements. In the U.S. there is a number of new schools cropping up to train people to become Read More...
Watch this clock and see the world become a better place
According to this clock, every second people somewhere in the world escape extreme poverty a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs such as food, water, and sanitation. Around 9 percent of the world’s population suffers from extreme poverty, which is nearly 700 million Read More...
More monkeying around
Possibility From The Optimist Magazine Summer 2014 Bullrush used to be a popular chasing game at schools in New Zealand. It starts with a “chaser,” one child who tries to tackle other children as they run to the other side of a field. But at some point, it got banned at schools. The reason: Read More...
Harvard just launched a center for happiness
As two enormous, golden doors part, sunlight pours into an atrium filled with babies and puppies. Everyone is smiling. The air smells of freshly mown mint. Ripe avocados rain from the sky. (Somehow, they always miss the babies.) This is Harvard University’s new Center for Health and Happiness. At Read More...
Creative people physically see and process the world differently
If you’re the kind of person who relishes adventure, you may literally see the world differently. People who are open to new experiences can take in more visual information than other people and combine it in unique ways. This may explain why they tend to be particularly creative. Openness to Read More...
Education for all: 250 Ivy League courses anyone anywhere can take online
Education is the best way to bridge the gap between the haves and the have nots in the world. Poor people in developing countries can never attend the best schools in the West. But here's the good news: Prestigious Ivy League schools in the U.S. are now offering free online courses across multiple Read More...
In Japan the healthy school lunch is part of the curriculum
The Trump administration considers cutting federal funds to programs that provide food to poor students. The argument: There’s “no demonstrable evidence” that the programs help them do better in school. Children may or may not score better on tests, eating well is likely to make them better Read More...
The UK is rolling out mindfulness courses for kids to prevent mental health issues
Mindfulness is no longer the stuff of yoga classes and corporate retreats. In the UK, the government has announced they will fund randomized control trials in more than 200 schools across the country to see whether mindfulness effectively reduces stress and promotes wellbeing among eight to 12 year Read More...
London parents will get fined for dropping their kids at school by car
In an amazing reversal of American policies, a neighborhood in east London is prioritizing the safety of children over the convenience of cars. “It’s a sledgehammer to crack a nut.” This is how one angry parent described the recent crackdown by London police on parents who drop their kids Read More...
Libraries and museums team up for bold political statement: Facts are real
At a time where falsehoods disguised under the name ‘alternative facts’ are being perpetuated by the White House, the belief in objective, verifiable facts has actually become a political statement in America. To show the new administration what a real fact looks like, museums, libraries, and Read More...