Education
Great minds lead to great solutions. Our education section features solutions and innovations directed at strengthening educational systems around the world.
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...
Six tactics to help your students deal with stress
Educators like me will not be surprised at the results of a survey conducted by the Association of School and College Leaders, in which 55 percent of schools reported an increase in stress and anxiety among their pupils. The pupils I work with to help prepare for exams frequently display signs of Read More...
The Finns are on a mission to revolutionize the world of education
Finland has long been recognized as having one of the finest education systems in the world, but that’s not stopping the Nordic country from embarking on a bold project that aims to advance and scale innovation in education. The project goes by the name HundrED, and its urging Finnish schools to Read More...
The Internet enables a slum in Mumbai to market to the world
Dharavi, in the heart of Mumbai, is a slum with more than 1 million people. It’s one of Asia’s largest slums and its impressive manufacturing and retail ecosystem is worth more than $1 billion. The—mostly—handicrafts find their way to the market through traders and shopkeepers who know how Read More...
How investing in preschool beats the stock market, hands down
Sending a child to pre-school beats investing on the stock market. That's the conclusion from a new study. Children of mostly lower-income families were followed from preschool education all the way into adulthood. The research shows that children who attended preschool programs in the past had Read More...
The beauty of what we'll never know
Almost 30 years ago, Pico Iyer took a trip to Japan, fell in love with the country and moved there. A keen observer of the human spirit, Iyer professes that he now feels he knows far less about Japan — or, indeed, about anything — than he thought he knew three decades ago. In this lyrical Read More...
Why climate change is an education issue
According to a recent Pew study, seven out of 10 Americans classified as political independents were not very concerned that climate change would hurt them. Worse still, Yale University researchers recently found that 40 percent of adults worldwide have never even heard of climate change. In some Read More...