Education
Great minds lead to great solutions. Our education section features solutions and innovations directed at strengthening educational systems around the world.
7 Tips to help LGBTQ parents navigate a new school
A new school year is an exciting time, but it can also be stressful and challenging. For LGBTQ parents, back to school can mean new struggles with acceptance and inclusion. Psychology professor Abbie E. Goldberg researches LGBTQ parents’ relationships with schools and shares these seven tips to Read More...
Good news: Climate reporting accuracy improving in news media
With floods, fires, droughts, and storms flashing across the headlines every week, the realities of human-driven climate change have become impossible to ignore. Fortunately, it seems like the mainstream media is catching up to this realization as well with a recent report detailing that 90 percent Read More...
This zombie escape room prepared clinicians for the pandemic
Back in 2019, the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System began running escape room simulations to teach clinicians about the importance of personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection-halting measures in a highly infectious medical setting. Organizers Kristy Causey and Grace Boseman created Read More...
Free education takes Congolese kids out of mines and into the classroom
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF, six million children (approximately one in four) were not attending school in 2018. To address this, the following year, the Democratic Republic of Congo became one of the last countries in the world to finally introduce free primary Read More...
Scotland to provide free bikes to kids in need
We at The Optimist Daily are big fans of cycling—it’s good for your mental and physical health, and it’s a better mode of transportation for our planet. So, it’s no surprise that we are happy to report that the Scottish government is planning on releasing six pilot schemes that will Read More...
Babbling bats: Winged mammals could teach us about human language
You may not think humans have much in common with bats, but it turns out these nocturnal creatures may provide critical insights into human language development. Researchers from the Museum of Natural History Berlin spent many months studying bat colonies in Panama and Costa Rica and found that in Read More...
7 Ways to boost kids’ immune systems as they head back to school
Bolstering your child’s immune system can help protect them from illnesses of all kinds. Here are seven ways to strengthen your child’s immune system as they head back to school. Encourage personal hygiene Aside from mask wearing, hand washing is the most crucial habit to protect from Read More...
This nonprofit elevates minority neighborhoods by investing in youth
North of Delmar Boulevard in the city of St. Louis are communities that are suffering from generations of racist housing policies and failed real estate markets. This leaves the majority Black and brown neighborhoods full of vacant homes and buildings with no access to key services or community Read More...
How an 11-year-old from Illinois helped create a bill to protect pollinators
After learning that bees in her neighborhood were being wiped out by mosquito pesticides, 11-year-old Illinois resident Scarlett Harper didn’t hesitate to take action by launching a campaign to save them. Not afraid of bees or asking lawmakers to support a bill protecting the vital pollinators, Read More...
7 Strategies to make this back-to-school season more joyful for kids
This back-to-school season is a tough one to navigate. Even before Covid-19 restrictions were in place, kids were already dealing with the complexities of social media, extracurriculars, competitive schooling, and the overwhelming pressure to excel and fit in. This year, instead of striving for a Read More...